Personally I don't dig the modern r'n'b/pop scene! For years Timbaland and the neptunes have dominated the field in the same way Teddy riley, Jimmy jam and terry lewis and La reid and babyface did back in the Newjackswing era ('88-'93)


Do u think that Timbaland, The neptunes and new hotshot kanye west will fall from grace like some of the lesser known newjack producers did (Gene griffen,Dr freeze,bernard belle,Al b sure, Keith sweat) or do u think they will adapt 4 the times (like teddy riley), go solo (that is pharrel williams like Babyface did) or they will actually be made redundant in little more then a year now?

How long do the neptunes,kanye west,timbaland got left? To me, like the Newjack cycle (roughly 5 whole years), their best years r behind them and in a year or 2 they will be lesser known or gone (but maybe they may evolve like teddy did?)

How long do the current producers have left and do u give more respect to these guys or their Newjack forefathers?

My opinion:- I hope their reign on the charts ends and infact very slowly Timbaland and the Neptunes r fading (like Newjack in general did)! I hope current R'n'b/pop changes soon, as now most of the simple commercial stuff sounds plain and uninspired which to many is what Newjack got like! Their was still good Newjack inspired groups around in 1993 but it was hard to find, is the lesser known but still commercial sounding stuff any good and is their any of these groups/acts around?...


What do u think in general of the current producers and their newjack forefathers and is modern r'n'b in 4 a change soon? Was Teddy (in his heyday) more talented and more creative then the current stars etc...
[This message was edited Wed Jul 14 8:41:57 2004 by thesexofit]

Ithink Timbaland is falling of. What was the last good record he mad "Cry Me A River" by J Timberlake. The Neptunes will be here for a while. Other then that Nell "Flap Your Wings" which is terrible, all there records sound good. Kanye will be here for a while also.

thesexofit said:

Most definitely! Remember it was ol' Teddy who first discovered The Neptunes and put them on, so naturally learned a lot from him. Plus the fact, Teddy is a musician and that's what's lacking in a lot of today's producers. You have hip-hop producers producing R&B (which is like an oxymoron considering that the only instrument most of them have ever played was a Technics turntable and Akai MPC).

IMO, their popularity run is definitely coming to a close, but that's just the nature of music and it's everchanging nature of what's "hot" versus what's not to the consumers.

okaypimpn said:

Agreed! There's a lot of musicianship missing from today's R&B scene. I like The Neptunes, but they didn't really sound distinct to me until they hired a backup band and performed as NERD. Teddy was great...he just shredded through too many groups for me to keep up with!

I think it's like everything else in the music biz - things move on.

These guys have been the big new thing, have now been established for a few years & worked with some of the biggest names. They will influence a new batch of producers, some of which will just be clones but some will no doubt have their own 'thang' and they will be the next big thing.

The good thing about the Neptunes is that they have listened to and are influenced by a lot of different styles of music, and are also musicians.

I'm so sick and tired of today's R&B producers.Nothing they do is unique or original.It kinda sucks when nearly EVERY R&B artist utilizes the same producers,creating bland music that sounds like everything else on the radio.Basically,the typical R&B album these days is produced by either Timbaland,R.Kelly,The Neptunes,Jam and Lewis,Kanye West,P.Diddy or a combination of all of them.That's why R&B is in such a sorry state....no variety,no risks being taken,no new faces.

And another thing...

Mostly all producers/songwriters nowadays want to be superstars as well.

Back in the day, you never saw Gamble & Huff, Arif Mardin, Thom Bell & Linda Creed, etc... appearing in the limelight. What's up with that?

okaypimpn said:

does Rufus and Mtume count in that?

mochalox said:

Nah, but speaking of those two...

the other difference was that a lot of these artists actually produced themselves, so they couldn't help but to be in the limelight (Stevie, Prince, Curtis, etc).

okaypimpn said:

what about Devante Swing? see: http://www.vh1.com/artist...lbum.jhtml
[This message was edited Thu Jul 15 8:06:54 2004 by mochalox]

mochalox said:

Yep, him, too.

Too bad, that ain't the DeVante Swing from Jodeci!
[This message was edited Thu Jul 15 8:11:24 2004 by okaypimpn]

to me there is nobody interesting out now. I don't feel Kanye West at all. None of his productions is catchy and he does what I hate the most that is uses doublespeed samples like in "through the wire" and "celebrity overnight". Neptunes were ok at the begging but now it's simply all the same stuff on'n'on'n'on.

the problem is that none of nowadays stars have any musical education of anykind. How can u produce or compose if you don't play any instrument?

okaypimpn said:

could'a fooled me. The tracks that I sampled on there were funky.

rushing07 said:

It's quite easy, ya know! Above all else record producing is a philosophy, not a musical talent really. There are still lots of producers who are really recording engineers. There are other producers who have a lot of business savy and personal managers.

There's always been a lot of misconceptions (from non-producers) about what's involved with creating a record. People assume that you have to play instruments, and that's simply not true. You don't even have to know how to play instruments to write a song.

However, if the producer wants a very long career (20 plus years, like Quincy, Jam and Lewis, and even Teddy), then, yes, they should know as much about music as possible. But the industry today thrives on trends. Therefore, there will always be the "one-man-band-trend-setter producers.


For further info look up "The Art of Record Producing(tion)" by Richard James Burgess. Great book!