Remembering new jack swing: Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men, Guy dominated 'mix of everything that was great about Black culture'

At first, no one knew what to call it. The voices were warm and soulful, but the drums were hard, metallic, stuttering. It sounded something like hip-hop, but the melodies were pure pop. For a time, you heard it everywhere — in nightclubs, on the radio, at a party. One thing was clear: This music virtually commanded you to dance.

“I call it the New Jack Swing," the late journalist Barry Michael Cooper wrote in a 1988 Village Voice article that gave the music its enduring name. “New jack" was slang for a Johnny-come-lately, but “swing" suggested an I’m-taking-over swagger. Indeed, as the 1980s turned into the 1990s, artists such asBobby Brown,  Keith Sweat, New Edition, Guy, Blackstreet, Boyz II Men and Janet Jackson established new jack swing as one of the era’s dominant sounds. Teddy Riley, the music producer widely credited with inventing the genre, described it to The New York Times in a 1991 interview: “In most people's definition it's music that puts the ingredients of gospel, rap, R-and-B and pop-jazz together, with a little funk here and there if you want to add it."

Within a few years, it was over, but new jack swing is still fondly remembered. When Boyz II Men arrive at the Tilles Center on Feb. 11, they’ll perform a repertoire of such classic hits as “Motownphilly" (a No. 3 hit in 1991), alongside their more traditional R&B numbers. The group recently returned from Abu Dhabi and will soon take their show to Singapore and Indonesia — a testament to the global reach and enduring appeal of a music that lasted for less than a decade.

“I think it's safe to say that every generation has a signature sound," says Boyz II Men singer Shawn Stockman, 52. “Ours is new jack swing."

BEGINNINGS IN 1980s HARLEM

The music’s history begins in the Harlem of the mid-1980s, where a teenage Riley was making a name for himself. He had already been in a short-lived group called Kids at Work and was becoming a well-known producer thanks to his work on early hip-hop singles such as “The Show," a seminal 1985 track by Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew. Andre Harrell, the Bronx-born founder of Uptown Records, enlisted Riley to produce several artists for the label.

“Teddy Riley is a prodigy," says James “Jimmy Luv" Jenkins, who served as Uptown’s senior vice president of promotion. “We would be at Teddy's house when he was 14 years old. And he’d be like: 'Yo, I got this new music'."

Riley helped produce “Livin’ Large,” the 1987 debut album by Heavy D and the Boyz. Though today it might sound like an old-school hip-hop album, you can hear the coming sound of new jack swing on Riley-assisted tracks like “On the Dance Floor” and “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me.”

“Heavy D is probably the fusion point of hip-hop and R&B in the new jack swing," says Mike Baril, a music marketing specialist who began his career at MCA Records’ college radio division in the late 1980s. “Because of Heavy D’s melodic flow — as opposed to that straight, monotone, hard-core approach — Heavy was able to almost rap-sing."

Riley, however, wasn’t about to stay within the confines of rap. His wide-ranging influences included the Motown sound of the Temptations, the jazz vocals of The Manhattan Transfer, the Caribbean-inflected pop of Kid Creole and the Coconuts and the gospel music he heard growing up at a Harlem church known as Universal Temple, according to an interview he gave at the Red Bull Academy Music Festival in 2017.

The young Riley was also a bit of a mad scientist. To get the right drum sounds, he experimented with a cheap Casio synthesizer, opened up his Oberheim DX drum machine to beef up its tone and beatboxed through a toilet-paper tube into a Shure SM-57 microphone, Riley said at Red Bull. “I wasn’t a DJ, I was the guy with a keyboard," he said, though he eventually learned to DJ as well.

GUY COMES ON THE SCENE

Riley was also a singer. In 1987, he formed Guy, a vocal group that included Roosevelt-raised Aaron Hall and, later, Hall’s brother Damion. Signed to Uptown, Guy released their self-titled debut in 1988 and watched it go platinum on the strength of five successful singles, including “I Like," “Groove Me" and “Teddy’s Jam."

“My favorite R&B group of the '90s," Baril says of Guy. The group established a major following in the New York-Long Island area, Baril recalls, and at least once played at a venue called Tabu in Hempstead. “Aaron would come to Long Island, he would take off his jacket, his shirt, and gyrate his body on stage," Baril says. “Guy was just a sensation."

