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People's Choice #68: New Jack Swing

This Week's Theme: New Jack Swing

Next Week's Theme: Open (any artist, any genre)

Songs covered this week, in order:
• Hi-Five – “I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)”
• Bell Biv DeVoe – “Poison”
• Guy – “Groove Me”
• Janet Jackson – “Rhythm Nation”
• Bobby Brown – “Every Little Step”
• Keith Sweat – “I Want Her”
• Michael Jackson – “Remember the Time”
• Bruno Mars, Cardi B – “Finesse – Remix”

➡️ People's Choice Spotify Playlist

➡️ Entire People's Choice Catalogue

People's Choice #68: New Jack Swing

Comments

Replacing Ja Rule with 50 is hilarious since they have one of the biggest rap beefs 😂

KBG

Yall gotta watch the video to Micheal Jackson-remember the time. It mandatory you’ll gone love it

MarQuelle Johnson

Teddy Riley put the Neptunes (Pharrell, Chad Hugo, and Shane) on the scene. They were kinda like his apprentices. Bell Biv ,Devoe were in the group New Edition along with Bobby Brown. Lastly, you guys should really check out the video "Do you Remember the Time" by Michael Jackson. The video was a major deal when it was released. Naomi Campbell and Eddie Murphy were in the video as well. It was shot back when artist would spend millions of dollars on videos, it's really dope! Great job guys!

Jay Miller

Great review on all songs! New Jack Swing is one of my favorite genres . I think you all should check out more Xscape! PC #69 Xscape - Tonight All the women have a verse and the song will leave you in awe especially with that strong bass line😉

EazyBadmon

PC: 69 - Street Dreams (Remix) - Nas Ft R. Kelly

Arinesha Jackson

PC # 69-Two southern sub genres Too Long-King George (Southern Soul/Blues) Hold On or Gimme All Your Love-Alabama Shakes (Southern Rock)

Precious

That's what I came here to say!

Earlona Weary

Hope you enjoyed it, Shaquea! (Kai)

The FrontRoom

Thanks Teesa! (Kai)

The FrontRoom

Speaking of Michael & Janet.. Would love a video reaction to their duet Scream. It’s one of the most expensive videos ever made and a very competitive dynamic to their collaboration-more on Micheal’s side….. maybe a family collabs or family bands/groups PC theme??

Precious

Great episode! I’ll reiterate many others-def. have to check out the videos for ‘Rhythm Nation’ and ‘Do You Remember the Time’

Precious

Next week I suggest - I'll Die by Floetry or Sometimes You Make Me Smile also by Floetry

Carla Davis

Would you agree that we left the Teddy Riley period and went into the Diddy/Dre period? Then after that it was Timberland period.

Carla Davis

I was thinking the same thing about the videos. A big part of New Jack Swing was the dancing, and all of these videos show that.

Carla Davis

Teddy Riley is actually in the group "Guy". You guys listen to a song by them on this video called groove me

Joshua Taylor

PC you guys should do a list of songs where you can feel the person's emotions. I'll give you one to start with. Donny Hathaway - giving up

Joshua Taylor

Yes, my fav album of hers for me

Simira

I lover her. My fav song from her is “Passion”.

Simira

Great episode. Yall really should watch the vids for “Rhythm Nation”, “Every Little Step” and “Remember The Time”. Iconic music videos and choreography. PC 69: Tame Impala “One More Hour Or Sinner’s Movie Sountrack “Last Time I Seen The Sun”.

Simira

PC 69: Murs & 9th Wonder "Walk Like A Man"

90s Rap Tee

PC 69: Donny Hathaway - A Song for You

Adrienne

😂

TheKitt’sPajamas

💯🔥🔥🔥

TheKitt’sPajamas

Yep you forgot Chris Rock, Allen Payne, Michael Michelle, and Tracy Camilla Johns (aka Nola Darling aka Kelly Rowland’s twin 😂).

TheKitt’sPajamas

Did we just become best friends???? Girl whatchu know about Sometimes???? Also, have you heard When Will You Call, Cosmic Journey, and All Matter???

