Chad the Stud: How Y101 brought the band Freestyle to Cebu back In the 90s

Chad and I talked about his many favorite OPM artists from across the islands.

But we ended up talking more about one specific band from Davao who made it big with songs like Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang and Before I Let You Go.

As we already mentioned from previous articles before, Y101 has had this penchant to play local music and support the artists behind them. Throughout the history of the station, Y101 helped several rising musical acts achieve mainstream success. One of those bands Chad the Stud revealed to me is the Davao-native RnB band Freestyle.

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READ: Chad the Stud Remembers Mango Jam

Back in the mid-90’s, before the band made it big nation-wide, Freestyle’s beautiful RnB ballads were being played extensively on the rhythm of the city. The station liked their slow jams so much that they decided to fly them into Cebu. After they appeared on the station, just like DiCE & K9, Freestyle songs spread out and eventually the band made it to Manila and enjoyed more success.

Freestyle is one of those countless OPM bands that Chad the Stud really likes. The Midday Vibe host might play a lot of American pop songs on his show, but if you could only see his playlist on his music devices, you will see how diverse they are. Chad loves a lot of OPM artists, and in fact on his way to the station today, he was playing APO Hiking Society in the car.

Chad’s other favorite Original Pinoy Music artists on the top of his head are; new-wave era The Dawn, alt-rock band True Faith, singer-songwriters Bamboo, and Martin Nievera, RnB bands South Border and Side A, and strangely enough for him, Parokya ni Edgar.

“i don’t know why, but I just like their songs. I find them very funny”, Chad explained.

He continued the list with Hajji Alejandro, Basil Valdez, Kuh Ledesma, and Filipino disco gods VST & Company.

“You can call me old school, but I just like the older songs and older artists more.”, Maybe that’s because Chad the Stud feels nostalgic every time he listens to these great Pinoy artists. He also didn’t forget to mention in his list the Cebuano brewed artists like 40 the band, MOBBSTARR, and Cattski.

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“The Philippines have great songs that are even worth played around the world. The problem is just that nobody is exposing our homegrown music. The U.S. has songs that we extensively play here in the Philippines, but do they play our songs abroad? American songs are exposed around the world, but ours aren’t. If given a chance and a great exposure, our local songs can even compete bravely with those international ones.”

That’s why we encourage every local artists here in Cebu to send in their awesome songs to Y101, and if they’re good, we will play them on air!

Catch Chad the Stud every Mondays to Fridays on the Midday Vibes (10am to 2pm) Only here on the rhythm of the city, Y101, Always First.

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