I like both production teams. Both have done some incredible work. But for me, it's:

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis

RJSwift said:

I'll posse witcha on that one. lol I saw this interview LA did on Tavis Smiley, where he said he was never comfortable bein a musician and even admitted that he wasn't that great of a drummer. He said 'Face pretty much did all the music/writing, while he tended to the money/A&R of their label. Say, when you listened to a song either team may have touched back then, how could you tell if it was 'Face or J&L?
[Edited 4/27/10 8:58am]

No brainer - Jam & Lewis.

LA & Babyface are dated.

Big fan of both, but I'd still have to go with Flyte Tyme over LA'Face. I'll also agree that Flyte Tyme's sound has aged a little better than LA'Face. I really wish someone would put together a complete compilation of early Flyte Tyme productions. I've got a great five volume "hits" compilation of LA'Face productions that (I'm assuming) a fan put together. It's fun, but it's quite obvious that LA and Babyface's peak was during New Jack's hey day. I prefer their stuff just prior to the emergence of the New Jack sound.

Another fun duo from the late eighties/early nineties was Foster/McElroy (Tony Toni Tone, En Vogue, Club Nouveau, Samuelle and a couple tunes for Alexander O'Neal). En Vogue was kind of their Janet Jackson (cash cow and some of their best work). I never thought their sound evolved near as well as the other duos though (which is probably why they did survive near as long as the others).

Gamble and Huff are pretty epic,also Mtume and Reggie Lucas had a nice run in the late 70`s and early 80`s.If i had to choose it would be Jam and Lewis,so many good thoughts as i remember that time of my life.

jam and lewis.

a duo that ruled last decade being pharrell and chad had an incredible run to a moment where not a hit album didnt had a song of theirs

J&T all day every day

Ill add :

Kandi and Shak'Spere Briggs
S. Combs and M. Winans ..
T. Mosley & M. Elliott..
J. Dupri & B. Cox

Although none was better than teams already stated above.

Jimmy & Terry.

I admire the Flyte Tyme. Specifically, the sound they created with Janet Jackson. In my opinion, they're timeless and legendary producers. They did a few tracks on Usher's last album and they still got it!

diamondpearl1 said:

Jam & Lewis took more of a classical approach to their music productions. The chord structure plus an orchestral style string arrangement, the fretless sounding bass, the hevily stacked and tightly woven and really dense harmony and arrangements. Even with thir TR 808 songs.

LA & Face have more of a simplistic approach to their songs.Face's Electric Piano taps with long decay, strings that usually follow the same chord-ing as the taps with maybe piano to strengthen the chorus with a ad-lib type sound (such as a flute or brass horn) added for a little extra AND Kayo's brilliant Bass guitar which I feel takes their production to a new level.

Gamble and Huff!

In the late 1980s, Jam and Lewis beat the shit out of LA and Babyface. LA and Babyface were like an extremely weak version of Jam and Lewis. As soon as the 1990s hit though, both of the producer duos were horrible.

I thought 90's Jam and Lewis were still great, but then came the 00's and they lost their spark. La'face were good, but seemed a little amateurish next to Flyte time.

Jam & Lewis were the best period.
Have to give LA and Face their due though.
I thought Reggie and Vincent Calloway done well but
it seem like they lost interest.

RJSwift said:

You heard a fretless bass in J&L's sound ? I always thought if it wasn't Terry pluckin it was Jam doin it on his keyboard like Stevie Wonder, Keri Lewis (Mint Condition) & Ray Manzerek (The Doors). Glad I'm not the only one who appreciated the great Kevin "Kayo" Roberson on bass. With The Deele I loved his lines on "Crazy 'Bout 'Cha" "Two Occasions","Eyes Of A Stranger" and "Let No One Separate Us". Then when they branched off into production I loved his work on Bobby Brown's "Roni", "Don't Be Cruel", "Every Little Step", The Boys, "Dial My Heart", After 7's "Ready Or Not" and Pebbles "Givin You The Benefit" and "Always"....
[Edited 4/27/10 15:11pm]

Probably La reid and Babyface. Whilst Jam/Lewis earlier stuff has dated very well, their late 80's/early 90's stuff, err not so well LOL. Case in point being "the best things in life are free". The remix (and big hit in the UK) totally owned the original and still sounds fresh today.

Shout out to Ren Toppano and Jamey Jaz though! Unsung heros of pop cheese, but pop cheese with production on point for the most part...compared to SAW, Maurice Starr etc.., these guys deserve a medal considering who they worked with...




[Edited 4/27/10 17:43pm]

I've been riding with Flyte Tyme since their SOS Band productions. So this one was easy for me, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. However, LaFace Records was more successful than Perspective Records in the early 90's label wise. And I say that as a Flyte Tyme stan too. LaFace just produced more hits for their artists.

...Robert Margouleff & Malcolm Cecil



Two words...



...Stevie Wonder


Although that's not all they did...



...that's quite enough.


http://www.tontosexpandingheadband.com/
http://www.micasamm.com/newsite/


Music for adventurous listeners



tA

Tribal Records

I don't think Jam & Lewis lost their spark. They're still the best out there.

Didn't Babyface claim that LA didn't do much and just claimed credit for songs he didn't even work on? I remember reading that somewhere.

LA is evil so I wouldn't be surprised if this were true.

Jam & Lewis


Pete Rock & CL Smooth
Madvillain

RJSwift said:

I think it's a silly comparison cause jimmy and terry are more versatile, babyface became too repetitive and was more about the ballads anyway

theAudience said:

Stevie! his music!

In response to the question, I would have to say Jam and Lewis. I may be a bit biased, since they were once with The Time. But their music was catchy and held my interest, and at one time, I had all of the groups that they have worked with albums on cassettes (this was back in the 90s). I never cared for LA and Babyface's music that much, simply because all of their songs started sounding like the last song they wrote and produced. I got bored with them quickly.

my favorite production duo:

midiscover said:

It's obvious that Babyface did most of the work.He started working on his own in 1993 and look how many hit songs he came up with on his own.

Jam and lewis are great producers but these brothers are my favorite team of all time...



They had a HUGE influence on so many musicians and groups in the 80's like Change and even The Sugar Hill Gang. Their music is still sampled today.

RIP Nard

vainandy said:

With all due respect, you were clearly on some pretty strong medication during this period that distorted you grasp on music because BOTH were anything BUT "Horrible" during the 90's.

vainandy said:

I see that Jam and Lewis are getting the most love For me,it's like this:

Jam and Lewis' early productions are superb (Cherelle's "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" is my favorite J&L jam).Most of the stuff they produced from 1983-86 was excellent.I sorta lost interest after that.

Throughout the late 80s and early 90s,I was more into the LA and Babyface sound.Songs like "Rock Steady" by the Whispers,"The Lover In Me" by Sheena Easton,"Dial My Heart" by the Boyz,"Roses Are Red" by the Mac Band,"Another Sad Love Song" by Toni Braxton and Babyface's solo hits...I was really into these songs.I wasn't listening to very much J&L at this point.