I've heard Inoj's "love you down" (which came out very shortly after I left Atl in summer 1997) then "time after time" (and even from time to time "ring my bell") all outside of Atlanta, so I would've thought that at least "time after time" and "love you down" would both get attention on Hot 97.5, especially if "summertime summertime" (which is latin freestyle) by Corina made it. Ghosttown DJ's and many of the hits off of SoSo Def Bass Allstars used a combination of booty bass and (west coast electro) freestyle elements within their instrumentation. (It was just a modernized version of classic electro-freestyle breaks productions that Debbie Deb, Afrika Bambaataa, Freestyle, Planet Patrol, and Egyptian Lover...etc. used to do, which gave birth to the traditional freestyle sound that Shannon, Expose, TKA, Lisa Lisa, Will 2 Power, Cover Girls, George Lamond, Trinere, Nocera...Collage.. etc. that eventually evolved into booty bass (2 Live Crew, Sir Mix A Lot, 69 Boyz..etc,) sound that Atlanta and Miami really picked up on, which was nothing more than rapping on sped up freestyle beats with bass added in.) I guess the latin freestyle sound didn't take off in Atl. along with the booty bass sound due to the demographics, and also due to the fact that Power 99 "died" right when this entire sound was at its peak, so the bass lived and the freestyle died. (It also doesn't help when "freestyle" is used to define both an old school electronic breakbeat/breakdance sound and rapping, so the word confuses many people..) WPOW and DJ Laz at Power 96 know all about this.. and New York's Hot 97 used to be HUGELY KNOWN for (latin) freestyle dance hits!
I also remember V-103 playing some bass hits, but to a lesser degree. They were never as heavy as Hot 97.5 back in the late 90's, but did give attention to Dana Harris and quite a few others. The 5 o clock traffic jam was the best, especially around the times when Dj Taz and Freak Nasty Came out. Not sure if Kinsu ever made it in Atl..
If anything, there should be (or should've been) a rhythmic that caters to that whole type of sound, which is what most stations similar to what The Groove was originally meant to be usually cover. I guess the problem was the unusual lack of history that Atlanta had, therefore it's hard to program a station the way The Groove was meant to be. If Power 99 lasted and kept format, maybe The Groove would've had it easier today, especially with their back in the day selection of hits. I knew there would eventually be a problem with this station when it came to many old school rhythmic hits from the 90's!
