Is Newjack the most underapreciated genre of music ever? I know Newjack was mainly a American then, but no dj's will touch newjack and the same with music stations and radio.

At least grand theft auto San Andreas put on a radio station featuring it!


So why u think it is a "lost" genre? I guess ti was just EVERYWHERE, like on films, tv ("in living color" "mo' money" "new jack city"), slang, fashions (silk shirts, overalls.....) that people jusy got sick of it.

Not one book is avialiable abut Newjack, nor any documentary.

Newjack was a gap between the former old school hip hop like Run DMC and Gangster acts like Dre and Tupac. It was melodic, fun, funky and was new.

Someone should make a film about it. Could become a cult classic. I think the time has come 4 at least Newjack to become properly retro as Newjack was and has been sooo influential.

Teddy Riley is a god!



From "just got paid" and "I want her" to "Iesha" by Another bad creation. Newjack covers so much ground. (1988-1993)


Rest in peace no more.....

New Jack became passe when Gansta Rap came on the picture and it went Pop.

Because a lot of it sounds so half baked and throw away, although it does have it's odd interesting moments such as Blackstreet's 'No Diggity'. Soul music to me is exactly that. Music sung from the soul expressed in the voices of Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and the alike. Not Father MC, Wayne Marshall or whoever where a lot of it sounds so machoistic and false. To me, a lot of it is all froth and no substance.

yeah I know. Grundge didn't help either. That tunred whites away who used to listen to "poison" by Bell biv Devoe.

I stopped listening to Newjack for many years, but now it seems great again. Iam once gain a newjack junkie.

soooo many obscure newjack acts to find too.....who knew ray parker jr made a newjac album. Remember Diana ross' blatend attempt at newjack. "workin' overtime"




That has some cool, if VERY fromulaic tracks.

Some established acts treid newjack. Gladys knight, James Ingram, even Quincy Jones' "back on the block" leaned towards newjack on a couple of tracks.....

I can tell by your posts that you are heavy into that era. I'm the same way about disco. It takes years for people to start looking back at different musical eras so just wait a few years and New Jack's time will come.

I was into it a little bit but not much. During that time, I was heavy into house artists like Black Box.
[Edited 1/9/05 8:37am]

I JUST created a "new jack" CD compilation of my own.....

1. I Want Her -Keith Sweat
2. My Prerogative- Bobby Brown
3. Don't Take My Mind On A Trip
4. New Jack Swing - Wrecks N Effect
5. Time Is Running Out - Deja
6. It's Real -James Ingram
7. Two Can Play That Game- Bobby Brown
8. Get a Lil' Freaky- Aaron Hall
9. You Can Call Me Crazy- Guy
10. Spend The Night -Guy
11. She Drives Me Wild -Michael Jackson
12. She's Got That Vibe -R. Kelly & Public Announcement
13. Groove Me- Guy
14. Teddy's Jam- Guy
15. Rub You The Right Way -Johnny Gill
16. I Like - Guy
17. We Got Our Own Thang- Heavy D. & The Boyz
18. They Want Money -Kool Moe Dee
19. I Get The Job Done - Big Daddy Kane
20. Just Got Paid -Johnny Kemp

sounds great. Virtualy all of them r Teddy Riley related too!

good to c "get a little freaky" by Aaron hall in there, same with the surprisenly honest "they want money" by kool Mo Dee.

I got Boy George "don't take my mind on a trip" on 12".....it kicks really hard!

Teddy Riley, the king of new jack swing is STILL an immensley good producer. He Just dunt seem to be used that much nemore as far as i can see.

I had totally forgotten about that song. That was a sho-nuff jam.

yep, i'll say. Thanx to Teddy no doubt.....Teddy even anmechecked Boy George on Wrecks n effects "new jack swing"

"i've got Keith Sweat, heavy d....boy george and my man Bobby brown."

Pharrel got?.....hahahahahahaha.....

Didn't Teddy Riley file for bankruptcy over the summer?

There were some worthwhile New Jack Swing cuts, but a lot of it didn't hold up over time and became rather lifeless.

