Happy birthday, Teddy Riley. Given that you are amazingly the most important producer in the history of modern dance music, these words are in appreciation for your work.
The mid-1980s were a tremendously difficult era of adjustment for black music. Somewhere between funk and hip-hop, disco happened, a re-crossover occurred, and rap developed as many teenage blacks weren't necessarily down with lush orchestration and stilted, suit-and-tie appearance of mainstream black pop music. As well, somewhere in Minneapolis' Paisley Park Studios, there were Prince, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and The Time, busily attempting to blend some soul back into the now very electronic funk, and maybe along the way involve a bit of Detroit techno, too.
All the while, 1,000 miles away in Harlem, Teddy Riley was a far cry from being the leader of '90s pop quartet Blackstreet, but rather, in 1986, he was a 19-year-old rising rap and soul producer, credits including Doug E. Fresh's seminal 1985 rap hit "The Show" opening the door at Columbia, Elektra, and MCA Records for Riley (alongside his songwriting compatriots Aaron Hall and Gene Griffin) to sell songs to both labels that became 1987 and 1988 #1 Billboard hit singles "I Want Her" for Keith Sweat, "My Prerogative" for Bobby Brown, and "Just Got Paid" for Johnny Kemp.
Now, some 20 years after its iconic heights were reached, modern pop and EDM stand at a similar crossroads to where both genres were in 1986 in that folks might be on the dance floor, but they're doing everything but dancing. In contemplating what Teddy Riley created with the New jack swing sound, the legacy of the sub-genre's most impacting songs, and the impact on those both directly (and indirectly) touched by Riley's work can be considered. When blended with thoughts about how those influences could (and likely should) affect the future, too, Riley becomes more than just a producer, but likely one of the most important creative forces in the history of music. Relax, listen and enjoy.
The Background
Based out of New York City, Riley's style (later coined "New jack swing" by Barry Michael Cooper in the Village Voice in 1988) blended the hot Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis-crafted (and techno-feeling) "Minneapolis sound" that allowed Janet Jackson to soar to the top of the pop charts in 1986 with second album Control with a heaping handful of street-friendly breaks, touches of the soulful house sound then popular in New York City's underground clubs, and the ubiquitous, synth-funk "Minneapolis sound" and heavily UK-based techno coming out of mainstream New York City nightspots of the era like Danceteria and the Palladium. In leaving more than enough on the bottom end for urban rap-loving teenagers to be happy while not sacrificing the Eurodisco remnant and fully synthesized melodies, "New jack swing" was a perfect sound at an imperfect time.
It can be argued that ever since the disco era, the one-time mainstream pop establishment has been uncomfortable with trends. Country and rock have created a union, this blending creating a sound that in many ways rules out a pop revival similar to anything the Beatles or Elvis Presley ever did. As well, rhythm and blues stopped being an organic production-based and ballad-driven space. Dance has bounced back and forth between rock/country and R&B, with rap largely doing the same, both genres balancing the influences of rhythm and blues, country, and rock quite well in order to remain pop dominant for the past 30 years. However, in playing a balancing act, the sounds that drive pop may also be driving dance away from the dance floor.
Go to any nightclub or festival in 2014, and you're getting the rock and roll remnant of many attendees not dancing, but rather standing still and fist-pumping or whipping out their iPhones and taking Vine, Facebook, or Instagram videos, deifying their DJs like Jimmy Page, Steven Tyler or any other rock and roll god of yore. As well, so much of the energy is ultra-romantic or ultra-macho, a clear paean to the days of soul men like James Brown or vocal divas like Aretha Franklin (and the tracks that backed them). One thing can be said. If modern dance had never evolved past New jack swing, cell phones in the club and fist-pumping bros wouldn't be an issue. People would still be dancing, and "EDM" would likely be in a very different place.
"New Jack Swing" Changes the Game
By 1989, Teddy Riley's hit-making ways allowed him, alongside songwriters Aaron Hall and Gene Griffin to form Guy, a pop/soul trio wholly based around the pulsing, bass-heavy, synth-driven and dance-floor ready "New jack swing" sound. Signed to Andre Harrell's Uptown Records imprint (released by MCA), the trio had three dance-friendly urban chart top 10 singles on their eponymous debut album, "Groove Me" (US R&B #4), "Teddy's Jam" (US R&B #5), and "I Like," (US R&B #2). 1990 followed with second album The Future, with "Wanna Get Wit U" (US R&B #4) as the only urban charting dance singles. Add in the scintillating movie soundtrack singles "My Fantasy" for Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing and the title track for urban crime drama New Jack City to the mix, and Riley was a bona-fide progressive urban music hit-maker.
