*This essay series charts the development of, late 20th century, sonic migration. With the chief focus on regional musical topography as an analogous window into the fabric of the African American experience.*

Sometime after the demise of disco, “overground” Black American dance music was having a huge transformational revelation of self. As the Motown era faded in the rear view, sub-genres of R&B and Pop saw a renaissance from the late 70s through the 90’s. The diversification of otherwise typical soul, funk or blues music coincided with the development of electronic-based production in the studio, creating new genres and fads by the minute. Countless offshoots of Hip-Hop came out of the woodwork as the sound of music stepped into the future. A distinctly east coast, New York based sound sought to take over the mainstream by blending the city’s diverse musical DNA with a marketable attitude. There was no better place for such a renaissance than Harlem. Nearly 60 years after its first burst of artists broke the barrier for commercial consumerism of colored creators, New Jack Swing and its supporting cast would recreate a similar feeling. Teddy Riley, Uptown Records (lead by Andre Harrell and Harlem’s own Sean Combs), and others would shepherd this culturally impactful, transitional era of music.

THE PRODUCERS

New Jack Swing at its essence was both a final hurrah and a perfect storm for dance-based music from the periphery of the strictly demarcated lines of the Pop/R&B of its time. It was a burgeoning new direction in music coming off the heels of Go-Go, even with no name to define it yet. In between the reign of the Minneapolis Sound, its predecessors, and the countless copy-cat acts, NY artists started to blend many of the already hyped musical elements of the mid-80s into one sound. By then, many Hip Hop acts were already basing their music around the Go-Go swing, rapping over tracks with a BPM of 94-105. Younger groups (like New Edition from Boston and Force MDS) were aiming for niches that were pop oriented, but still grounded in a reality closer to Hip Hop. This was a strong left turn from the MPLS sound, and its torch bearers like Ready For The World or Sheila E. There were groups coming out of NYC, like Full Force, who were songwriters/dancers and singers but not quite like Quiet Storm kings, Freddie Jackson or Luther Vandross. They were also part-time rappers but not quite like Kurtis Blow. Many of these groups like Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam or The Jets, were also slathered amongst the platter of 80s musical genres like Freestyle or Techno. By 1985, Full Force’s “Alice, (I Want You Just For Me)” had started to wade through the waters of this fertile space.

The hit song left an indelible impression on producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, whose recent departure from the MPLS Prince factory initiated the creation of a new corner of music. Their work with the SOS Band on songs like “Just Be Good To Me” and “Tell Me If You Still Care” relied heavily on the original Roland TR-808. A popular drum machine less ingrained in their traditional MPLS sound and more rooted in club-based dance and techno music. This juxtaposition of booming drums and a smooth vocal delivery, particularly sung at this point, began to take shape. Not long after the release of “Alice...”, Jam & Lewis took some of that inspiration with them to create Janet Jackson’s 1986 breakout Control and its powerful successor, Rhythm Nation (1989). Heralded as perhaps the first New Jack Swing albums, their platinum selling status helped certify the genre as a profitable and pliable market. Following in their footsteps, Teddy Riley and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds would move into hyperdrive for the remainder of the decade and beyond. Their production and songwriting styles became a raft for some of the biggest artists of their time like, The Jacksons, and others to come including Bobby Brown and others. Major-name artists who needed a bold pivot in musical identity chose this style for years to come to accompany their transitions. This producer-based culture alone became the balm in which New Jack Swing would need to seep into the mainstream. As each producer sought to put their stamp down, so would the diversity of the era grow. Edmonds’ brand of NJS would rely heavily on the strength of his songwriting, his hooks and the icy Roland D-50 piano chords he shared in common with Jam & Lewis. Riley, on the other hand, would pursue a dance-driven and more club oriented formula, towing the line between the pillars of hip hop and the pursuit of pop charting success.

THE GUY

Incorporating Jazz & Gospel-informed keyboard playing on top of Go-Go swung beats, with a production ethos aimed towards mainstream hip-hop/R&B oriented listening, New Jack Swing (NJS) married many of the elements that popular radio had self-segregated itself into. There are organs screeching in tandem with roto toms tracked live and mixed with programmed drum machines. Just as Chuck Brown was touted as the Godfather of Go-Go, so was the case for Teddy Riley with NJS. In a 1988 Village Voice interview conducted by Barry Michael Cooper, “New Jack” was coined and collectively bestowed upon the growing musical sound and its participants. The sound is “New Jack Swing” and every new artist under that umbrella would be considered new jacks. Cooper would also go on to expound this philosophy by writing a trilogy of period-piece films based in Harlem, with the first being the trademark film of the genre: New Jack City.

