Before Jennifer Lopez, there was Lisa Lisa.
And the Latina diva who broke straight outta Hell’s Kitchen with “I Wonder If I Take You Home” 40 years ago gave her fellow Nuyorican an early boost of boricua power early in her career.
“We were actually in rehearsals for the ‘Let the Beat Hit ’Em’ video, the artist born Lisa Velez, 59, told The Post about her 1991 hit with Cult Jam. “That’s when I met her.
“And Darrin Henson was the choreographer was the choreographer for that video. He introduced me to her. At that point, she was a Fly Girl [dancer on ‘In Living Color’].”
But J.Lo already had bigger dreams of following in Lisa Lisa’s freestyle footsteps.
“She told me she was trying to put music out,” she said. “I said, ‘Oh cool.’ [Henson] just wanted to invite her so that she could watch the process of doing a video and what it takes.”
Later in the ’90s, Lopez would go on to be a part of a Latin pop movement that Lisa Lisa started when “I Wonder If I Take You Home” came out in May 1985. And with her recent Lifetime biopic “Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story” and a 40th anniversary tour — which includes a performance at the legendary Apollo Theater on Saturday — the groundbreaking singer is still making major moves.
“I was the very first Latina to cross over and open up a couple of doors for these youngins,” said Lisa Lisa.
“But I never focus on that. I just love everything that I’ve done and everything that I still want to do … and I’m just gonna keep it moving. Whatever it is I’m doing to open doors for people, I will continue.”
It’s a journey that started when a teenage Lisa Lisa — going to Julia Richman High School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and working at Benetton — recorded “I Wonder If I Take You Home” after successfully auditioning to be the lead singer of a group that Full Force was assembling.
But she was too young to realize that the song was about hooking up — for a potential “one night deal” — at the time.
“I had no idea,” said Lisa Lisa. “I just wanted to sing. And I didn’t know [about] anything that I was saying.”
After “begging my mother to please allow me to do what I gotta do,” she discovered her destiny in a midtown Manhattan recording studio.
“I remember walking in and I was in awe, because it was my very first time being in a recording studio,” she said. “I had never done anything like that.
“I think it was just the fun of learning, and just the guys getting the best out of me,” she continued. “I went in there and I was just so ecstatic, so happy. I had a fantastic time.”
In fact, Lisa Lisa recorded both “I Wonder If I Take You Home” and its follow-up single, “Can You Feel the Beat” — which she learned on the spot — in the same session.
“I thought they were great because of the sound,” she said of the early freestyle classic. “It was street to me, you know. They had the sound that the great dancers were moving to at the time.”
Once “I Wonder If I Take You Home” took off in Europe after being featured on the breakdancing compilation “CBS/SuzyQ,” Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam had to rush to finish their self-titled debut.
“We had to finish it within a week,” she said. “We were on the road … and when we went back to the city, we would run into the studio and record as many as we could.”
That included the change-up ballad “All Cried Out,” which became their first Top 10 hit.
Two No. 1 singles influenced by Lisa Lisa’s early love of Motown — “Head to Toe” and “Lost in Emotion” — would follow on their next album, 1987’s “Spanish Fly.”
But it’s her very first single — with that bumping bass line — that still brings it all “Home” for Lisa Lisa. She’ll no doubt be singing it during her Club Quarantine Live set at the Apollo on Saturday.
“I still love performing it,” she said. “That put me on the map.”
