Pretty Tony

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Tony "Pretty Tony" Butler was an influential 1980s electro and freestyle artist based out of Miami, Florida.

He recorded a string of popular club tracks on Power/Jam Packed and Sherman Neeley's Music Specialist label in the mid-'80s. Butler's tracks with his primary group Freestyle include such club staples as It's Automatic, Don't Stop the Rock and The Party Has Begun. Solo, he released "Jam the Box". His best-known tracks were produced for female vocalists Debbie Deb (When I Hear Music and Lookout Weekend) and Trinere.

Butler's career abruptly stopped in 1986 when he and his financier Sherman Neely were jailed for drug dealing. Tony was once quoted as saying "making music is only a hobby; I make much more money other ways."^{[citation needed]} After his release from jail, Pandisc Records' Bo Crane fostered him, even going so far as to build him a new studio (his old studio was purchased by Luke Skyywalker Records), but by the late 1980s and early 1990s, the sound of Miami had morphed from Electro into Miami Bass, and Tony had fallen behind, ending his stay at the top. Butler continues to live and record in Miami.