Collage

Latin freestyle group Collage helped revitalize an all-but-abandoned style still reeling from its drastic, early-'90s loss of popularity. Collage was essentially vocalist Anthony Monteleone, along with producer/songwriter Adam Marano, who also ran the Viper Records label for which Collage recorded. Viper's parent label, Metropolitan, issued the Viper's Freestyle Hit Parade compilation in 1994; it helped break the Collage single "I'll Be Loving You" nationally, reviving the freestyle sound that had produced a number of club and pop hits during the late '80s (but subsequently lost most of its audience). Collage's debut album, Chapter One, was released later that year, producing another hit in the follow-up "Gangster of Love"; it also prominently featured female backup vocalist Denine. Collage's success helped spark a renewal of interest in freestyle during the '90s (on a more underground rather than mainstream level), and Marano went on to work with several other artists. The second Collage album, Chapter II: 1999, didn't appear for another five years; however, it still managed to produce a minor hit, "Angel." Chapter 3 was released in late 2001, spawning the single "Tonight."