For people just discovering New Jack Swing music, what albums or songs would you recommend they check out?
B. Belle: Certainly Keith Sweat’s first album, and definitely Guy’s first album, which is the landmark recording for New Jack Swing. If you looked up “new jack swing” in the dictionary, it should have a picture of Guy’s first album because I think that is the perfect representation of what New Jack Swing is. That album was so special, we toured for two years between ’88 and ’90 off of just that one album. Njs4ever: Would you say there were other people who were able to emulate NJS based on your source material? B. Belle: To be honest, everyone else who did New Jack Swing – in my opinion – was like a strong Pepsi with a bunch of ice that sat on the counter while the ice weakened the Pepsi. If we weren’t doing it, it just wasn’t as hard, and it just wasn’t as gritty. You could always tell one of Teddy’s productions – if Teddy did it, you would know. And I think one of the closest producers that can come to that today is Timbaland. You definitely know a Timbaland track when you hear it. Y
