I remember in the summer of 92,the media was having a field day with the ultimate LaFace/Jam and Lewis competition.Both production teams were releasing movie soundtracks that they produced...

Jam and Lewis produced the 'Mo Money' movie soundtrack.
La and Face produced the 'Boomerang' movie soundtrack.

These albums came out at around the same time,and I would have to say that LaFace won this competition I barely remember what was on the 'Mo Money' soundtrack.

vainandy said:

Their last decent production was "Push Your Tush"Jessica Simpson and "Harajuku Girls" Gwen S. in which they have been really kinda been goin back to the 80's style ever since working with Mariah Carey and Boys II Men. "If U Wanna Have Some Fun " on Spice Girls' Forever was funky too. I think they went in2 the sell out mode though, and they didnt really sound out of place. I think more people should hoo up with them.

Najee said:

They produced for Trina?

SoulAlive said:

That's a bit of an understatement!


First single: "The Best Things in Life Are Free" - Janet Jackson & Luther Vandross (peaked at #1)
Second single: "Money Can't Buy You Love" - Ralph Tresvant (peaked at #2)

Also:
MC Lyte - "Ice Cream Dream"
Caron Wheeler - "I Adore You"
Mint Condition - "My Dear"

Johnny Gill had a track on each album; "There U Go" (LaFace) is much better than "Let's Just Run Away" (J&L).

the 'Boomerang' soundtrack is dope.Even the tracks that LA and Face didn't produce are good...

"Feels Like Heaven" by?? (forgot their name,lol)
"I'd Die Without You" by P.M Dawn


.
[Edited 8/25/07 14:35pm]

SoulAlive said:

Kenny Vaughan IIRC

AlexdeParis said:

Kenny Vaughan,yes.I love that song

PrettyMan72 said:

I agree, which is why I included the years Babyface worked with L.A. Reid, which the title of this thread seems to ignore. However, it also should include the years 'Face was a producer on his own. I'm not quite getting your argument.

PrettyMan72 said:

Michael Jackson, Jordan Knight and Mariah Carey are basically cases of name-dropping; it's not like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced songs essential to MJ's or Carey's catalog (or for their own, for that matter). 'Face also produced songs for Carey ("Never Forget You" was a top 10 single).

Karyn White enjoyed her greatest success ("The Way You Love Me," "Superwoman," "Love Saw It," "Secret Rendezvous" and "Can I Stay with You") under LaFace. Jam and Lewis only have two hit songs to show for their two-album works with Lewis' ex-wife (the LaFace-sounding "Romantic" and "Hungah").

I assume that link you posted only regarded songs on the Billboard Hot 100 charts -- and I would imagine that most of Jam and Lewis' No. 1 singles came courtesy of Janet Jackson.

PrettyMan72 said:

And your point being with Boyz II Men? No one discounted Michael Bivins' discovery and influence in their "Cooleyhighharmony" album. But 'Face did produce bigger hits for the group than what Jam and Lewis gave them.

And while Jam and Lewis did produce New Edition's "Heartbreak" album, LaFace produced former N.E. member Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel" album in the summer of 1988 -- and last I looked, "Cruel" sold considerably more albums than "Heartbreak."
[Edited 8/25/07 20:32pm]

SoulAlive said:

I would have to say that was when LaFace's music and success officially left Jam and Lewis in the dust. The "Mo' Money" soundtrack had some good songs -- Ralph Tresvant's "Money Can't Buy You Love," Mint Condition's "My Dear" were good and Johnny Gill's "Let's Run Away" was above-average (it sounded like he was singing underwater, IMO) -- but overall it fell flat. "The Best Things in Life Are Free" became a hit only because of the novelty off all the principals working on a one-shot, big-name production.
[Edited 8/25/07 20:29pm]

Najee said:

Jam and Lewis and LAFace both enjoyed success on the pop and r&b charts. The highest number of sales IMO does not make one producer better than the other. It's all a matter of personal preference. A fairer comparison would be Babyface Vs David Foster.

LA Reid & Babyface, easily.

PrettyMan72 said:

I would say that L.A. and Babyface had more crossover success because the vast majority of their songs were top 10 pop hits and top five or better on the soul charts. At one point in 1991, Billboard magazine said that L.A. and 'Face produced more No. 1 singles (mostly on the soul charts) than any company during a three-year period.

The majority of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis' crossover success came via Janet Jackson. Alexander O'Neal, Cherrelle and The S.O.S. Band were not crossover acts (i.e. Top 20 pop hits). Of the New Edition songs, "If It Isn't Love" (No. 7) and "I'm Still in Love with You" (No. 7) were their only pop success. If you took Janet out of the equation (she had ten No. 1 pop singles as of 2001) the number of J&L-penned No. 1 pop songs would go down significantly.