Riley's "new jack" excellence also touched the traditional dance world; in 1990, Riley's remix of Canadian pop star Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall in Love" became a surprise urban crossover hit single. If a dance historian looking for a factoid, or wanting a sense of just how well-regarded the New jack swing sound was, the only other official remixer of Jane Child's single was New York City legend Shep Pettitbone.
Impressed by his consistent string of urban chart hits, Michael Jackson reached out to Teddy Riley and the duo created "Remember The Time," which reached #3 on Billboard's Pop Charts in 1993, and became a global smash, reaching the top 10 in ten-plus countries and being showcased with a memorable video clip starring the likes of Eddie Murphy, Magic Johnson, supermodel Iman, and Tiny "Zeus/Debo" Lister, Jr.
Teddy Riley Influences the Future of Modern Music
By 1989-1990, Teddy Riley had moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where the first thing he did was to record a single celebrating his money-making sound with rap group Wreckx N Effect. "New jack swing" didn't break the top 10 on the urban charts, but "Rump Shaker," the single from Wreckx N Effect's follow-up album Hard or Smooth, certainly did, and this is where the Riley and New jack swing story gets amazing. Influential in the production of "Rump Shaker" were two Virginia Beach youths, Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams. Of course, that duo went on to become the Neptunes, which spawned the Star Trak collective and N.E.R.D., which birthed a bunch of girls in line for the bathroom, some blurred lines, most recently a "Gust of Wind" with French electro's most significant masked production pair and so on, and so forth.
As well, a producer from Virginia Beach named Tim Mosley became friends with the Riley-influenced Hugo and Williams, creating a production trio named S.B.I. (Surrounded By Idiots) and though Mosley (aka Timbaland) parted ways with the production pair, he himself began producing for R&B acts including also from the Virginia Beach area trio Jodeci, as well as now deceased Lil Wayne "Lollipop" producer Static Major, and lesser known act Sista, a group led by Missy Elliott.
So, let's run this down. Teddy Riley was signed by Andre Harrell at Uptown Records, the man who also launched the career of Puff Daddy, who launched the career of Biggie, as well as Mary J. Blige. Riley made hit singles that were techno, rap and R&B-influenced, and was the creative inspiration for Chad Hugo, Pharrell WIlliams and (by proxy), Timbaland. Between Diddy, Pharrell, Chad, and Timbo, there are innumerable number one Billboard pop hits, urban soul singles, and otherwise memorable moments that have indelibly changed the landscape of music overall, including the rap/dance fusion that EDM has become today.
Teddy Riley's EDM Legacy
Foremost, it'd be rather difficult to find a dance music producer actively working in the present day not directly influenced by Teddy Riley or ANY of those he directly (or indirectly) influenced with the New jack swing sound.
As much as soul-driven house music's return to being fashionably cool to love in the pop mainstream is the fault of Disclosure, the explosion of soulful house is going to be tied to the "queen of hip-hop soul" Mary J. Blige getting down with Disclosure tracks on her forthcoming London Sessions album. This, of course, will be nothing more to a homage to 20 years prior when yes, there was Teddy Riley remixing her Sean "Puffy" Combs-produced single "Changes I've Been Going Through."
Other key moments to consider that have clear roots to New jack swing include Akon combining forces with then acid house favoring David Guetta, or Tinie Tempah rapping with the Swedish House Mafia. If looking for the more New jack swing-era ballad tip, don't forget that time that Hudson Mohawke remixed Jodeci's 1995 soul smash "Freek N You." ETC!ETC! and Brillz disambiguated their trap smash "Swoop" with a brilliant "New jack swing"-style remix last year, and it's probably not going to be long before DJ Sliink, Nadus, DJ Fire, Uniiqu3 or one of club music's Brick Bandits figures out Teddy Riley's formula for the modern era.
Happy Birthday, Teddy Riley. You're still THE man.
