Lookout Weekend — Here We Come!
Jumpin’ music, slick DJs… fog machines and laser rays. Lookout weekend, cause here we come… cause Cold Crush was made for fun! Yes yes ya’ll… only one more sleep until it’s time to party arty, cos it is COLD CRUSHIN’ TIME. And what better way to warm up for the huge Friday night ahead than rocking out to a little weekend number from Miami’s number one party girl Debbie Deb! Apart from getting regular airplay on #1 internet radio station Intergalactic FM, her tracks are still getting airplay on radio all over the world. Gwen Stefani, Diplo and Janet Jackson all love her, but more importantly, so do we at Cold Crush! We know you will too.
Debbie Deb – When I Hear Music
Debbie Deb was born in Brooklyn but raised in vice city Miami. While she never had any formal training in singing, she had been singing all her life, recording her vocals to cassette tapes. At age 16 she was working in a record store where she met Tony Butler — who we all know as Freestyle/Miami bass super producer Pretty Tony. Tony came into her record store, and liked the way she spoke so he asked if she could sing? Debbie was all “hell yeah”, and a a day later she went to check out his studio. He was already bumping the instrumental to When I Hear Music, LOUD, and shit was popping off straight away. The pair of them wrote the lyrics together, and had the vocals recorded within hours — with fun girly vocals from young Debbie and robotic vocoder echoes from Pretty Tony.
When I Hear Music features what would surely have to be one of the catchiest synthesizer melodies of the era. Over the years it has been sampled by all kinda of artists from alll sides of the musical spectrum: from milk shaker Kelis in her track Weekend to Dutch gabber producer Buzz Fuzz for King of the Beats). But whatever came after, the fact remains that When I Hear Music is an absolute club shaker.
Debbie Deb performing When I Hear Music live on stage
Route 1 Cafe, Philadelphia PA | February 28, 2009
Debbie Deb – Lookout Weekend
But her best known track by far, is Lookout Weekend. Most people in the mainstream these days would know this song by the Black Eyed Peas cover from a few years ago, and it was also more recently covered by Janet Jackson. But yo — here at Cold Crush, we don’t give a fuck about any of that shit! There is only one version of Lookout Weekend worth worrying about, and that is Debbie Deb’s original version. Pure uptempo club rocking party music with a deep and booming drum section, catchy synth riffs and a duet between Debbie Deb’s trademark vocals and Pretty Tony’s vocoder echoes. A pure good time party jam, written with one purpose in mind: making you get absolutely LOOSE on the dancefloor.
“Songs back then were written from the heart. They made you want to dance. Songs today are written to sell records. Everything is a carbon copy of each other. It’s not wholesome any more.” – Debbie Deb tells it like it is
Debbie released some other great singles too, including I Wanna Dance, There’s A Party Going On and I Wanna Work It Out. But none of them had the commercial success of cult following of her first two singles. From 1996 Debbie took a long break from the music industry due to some disputes over money and some other nastier shit between her and her label, and during this time another vocalist released some tracks under the Debbie Deb alias. The tracks were still produced by Pretty Tony and the vocals themselves were not bad too…but they just didn’t have the vibe of the real Debbie Deb. Luckily for all us fans, she burst back onto the scene in 1995 with a whole new album: She’s Back, featuring some new tracks as well as all of her classics.
Debbie Deb and Pretty Tony really crossed the bridge between Miami bass and New York style electro funk with the records they did together. They have the uptempo beats and party vibe of Latin Freestyle and Miami Bass, but the drum patterns, melodies and vocals have something about them that really ties in with the New York style electro funk. It makes them great crossover tracks as they can easily fit in with sets of either sound without sounding out of place.
Debbie Deb today
There are rumors that Debbie Deb will be recording with Egyptian Lover, and also word on the street that she might reunite with Pretty Tony to record some new tracks despite issues in the past. In the meantime she has still been rocking shows, touring regularly to play the ‘Freestyle Explosion’ concerts and playing alongside acts like Lisa Lisa, Shannon and the Cover Girls. Anyway, stay tuned to Cold Crush, cos if Debbie Deb does end up recording some new shit you KNOW we will be all over it!
PS, See you tomorrow night: Don’t forget to click attending on Facebook if you havn’t already!
Thanks for the post. Interesting read. Never knew Black Eyed Peas ripped the tune from her! Keep up the good work.
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Classic Tracks. Lookout Weekend in my opinion is definitely chart-topper in the Freestyle genre. I heard that song was made with a mic, keyboard and drum machine. Raw. That’s magic right there.
Pretty Tony’s all that. His “Fix It In My Mix” is pure robotic-laser-ray-dehumanized goodness. No wonder he brought Debbie Deb to the top with his beats.
hey lady u r aswemome since the 80′z ive been playin ur music and i will 4 ever, so thanks home girl ur like a jackson ur music will leave 4 ever. bye baby
I love your music sad to hear you didn’t make much money on your music.
Corporate pigs must die.