NEW JACK JUGGERNAUTS: JANET JACKSON, NEW EDITION

Meanwhile, the market was getting crowded.“The producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis helped turn the boy-band New Edition into new jack swing hitmakers.with the 1988 album “Heart Break," which spawned the singles “If It Isn’t Love," “Crucial" and others. Riley answered back the same year with “My Prerogative," a chart-topping single by former New Edition member Bobby Brown. Wreckx-n-Effect, a Harlem-based act featuring Riley’s brother Markell, released a 1989 single titled simply: “New Jack Swing."

Jam and Lewis returned that year with “Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814," a new jack juggernaut that spawned seven Top 5 hits over three years, including “Miss You Much," “Alright" and “Love Will Never Do (Without You)." In 1990, the New Edition offshoot Bell Biv DeVoe released their debut single, “Poison," a platinum-selling hit that — while not a Riley production — is surely the genre’s defining anthem. Even Hollywood got in on the act with “New Jack City," a 1991 crime drama starring Wesley Snipes that featured a new jack soundtrack. (Cooper, the journalist, co-wrote the screenplay.) Also in 1991, Boyz II Men released their debut album, “Cooleyhighharmony," which won an R&B Grammy in 1992.

Stockman can still recall Boyz II Men’s first hometown show at Philadelphia’s Civic Center around that time. “The crowd, how loud and how into the show they were — it was just a surreal moment," he says. “It was one of the best moments of my life."

RULING THE NIGHTCLUBS

In the nightclubs of Manhattan, new jack swing ruled the day, according to DJ Kevin “Sugar Daddy" Woodley, who spent the era spinning at Bentley’s on 40th Street between Madison and Park avenues. Record promoters would hand him test pressings of new singles, he says, while radio programmers hovered around waiting to hear a hit.

“They would come to me and say, 'What’s hot?' And I’d say, stand here and watch," Woodley recalls. If the crowd began to move, he says, a radio programmer might almost literally grab the disc out of his hands: “They’d say, give me that!"

Along with the music came a fashion sense that was colorful and upmarket. Bobby Brown wore a double-breasted suit for the cover of his 1988 album “Don’t Be Cruel,” while the members of Guy mixed parachute pants with blazers. The hi-top fade haircut became a staple, most memorably sported by late-night talk-show host Arsenio Hall, who brought many a new jack artist to his stage.

Michael Jackson finally rode the wave with the album “Dangerous," coproduced by Riley and released in late 1991. It was a rare case of the trendsetting Jackson arriving a little late, but “Dangerous" spawned four Top 10 singles (including “In the Closet" and “Black or White"), launched a Jackson world tour that grossed $100 million and ultimately sold 32 million copies.

“People probably weren’t looking at it as new jack swing," Baril says of the album, which stepped outside the genre’s boundaries with rock guitar solos and lyrics that addressed topics such as racism and poverty. Nevertheless, Baril says, “that sound was on the biggest platform with Michael Jackson."

DID HIP-HOP KILL NEW JACK SWING?

Hip-hop, the music that gave rise to new jack swing, also killed it, argues Kenyatta Beasley, professor of music production and technology at Hofstra University. As the 1990s progressed, he says, the harder-hitting rap of Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Dogg came to the fore. Brightly colored suits and good-time vibes were out; saggy jeans and aggressive lyrics were in.

In an increasingly macho rap culture, new jack swing was dismissed as “dainty," Beasley says. “The birth of ‘90s hip-hop was the death knell of new jack swing."

Boyz II Men saw the writing on the wall after the release of their second album, “II," in 1994, according to Stockman. Though it was the group’s most successful release, Stockman says, “We saw the climate change, and we understood that things are going to go in a different direction." Boyz II Men’s 1997 follow-up, a collection of straight-ahead R&B songs, was titled “Evolution" for a reason, Stockman says: “We changed with the times."

Today, new jack swing songs are considered oldies but goodies, says Brooklyn-based DJ Ace, who played many of Long Island’s nightclubs during the late 1980s and early ‘90s. “I could do a whole set of new jack music tomorrow night," he says, “one right after the other, and people would love it. The retro thing is in now — everybody wants to relive that ‘90s feel."

For fans of the genre, “It’s one of those times where everything just seems to come together," says Beasley, citing the music’s ear-grabbing blend of styles. “It was a mix of everything that was great about Black culture."

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com