Proberly? I don't know? Amybe he was banking on the last blackstreet album?

where is Mr yep yep anyway? Pharrel must be laughing in Teddy's face.....that pesky skinny twat!

Yep, yep -- Teddy definitely was the man behind "Don't Take My Mind on a Trip". I had the Boy George cassette that contained that song back in the day. Teddy produced a few more cool tracks on that project as well.

I liked NJS back in the day, but I think PAPAROBBIE's compilation illustrates the predominant issue: it's a great collection, and all but three tracks were produced by Teddy Riley. Purchase The Very Best of Guy and Michael Jackson's Dangerous and you will have all the New Jack Swing you will ever need.

Various producers tried their hand at NJS during its heyday, with widely varying results; however, at the end of the day, New Jack Swing still began and ended with Teddy Riley. One man does not a lasting genre make.

Disco (which was mentioned by vainandy in this thread) has had more staying power because IMO it has been more successfully transformed and absorbed into more current genres of music (house, garage, etc). In addition, everyone was writing and producing disco in its heyday -- even the predominant funk and rock groups created some disco records (not that I'm saying that was a good thing).

To Teddy's credit, I think he demonstrated his true capabilities as a producer when he started creating tracks that weren't so easily pigeonholed into the NJS definition. That proved the key to his staying power throughout the 90s.

I c what u and Vainandy have said about disco, but loads of people, as have mentioned, tried to jump onto Newjack bandwagon too. Some of the problem was that newjack never took off anywhere else in the world, but disco did.

Plus even Jimmy Jam and terry Lewis were heavily influenced to create newjack 4 artists like Janet Jackson and Kayrn White. Plus who could forget Johnny Gill's "rub you the right way"!

La reid and Babyface were the softer side of newjack, but were newjack nonetheless. Babyfaces' "it's no crime" "tender lover" to "giving u the benfit" by Pebbles to "every little step" by Bobby brown. Newjack was tried on by most if not all rnb pop producers back in USA.

Even prince put his own spin on it on "new power generation".....

I think their lied the problem. Newjack got too commercial and got lost in an obvious jump the bandwagon case and music became over satuarated when even Michael Jackson made newjack. Teddy did pul himself together 4 blackstreet though.

Remember Jodeci's first album? The uptempo's were all heavy Newjack. same with Mint conditions first album.....

thesexofit said:

I saw it last night whe i was researching some stuff but i cant find the link

thesexofit said:

I concede most of these points. You are correct; NJS did not take off elsewhere (even Boy George abandoned the idea after the Hi Hat album). This did have quite a bit to do with the disappearance of NJS from the landscape in such a complete fashion. Now that you mention it, I wonder why NJS did not catch on in other countries -- particularly since it is perhaps the only noteworthy US music genre that hasn't -- but that is a subject all its own...

Sure -- other producers tried (as we have both said), but it always sounded like novelty cash-in efforts to me. Jam & Lewis tried writing in that genre; LA & Face played around with it as well -- but the results sounded like nothing more than experiments IMO. Sometimes the experiments were catchy -- but they were merely experiments, nonetheless.

Teddy was the only one who released New Jack Swing tracks whose heart was truly in it -- and the only one for whom NJS was a career for any significant period of time. With other producers, it always felt to me like, "Well, we'll try one of those Teddy-type tracks. If the results don't induce nausea, we'll see if we can make it a hit. Tomorrow, we'll go back to the stuff we do best."

Part of the issue here might also be subtleties in definition. I don't consider "It's No Crime" or "Giving You The Benefit" NJS songs (though I see why others might); they just don't have that swing feel IMO. On the other hand, "Tender Lover" definitely counts, as does Bobby Brown's "Humpin' Around" (also LA & Face - produced). Outside of Johnny Gill tracks like "Rub You The Right Way" and "The Floor" (which, to be fair, are not that far removed from the kind of Minneapolis-derived stuff they did for New Edition on the Heart Break project), Jam & Lewis didn't play with NJS that much (at least that I recall).

In interviews they conducted at the time, LA & Babyface even admitted that while they had tried New Jack Swing tracks on a few projects, they weren't all that good at it.

