For over 30 years Fever Enterprises has been doing music. From having Grandmaster Flash spin at their club and taking rap music from the streets to an organized venue to hosting rap contests at Radio City Music Hall in the 80’s to signing Fat Joe to their label in the 90’s, to putting on old school celebratory events in the last decade, Fever Enterprises has done more for rap music than most well-known names. What is Fever Enterprises? To make it short it’s Sal Abbatiello. This man has done work with everyone from Teddy Riley to Russell Simmons and unlike most of his peers his passion for live shows has not died.

Besides being heavily involved in Hip Hop music, Sal has become known for his involvement with the Latin Freestyle music. Making groups like The Cover Girls a hit in the late 80’s and early 90’s and working with artists like Lisette Melendez, Coro and many others, he made his Fever Enterprises into a label with 20 of the most successful Dance/Pop artist in the country by the late 80’s.

What’s Sal Abbatiello doing now? He is putting on more shows than just about any other promoter of today. You can see the list of his shows on his MySpace page. For the past couple of years he has also been doing a show called Freestyle Fever, a combination of artists he had worked with throughout his career. In December of 2008 he put on a show at the Webster Hall with Hip Hop artists like DMC, Slick Rick and Freestyle legends like Coro. In 2009 he packed Nokia Theatre with another Freestyle Fever concert with Hip Hop legends Mele Mel and Grandmaster Caz and Freestyle superstar like Expose, Joyce Simms, Judy Torres, Lisette Melendez, Raquel, Safire and more.

What’s one music style has to do with the other? The answer is simple: Sal Abbatiello. Also as Mele Mel said: music is music… Hip Hop crosses over. Doing White Lines and other hits Mel and Caz absolutely ripped the stage and made the crowd forget that it was a freestyle show. Doing a show like this, with more than a dozen stars at a major Times Square location and selling it out is not a mission for a novice. Pictures tell more than words, so if you missed the show, check out the photos and the videos, including the interview with Mele Mel here.

Dmitriy Goldin