Riley, a childhood prodigy from Uptown, formed a decade long partnership with his childhood friend, Timmy Gatling, which carried them through their first projects: Kids at Work and Guy. Both groups were vehicles for the young multi-instrumentalists, who were then managed by Gene Griffin. By the early 80s, in between the stints of both bands, Riley was cutting his teeth producing major Hip Hop acts like Slick Rick, Doug E Fresh and Kool Moe Dee, with albums like ``How You Like Me Now? '' and songs like “The Show''. During this period, Riley noted himself strictly as a Hip Hop producer, utilizing some of the same equipment that the music of that day relied heavily upon. However, it was the way Riley would mix these frequented pieces into something totally new. The SP-1200, a large sampling sequencer, and the Roland TR-808 drum machine became staples of his sound. A self taught musician, manually performing unsequenced drums, with very light quantization (sometimes none at all), created a loose and unchartable groove that became a signature of his career. This music was off the charts and, quite literally, off the grid.

As he continued working out of the legendary Harlem nightclub, The Rooftop (owned and operated by his uncle), Riley was provided a safe haven to collaborate with other artists. An older, seasoned singer from Harlem/New Jersey named Keith Sweat would approach Riley to work. Initially cringing at the idea of doing strictly R&B music, Riley acquiesced to Sweat and sought to make a sound that followed in the footsteps of Jam & Lewis’ aforementioned work with The SOS Band and Janet Jackson. Their joint album, 1987’s Make It Last Forever, featured some of the era’s biggest and most defining songs. The title track used the 808 in a dynamic fashion never heard before on Pop/R&B radio. Heavy amounts of reverb on the drums, matched with sparkling keyboards, and the ever-present booming bass allowed the songs to carry in the club just as they did in the car. This massive crossover success allowed Riley to view his work through a completely new lens. No longer confined by one genre, he had created one of his own. The following year, Riley teamed up with Bobby Brown on his breakout Don’t Be Cruel album. This album, much like Sweat’s single “I Want Her”, became benchmarks for the sensibilities the genre offered: snares that smacked, heavy drums mixed with a plethora of sounds and samples found in the CMI Fairlight libraries, a full commitment to the many tenants of Hip Hop, and rumbling bass lines that harkened back to the stylings of groups that inspired the soul of the entire movement. Brown’s record was also a perfect storm between Riley and Babyface’s respective styles, which were both spreading sonically at a rate far greater than Jam & Lewis’. “My Prerogative”, recorded after the insistent goading of Riley, would help certify Brown as the King of New Jack Swing. The song also sonically bridged a major gap between the future of the genre and the blueprints of its spiritual predecessor: The Gap Band and Charlie Wilson.

THE SINGING

Somewhere lost in the countless key qualities of the New Jack Swing sound is the seemingly least discussed vocal tradition of its main stewards. If one were to cycle through the chronology of New Jack Swing’s greatest hits, there would be something strikingly familiar about the quality and sound of the vocal approaches. With the tracks backed by blaring boom-bap drums, gated snares, chopped and panned samples, the songs often required a vocal sensibility which at least matched or topped the velocity of its production. Where did it all start? Look no further than Charlie Wilson and The Gap Band. Also look to: Stevie Wonder; the blueprint for the wizard-like production and the vocal style which would influence NJS in the future. Wonder’s “Ain’t Gonna Stand For It”, is a prime display of both singers in full blown tag-team. Both Wonder and Wilson, in their respective ballads “Lately” and “Computer Love” (with Zapp) laid the groundwork on which New Jack Swing would later experiment. There are countless songs from the Gap Band catalogue which strike a sonic resemblance to some of its successors. The beginning of “Humpin’” sounds like any song or demo from Guy, and “Burn Rubber” could go to court against “My Prerogative” if they ever saw fit. This connective tissue continued to grow through Wonder-influenced artists like Steve Arrington of Slave, a key vocal influence for Keith Sweat. From this point on, the distinct brassy, bell-like vocal approach only continued to grow in popularity as it was attached to more and more hits. Aaron Hall of Guy, Johnny Kemp, K-Ci & Jo-Jo of Jodeci, Wanye Morris of Boyz II Men, Montell Jordan, Raphael Saddiq of Tony, Tone, Toni and Lucy Pearl, Rahsaan Patterson and others all bare a piece of this vocal DNA in particular. Shirley Murdock and Kelly Price even share a lineage from these very same roots; a deep rabbit hole of vocal inspiration burrowed deep in the music.