I don't know -- I'm just thinking out loud here. I still love listening to New Jack Swing records, but the style gets repetitive quickly. I think I'd have abandoned mainstream radio long before I did if New Jack Swing had taken over the airwaves completely for any appreciable period of time...

Apparently, I think you picked a good topic -- I enjoy discussing it!

I always loved this era, this had to be the best r&b era ever!!!

Damn u really know ur stuff

Yeah the la and babyface tracks may not be strictly swing, but they r very simular.....Jam/lewis definately got the swing on "the floor" and "rub u the right way" by Johnny Gill though,

Remember Bell Biv devoe? I class them as swing. "poison" is swing through and through. Al b sure was too. What I'm saying is that swing goes further then Teddy. Though I definately agree that most then "hot" producers looked at a teddy record and said "lets copy that".....Teddy riley's uncle Gene Griffen can make swing like Teddy can. Why? Because he is on the credits of those early swing records.

He had a few groups like Basic black, Arb, Mind and Today ("why u getting funky on me") that r as good as teddy.

Father MC "lisa lisa" was newjack, so newjack includes rappers like father, heavy d and to some extent even LL cool J r a form of newjack

I guess newjack comes in different sub genres like Glenn Medeiros "she ain't worth it"= Newjack/pop, as does Tiffany's "it's you" (believe it or not) or debbie gibsons "love or money"


As far as know, in UK, it was called swingbeat and only played in london black clubs mainly. a few big hits came though, like "shes got that vibe" by R kelly which is Guy cloning if I ever heard one.....

Newjack is soo complicated. To me it does include La reid and Babyface as well as some of jam/lewis (like Ralph tresvants "rated r").....

Even Morris Day went Newjack on a couple of tracks off his 1992 album.

About the only US pop act who didn't try a couple of newjack style tracks was Madonna. "Express yuorself" is the closest u'll get.

Newjack could be heard in so much pop, rnb and rap back then that it all comes under the "Umbrella" if u will of Newjack.

I know people who only like the Teddy tracks, and I love 'em too (did he spread himself too thinly though?) but I love soo much other newjack realted stuff too I guess.....

If Britney covered "My Prerogative", then a New Jack Swing revival could soon follow.

Do any of you remember the 1989 hit "Right and Hype" by a girl group called Abstrac? It was produced by Teddy Riley.I still have it on vinyl.A nice little New Jack Swing single.

"No need to play me out
No need to shout
all I ask for is someone
who can work it out
So let's get together and let's have some fun
hey let's not push it,cause baby you're the one"
I need a man and he's got to be Right and...
(Right Hype) who can love me all night long
(Right Hype) who never treats me wrong
(Right Hype)someone who's for real
(Right Hype) who knows the deal"

missfee said:

JDINTERACTIVE said:

-----
It is just dance music. Relax. All music does not have to make a great statement and everybody can't sing like Aretha or Otis. I get tired of people complaining that New Jack wasn't real soul music and neo-soul artist have no substance. Damm sometime it looks like RnB music just can't win.

As far as the genre being lost that happened when Gangster Rap and this Dirty South crap took over. Radio would rather play the grammer challeged Dirty South Rappers and Gangaster crap then good music people can dance to.

Very well said.

Newjack was melodic so alot of it is about girls and alot of it is pop. It's just that it was often very funky and about rythem. It conbined both.....

How do you classify it?

After a while, it became insufferable, and Ice Cube famously got that point across.

But much of it was listenable, and dare I say, good.

Keith Sweat: How Deep Is Your Love, Make It Last Forever

Al B. Sure: Nite and Day, Get Off On Your Own

Bobby Brown: Every Little Step, My Roni

SWV: Right Here (Human Nature Remix)

Guy: Let's Chill

Levert: Coolin'

Juice Soundtrack: Is It Good To You?

to name a few.

thesexofit said:

Hahahaha...everytime I hear the term "New Jack Swing", I think of this classic lyric...

"And you can New Jack Swing on my nuts!"
- Ice Cube - The Wrong Nigga To Fuck Wit