walking upstream…
Teddy Riley
photo: christopher diont'e · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Teddy Riley
sourcesWikipedia · Red Bull Music Academy Daily · Rolling Stone
Raised in Harlem's St. Nicholas Houses and playing instruments in church from age five, Teddy Riley was producing hits for Doug E. Fresh and Kool Moe Dee as a teenager, then fused the drum-machine snap of hip-hop with the vocal-group harmonies of classic R&B into what became known as new jack swing. As a member of Guy and later Blackstreet, and as the producer behind albums for Michael Jackson and Bobby Brown, he spent the late '80s and '90s rewiring the sound of American pop-R&B around his own syncopated drum patterns. Almost every R&B hit with a hip-hop backbone released since owes something to the template he built.
the sound in question
1996
No DiggityTeddy Riley
walk the tributaries ↓
James Brown1960s–70s · Funk / Soul / R&B
Riley has described dreaming up new jack swing as an attempt to fuse James Brown's rhythmic snap with Michael Jackson's pop instincts — "the essence of their music" pushed through a drum machine.
listen: upstream & here
1965
I Got You (I Feel Good)James Brown
1996
No DiggityTeddy Riley
listen forThe hard-snapping snare and syncopated backbeat driving Riley's tracks is James Brown's funk pocket, chopped and quantized for the drum-machine era.
George Clinton1970s · Funk / Psychedelic soul / R&B
Riley has said he studied the soulful funk of George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic on his way to building new jack swing, folding P-Funk's rubbery low end into his drum-machine tracks.
listen: upstream & here
1977
Flash LightGeorge Clinton
1988
Groove MeTeddy Riley
listen forThe elastic, bottom-heavy bass groove under Riley's tightest productions is the P-Funk low end run through a drum machine.
Prince1980s · Funk / Pop / R&B / Rock
Riley cited Prince among the artists whose genre-blurring musicianship he absorbed and folded into new jack swing's mix of hip-hop rhythm and R&B melody.
listen: upstream & here
1984
When Doves CryPrince
1988
Piece of My LoveTeddy Riley
listen forThe falsetto vocal runs and minimal, synth-forward arrangements behind Riley's productions carry Prince's after-hours, one-man-band intimacy.