THE KEY

Jam & Lewis’ phantom hand would be felt once again in the destiny of New Edition, whose parts slowly became greater than their sum. Who better to hold the hand of a band imploding due to its proximity to greatness than the two elder statesmen, once star members of The Time. On the heels of the Flyte Tyme produced N.E. Heartbreak, a Brown-less band, had welcomed a soon to be soloist, Johnny Gill. This left legacy members Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell and Ronnie DeVoe as odd men out in an era of shifting musical terrain. At Jam & Lewis’ suggestion, the mavericks formed a triumvirate under an acronym composed of surname initials. B.B.D. Bell, Biv, DeVoe would go on to be, arguably, the definitive New Jack Swing outfit of their time. They would, in the end, manifest the full realization of the genre's undefinable fusion. Their “music was mentally hip-hop, smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop feel appeal to it,” as they put it. Not only would they be the sturdy diplomats for the final form of the music, but Bivins would also step into the recurring role of rap impresario and curator. By managing and producing groups like Boyz II Men and others, Bivins gave the genre a second wind. His presence as a pseudo-rapper, producer laid the groundwork for characters to come like Puff Daddy and his “shiny suit” omnipresence on Bad Boy Records hit songs. Between Bivins and Riley, both Combs and Jermaine Dupri would surely find inspiration both in presentation and in producing talent. Listen and compare the style of producer-laid adlibs from Riley or Bivins on their earlier work. While different in approach, and watermarked by the timestamp of their era, one can hear the remnants of their banter anytime Jermaine Dupri reminds the listener their music is “so so def” or Puffy urges innocent listeners to, quote, “take that”.

Riley, in the 1990s, would relocate to Virginia Beach for the 2nd Act of his career. Guy was now fading and Blackstreet was still far in the future. The sound of the genre had changed quite a bit. By now, Riley had produced Michael Jackson’s final masterwork, Dangerous. And with it, The New Jack Swing, as Riley championed it, had reached a certain peak in its range. It hit a height that Rhythm Nation had blazed years prior and with Michael, attained the largest vehicle for its most polished sound to date. Some of his most quintessential sounds (heavy bass lines, snares that popped with added soundbank textures) ran ever present on the album’s biggest hits and singles. Even the B-Sides like “Why You Wanna Trip On Me” set a blueprint for future proteges to come. Seeking a second wind, Riley built a new studio near Princess Anne High School, home to a young Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of local group, The Neptunes. Who better to mentor a duo of autodidactic childhood friends than Riley, who had navigated the musical topography of the day in a parallel fashion. The Neptunes would be enlisted to work on what would become the music for Riley's next project, Rexx-N-Effect, a more Hip-Hop based project. Williams would ghostwrite Riley’s verse on their first hit, “Rumpshaker” and Riley’s style of production would become a gateway from the sounds of 80s/90s NJS to the predominant Pharrell/Neptunes sound of the 2000s and onward.

New Jack often feels like a blip of time, due to the brevity of its realized peak. Its ascent was attached to so many different waves of culture and its descent was absorbed into the landscape of modern music, where it has all but disappeared. Reserved as a highlight for 90’s dance parties, it now bears the pastiche of an era-defining brand of nostalgia: special punishment only reserved for the likes of Disco or Swing music. But as gracious listeners know, there is always endless amounts of wealth within some of the most discarded forms of art. Often misunderstood or pigeonholed by history, the footnotes present a fickle story. New Jack was a special moment where the stars aligned for hip hop, r&b, dance, techno and pop. It was the manifestation of harmony in one cacophony. An unapologetic acquired taste, brazen and bold as the artists who defined that which is undefinable.