Over the course of her first six albums, Teena Marie did as much to expand R&B's sonic palette and vocal character as anyone in the genre, yet she still had to fight the strictures of categorization. A defiantly multifaceted artist, she used 1986’s Emerald City to dismantle any notions of classifying her as black or white, feminine or masculine, or soul, jazz, or rock. She was a little bit of everything at once and used Emerald City to prove it. The concise eight-song program is based on the idea of an “Emerald City,” a luminescent place in which racial categories don't exist. To reinforce that theme, Teena Marie constructed her most hybridized album to date, weaving strands of hard funk, club music, jazz, and even metal into single songs. Unlike many of the era's top solo female stars, she took an active interest in her musicians. Emerald City features a cast that draws from every genre: traditional jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, fusion bassist Stanley Clarke, and even Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan.