New Jack Swing

In the second half of the ’80s, producers like Teddy Riley and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis gave R&B a new groove by blending the sweet (soulful vocals) and the street (hip-hop beats) in New Jack Swing. Not too long after leaving boy band New Edition, a grown up Bobby Brown brought the new sound slammin’, swayin’, and swingin’ into the ears of America with the Riley-helmed anthem of independence “My Prerogative.” Brown’s former bandmates followed his lead, forming Bell Biv DeVoe and debuting with the 1990 smash “Poison,” whose slinky vocal harmonies underlined New Jack’s jazzier side. And speaking of harmonies, Boyz II Men defined the New Jack slow jam with the gospel-soaked breakup ballad “End of the Road,” the biggest-selling single ever released on Motown.

In Next Steps, some sweet soul standards get a New Jack jolt.

While New Jack Swing put a fresh face on R&B, it also offered a chance to spice up some sweet soul classics with a brand-new beat. Club Nouveau nailed a crossover coup by injecting some snap, crackle, and pop into Bill Withers’ ’70s smash “Lean On Me.” “Now That We Found Love” was Philly soul fodder for the O’Jays and a breakthrough tune for reggae rulers Third World before Heavy D & The Boyz took it to hip-hop heaven, scoring their biggest hit ever. And even though Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s “Let the Beat Hit ’Em” was penned for them by C+C Music Factory’s Robert Clivillés, it gets a jazzy jolt from a sample of trumpeter Donald Byrd’s funkified “Think Twice.”

In Deep Cuts, peel back the pages of R&B history to uncover killer New Jack jams.

Two decades away from New Jack’s heyday, there remains a whole lot of hard-grooving history to uncover, beyond the handful of hits you still hear today. Father MC’s “I’ll Do 4 U” not only wrapped hip-hop moves around a sample of Cheryl Lynn’s “Got To Be Real,” but it also introduced the world to a teenage songbird by the name of Mary J. Blige. While it was “Oh Sheila” that made Ready for the World pop/R&B crossover kings, the rock-tinged rush of “Human Toy” — never even released as a single — could’ve given Prince a run for his money. And Michael Cooper led a whole other life as leader of Con Funk Shun — sort of a West Coast Earth, Wind & Fire — before breaking out on his own and adding a little New Jack Swing seasoning to the tantalizing table he set on the romantic “Dinner for Two.”

New Jack Swing wasn’t just about sound; it was about style — a fashion sense that blended hip-hop with Harlem Renaissance; a whole roll call of syncopated dance moves, from the Running Man to the Roger Rabbit; and, of course, a hot-stepping, hook-heavy brand of production that put poppin’ beats to savory slices of soul. From the late ’80s to the mid-’90s, New Jack was the R&B groove, and it ushered in some of the era’s biggest names, from Keith Sweat to R. Kelly. Now we’ve built up our own New Jack City, brick by brick, from the beat-happy, poppy percolation of the Jets’ “Crush On You” to the silky, seductive flow of Al B. Sure!’s “Nite and Day.” Prepare to party like it’s 1991, because the New Jack revival starts right here.