TheKitt’sPajamas

🔥🔥🥰

TheKitt’sPajamas

🔥🔥🥰

TheKitt’sPajamas

PC 69 Alicia Keys - Diary For the theme poll I suggested "Rent Was Due" and specifically had this song in mind. I don't know if y'all are prepared for this song.

ficy

Don trip & Starlito -still lost /Cee lo Green -country love

Jr Rick

PC69: Doggy Dog World - Snoop Dogg (1993) Bobby Womack - Woman’s gotta have it (1972)

Anthony Mendoza

PC 69: Kendrick Lamar GNX album

Marco

Sublime - April 29, 1992.. about the LA riots

Anesa D

Pc #69 Beyonce I Care Live

Nurse Tucker

PC 69: The Head and the Heart "Rivers and Roads"

Tnulb

PC#69 B.A.P - Wake Me Up(y'all said any genre :D, pull up the translated lyrics) a great song, one of my all time favorites for life

ERIK

PC#69: 702 - Steelo featuring Missy Elliott

Robin

PC 69: Sometimes by Bilal

Jen M

PC 69: Treat 'Em Right by Chubb Rock

Caeldo

The movie New Jack City is great to watch if you want to get a feel for the genre at that time, but you also have to like gangster-style movies. Wesley Snipes is in there, Keith Sweat, Christopher Williams, Vanessa Williams, Lavert, Ice-T. I may be missing someone. It’s not a musical by any stretch of the imagination, but it did help put New Jack Swing on the map.

Jen M

I highly recommend you guys listen to the entire 24k Magic album by Bruno. He pays great homage to 70s/80s/90s R&B in a great way

SlumpJones

For Bobbys “Every Little Step”, a good portion of the vocals were actually done by New Edition bandmate, Ralph Tresvant. Bobby was doing “Bobby Things” and the song needed to get finished.

SlumpJones

New Jack Swing was actually a sub-genre of r&b. Almost every r&b artist during the late 80s/early 90s had at least one new jack swing song, including Whitney, Mariah, Boys II Men and even Toni Braxton. By the mid 90s, NJS fell out of favour with the youth and was replaced by a newer style of hip hop (Tupac/ Biggie etc) and modern r&b.

cupcake

Song suggestion for next week is Hopeless by Dionne Farris. She's the singer that was featured on the Arrested Development song, Tennessee.

Ruben Reyes

Great video! For an album reaction, I actually think Bruno's 24K Magic would be great to do at some point. Finesse is the more new jack swing inspired track, but the whole album is heavily inspired by old school r&b sounds.

Raven

PC# 69: Brandy- It’s Not Worth It Aaliyah - It’s Whatever Amel Larrieux - For Real

TheKitt’sPajamas

Rhythm Nation is a socially conscious album. One of the songs has snippets from a school shooting and this was before school shootings were an epidemic in the U.S. I think you guys should listen to the whole album in your spare time. It's one of my favorite Janet Jackson albums.

Robin

They did a great job. The Bruno Mars was the cherry on top! I had never heard that one.

Jen M

NOBODY begs like Keith Sweat! 😂

TheKitt’sPajamas

😂

TheKitt’sPajamas

Hey, thank you for choosing my suggestion, I Want Her. I love this sub-genre so much. If you listen to enough of these songs you simply want to get up and start jamming! Keith Sweat is more known as a crooner, singing ballads and such. An ongoing theme with his music, that is often joked about is that he’s a “whiner”. 😂 Maybe that’s the unique thing about his voice you picked up on. 😂 Sorry for all my comments…I just really like this theme!

Jen M

I recommend Informer by Snow. He is canadian and half the words in the song are made up.

Nasim

Love all of your bullet points! Was cracking up when Dad asked about Janet’s dancing and Kai was like, “I think she’s pretty good” 🙂 I’m screaming, “one of the best!!!” 😂

Jen M

Yes, definitely need to watch the video for Remember the Time and Rhythm Nation. Both have iconic dance breaks!

Raven

Yeeeeesssss!!!! I feel like Remember The Time, Rhythm Nation, Scream, Alright (extended version), and Miss You Much (extended) videos are MJ and Janet MUST sees at some point!

