Lisa Lisa

Long before Shakira and Jennifer Lopez' hip-shaking jams propelled them to the top of the charts, Latina freestyle stars were going head to head with pop divas like Madonna and Janet Jackson. In the mid-80s, The Cover Girls, Nayobe and Exposé were getting heavy rotation on radio and selling millions of records – but it was an artist with two first names, Lisa Lisa, who stood out from the crowd.

A cold, confident blend of electro and disco with a Latin flair, Freestyle music blew up in New York and Miami dance clubs before entering the mainstream and traveling around the world – thanks in large part to the assertive Latinas who were the icons of this groundbreaking urban culture.

Lisa Lisa, born Lisa Velez, walked into her destiny when she met record producers Full Force (recently of Nina Sky, Britney Spears, Rihanna and the Black Eyed Peas) at the Fun House, the same pivotal club where Jellybean Benitez discovered a young singer from Michigan named Madonna Louise Ciccone.

The teenaged Puerto Rican beauty soon had a band – Cult Jam – and a record deal with Columbia on the strength of her dance-party classic I Wonder If I Take You Home. Other hits like Can You Feel The Beat and All Cried Out quickly followed, helping Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam's debut reach platinum status. While her second and third albums enjoyed the same level of success, the fourth, 1991's Straight Outta Hell's Kitchen, did not and ushered the breakup of the band that same year. A relatively obscure solo record LL77 followed in 1994.

For the next decade, Velez continued to perform live and took up acting with notable appearances in Nickelodeon's teen sitcom Taina and NBC's Law and Order. But it wasn't until 2005 when the Black Eyed Peas bought the chorus of her 1985 classic "I Wonder If I Take You Home" for their smash hit "Don't Phunk With My Heart" that a new generation would be seduced by Lisa Lisa's sweet, detached vocals – even if most assumed it was Fergie on the mic. (That same year, Nina Sky sampled the bridge to the 1984 "Can You Feel The Beat" for their own breakthrough "Move Ya Body.")

Her new label, Mass Appeal Entertainment, promises a new Lisa Lisa album by year's end but whether her undisputed status as one of the most influential Latin female artists in pop music history translates into a second wind is unclear. At the very least, she'll delight her MySpace fans.