Simply looking at the artists L.A. and Babyface or 'Face by himself produced (Bobby Brown, Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, TLC) who were massive crossover hits -- not to mention acts like The Whispers, Pebbles, 'Face himself, After 7, Karyn White, Sheena Easton, etc., who enjoyed occasional success on that side -- and I would challenge that article's authenticity because seemingly it's only counting No. 1 pop songs while ignoring soul music success and top 20/top 10 pop hits. Damian Dame is one of the few acts LaFace produced who had success on the soul charts that didn't make a major splash on the pop charts.
[Edited 8/26/07 8:28am]

PrettyMan72 said:

Just to give this some context, according to that article link you posted Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis scored their 25th No. 1 soul single with Usher's "U Remind Me" in 2001 (considering they got started in late 1982, at that point we're talking more than 18 years in their careers).

By December 1990 -- two-plus years into their producing careers -- L.A. and Babyface already had scored 16 No. 1 soul music singles.
[Edited 8/26/07 4:03am]

Najee said:

True, but that does not necessarily mean LAFace were better producers than Jam and Lewis. Some producers are lucky to score more hits than others. It's all a matter of personal preference. Both teams respected each other's work. I prefer Jam and Lewis's body of work more so than LAFace because they were more diverse as songwriters/producers and they crafted a unique sound for every artist they had produced. My argument is based on their body of work's NOT chart positions. Again, it's a matter of personal preference. Both teams have done great music. I'm done debating.

PrettyMan72 said:

Last I looked, everyone's opinion is based on personal preference. However, you started this discussion by challenging my statements first by name-dropping acts that really were not relevant to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis' success and then making some of out-of-context comments that were not relevant at all (Michael Bivins discovered Boyz II Men -- as if that was a revelation).

Then you posted a questionable linking saying Jam and Lewis was the No. 2 production team of all time (based only on No. 1 pop singles, mind you) -- which completely overlooked the fact that most of their pop success comes from one artist (Janet Jackson) and that the vast majority of Laface-produced singles were pop top 10 hits (outside of Janet, J&L's other catalog has had comparatively sporadic pop success).

I would suggest stop trying to make an argument that's not there and when you're corrected you go away stomping.
[Edited 8/26/07 8:13am]

LaFace, EASILY.

They produced better material & just have more memorable classics.

ABeautifulOne said:

I did not say that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced the rapper Trina (that was mimi07 doing some name-dropping). On the rapper's entry on www.allmusic.com, it mentions a song on "Glamorest Life" that was an interpolation of the J&L-penned, Force MDs-performed "Tender Love." I said if J&L did produce a Trina song (which I doubt was the case, considering no review or album credit referred to them on any of her three albums), it was way after their commercial peak in the mid-1990s.
[Edited 8/26/07 8:36am]

face is best when it comes to slow jams

ThePunisher said:

In their interviews as a team, they revealed L.A. Reid wrote predominantly the uptempo songs and Babyface took the lead on the ballads. That was even more evident when they went their separate ways, when 'Face's songs were basically ballads (and when he did write uptempo stuff he enlisted outside help, such as on "You're Makin' Me High" with Groove Theory's Bryce Wilson).

That apparently doesn't make them any different from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. I always understood that Lewis came up with the most of the song titles and lyrics while Jimmy Jam wrote most of the music.

Najee said:

but laface was a four man crew, it was Kayo Darryl Simmons, and the other two(Face and LA), and again you are write LA did the drum trakcs and the uptempo songs and remixes, and he did those shit well.

All i know is the music they did with Bobby Brown was insane they recorded 8 songs together and seven of those songs hit top 10, and Pretty Girl wasn't released, it would have hit top ten also. SHit was iconic when Bobby and the Laface crew got together

I like both production teams but tend to like more by Jam & Lewis. Both were prone to periods of overproduction which bored me. I haven't liked either in a while.


I'd consider Scream essential to MJ's catalog.

RipHer2Shreds said:

I also consider it more of Janet Jackson song with Michael Jackson as the featured guest vocalist. But technically it is a Michael Jackson song, because it was on his "History" album -- although it's hardly the first song you think about when you say "Michael Jackson" or "Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis' works include ..." (which what I mean by "essential").
[Edited 8/26/07 9:57am]

qvgangsta18 said:

I'm not dismissing Darryl Simmons and Kayo on the LaFace side, no more than I would dismiss Monte Moir, Randy Ran, Jellybean Johnson and Lance Alexander and Prof. T on the Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis side. However, for the sake of this discussion L.A. and Babyface were the main principals of the LaFace sound, just like Jam and Lewis were the driving engines of the Flyte Tyme sound.
[Edited 8/26/07 9:58am]

Najee said:

It's not that serious, exhale . Like I said before, both teams made good music and one is not better than the other. Peace!

daingermouz2020 said:

I Agree!