Poison
Bell Biv DeVoe's debut single
After having a spirited chat with B Mays in the comments the other day, I mentioned New Jack Swing. It started in the late 80s as a fusion of R&B and Hip Hop, pioneered by Teddy Riley. The name comes from a Village Voice article interviewing Riley. "New Jack" was a slang term meaning 'Johnny-come-lately', and "swing" was intended to draw a line between “the music played at the speakeasies of F. Scott Fitzgerald's time to the crackhouses of Teddy Riley's time."
This song is a great example of the style. It was written by Dr Freeze1 who had intended to record it himself as it was a personal love letter to his ex-girlfriend.2 The group heard the demo and went crazy for it so he produced it for them instead. He cited Kraftwerk, Tito Puente, and Mongo Santamaria as influences for the sound. The video looks like a typical hip hop vid - women in high heels and tight dresses, dance moves, hip hop streetwear, and the group playing basketball.
Enjoy your song of the day!
Real name Elliot Straite
Not cool, Dr Freeze. Not cool.
On another note, I’ve started a new weekly playlist series that you might be interested in. There will be liberal helpings of Canadian music as the parameter for my playlist is albums that used to be in my physical CD collection, many of which were acquired when I was in Halifax for university. Here’s the latest installment: https://open.substack.com/pub/joyinthejourney/p/alphabet-soup-week-03-artists-filed
This was such a jam back in the day!! Still sounds pretty good to me (perhaps me just waxing nostalgically)