Format CD
12" Length 5:06 | Recorded 1999 Label Sony
Epidrome | |
Released October 1999 (Finland)
14 February 2000 (worldwide) Genre Drum and bass
hip hop
electronica | ||
"Freestyler" is a single by Finnish hip hop group Bomfunk MC's. It was released in October 1999 in Finland as the third single from their debut studio album In Stereo (2000). It was released in February 2000 internationally and was a worldwide success, topping the charts in Sweden, Germany, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. It also peaked at number two in Denmark and the United Kingdom and number three in Ireland.
Contents
Composition
"Freestyler" is primarily a drum and bass song, with strong influences of UK dance culture and electronic dance music, as well as some influences from hip hop.
Music video
The music video was mainly filmed at the Hakaniemi metro station, an underground station on the Helsinki Metro line in Finland and with platforms 21 metres below sea level. The principal “home boy” featured in the video is Marlo Snellman, a Finnish model and musician who later released his own single entitled "Dust" and today is working as producer for his own projects such as 'Hipsters' and 'Okta'. The actor was fifteen at the time of shooting and got the part through his mother, Finnish modelling magnate Laila Snellman. Marlo Snellman appears briefly in another Bomfunk MC's music video, "B-Boys & Flygirls".
The video begins with Marlo catching a train while listening to “Freestyler” on his MiniDisc (Sony MZ-R55 Hummm) player. A character sits across him in the train, who is played by Raymond Ebanks (B.O. Dubb), the lead singer of the Bomfunk MC's, and who imbues Marlo with the power to control the flow of time for one or a group of individuals. Realising this ability, Marlo spends the duration of the video pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding dancers and people on his journey until coming across the Bomfunk MC's, upon whom the remote control does not work; the whole video is then sent into a rapid rewind back to the beginning. The music video may be inspired by and seems to use similar themes from the music video of Ferry Corsten’s 1999 song "Out of the Blue". The music video is a play on themes of empowerment, with the power of the music being transferred to and in the end taken from Marlo by Ebanks. There is a continuity error in the video with the number on the train carriage changing throughout the sequence.
The music video was later parodied by hip hop group Raptori for their song "Hiphopmusiikkia". In 2011, the beginning scene was also remade in the music video of DJ RZY's "Tervetuloo Helsinkiin".
Track listing
- "Freestyler" (radio edit) – 2:52
- "Freestyler" (Alternative Radio Edit) – 4:07
- "Freestyler" (Happy Mickey Mouse Mix) – 4:48
- "Freestyler" (Missing Link Remix) – 5:40