TheKitt’sPajamas

💯💯💯😂🙌🏽

TheKitt’sPajamas

Some fun facts… • Poison is an EXTREMELY popular song. To this day the first few seconds of the song gets the party started. • You wouldn’t have caught it but at the end of Poison they shoutout each of their fellow New Edition group members by name, including Bobby Brown. • Teddy Riley is actually a member, not just the producer, of the group Guy along with brothers Aaron (lead singer) and Damien Hall. • Yes you’re correct, a lot of New Jack Swing (ESPECIALLY Janet’s songs) included really long beat breaks literally just for the dancers. Rhythm Nation, Remember The Time, and also MJ’s song Jam (from Space Jam soundtrack produced by Teddy) are great examples of that. In fact Rhythm Nation is objectively one of the most famous pieces of choreography, as well as the Remember The Time and Jam choreography. So many different pop girls have recreated (in some form) the Rhythm Nation video/choreography and many other of Janet’s choreo (like Pleasure Principle). They even did Rhythm Nation in the live action Beauty and the Beast movie. •Yes some of Whitney’s hits are New Jack Swing. For example, I’m Your Baby Tonight produced by Babyface. • Late 80s/early 90s r&b/hip hop was absolutely RAN by Teddy, Babyface, and the legendary duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Mid/late 90s ushered in the blessing that is Rodney Jerkins (who also produced some great New Jack Swing tracks). • MJ looooved Teddy, Rodney, and Jimmy Jam & Terry. Teddy and Jimmy Jam/Terry had a heavy hand in his Dangerous album. Teddy and Rodney had a heavy hand in his Invincible album. Both Janet and MJ loved Jimmy Jam & Terry’s music so much that they chose them to produce the ONLY song they did together, Scream. MJ loved Rodney’s music so much that when Rodney was working with Brandy on her legendary Full Moon album MJ came in their studio session and recorded some bg vocals for her song It’s Not Worth It just for the love of it and the culture. • Teddy was in two iconic groups, Guy and Blackstreet (who sings the SUPER famous song No Diggity). • A 6 degrees fun fact… In 1997 Keith Sweat linked up with Gerald Levert (son of The O’Jays powerful vocal legend Eddie Levert) and Johnny Gill to form their r&b group, LSG (LevertSweatGill). Johnny was also a member of New Edition who had hits produced by Jimmy Jam/Terry and Babyface. From the 80s to the 2000s Babyface and Jimmy Jam/Terry had a serious but fun producer rivalry. The duo and Babyface respectively were killing the game and used to compete with each other for the biggest hit in just about every genre including r&b/hip hop, r&b, Minneapolis funk/rock, pop, light fm… everything lol. Including New Jack Swing created by Teddy who produced a lot of Keith Sweat. …sorry for the length of this comment. 🫣🤦🏽‍♀️😅 It’s just that talking about music is my favorite thing to do. ♥️

TheKitt’sPajamas

You guys need to watch the Remember the Time music video. One of the best videos of all time!

Sky

Thank you so much for saying this. I was just about to comment this.

Arianne Thompson

Kai: “People today are just different!” True. They wanna do TikTok dances and twerk. You’re right. Like I wanna show this episode to my teenage sons, but they’re probably just gonna stare at me like I’m crazy. 🤪

Jen M

Dad: “poisonous people of the opposite sex!” Thanks, Dad for not saying “females”. I would’ve totally cringed. Lol! 👏🏾

Jen M

Thanks so much for picking my Michael Jackson suggestion! This whole episode was so fun! ♥️

TheKitt’sPajamas

People’s choice themed New Edition that incorporates the whole realm of New Edition would be AMAZING! From NE to solo Bobby to solo Ralph to solo Johnny to BBD to Boyz II Men….

TheKitt’sPajamas

From 88-92, people didn't call New Jack Swing music anything. The phrase "New Jack" was a New York thing already but Teddy Riley applied it to this sound. Now it's all being listened to and later labeled. Just like "Blue Eyed Soul". People never listened to Michael McDonald or Darryl Hall and went "Hey this is "Blue Eyed Soul". People only cared about the sound and honestly didn't care who produced it or what the producer called his music. (Like "New Jack Swing?......I like it!...Whatever man, now play another one so I can dance!")

Smitty Benzo

PC 69: Luther by Kendrick Lamar ft. SZA

Brenda T.

Pc69: lil Jon and the east boys oh na na naa naa

Jr Rick

Everything Teddy Riley produces isn't New Jack Swing. Hi Five's The Kissing Game is an example. Its actually R&B Pop. BBD,s "Poison" is produced by The Bomb Squad, who produced Public Enemy and Ice Cube's 1st solo project. Poison is definitely New Jack Swing though. A good indicator of New Jack Swing is the incorporation of some form of Hip Hop. Michael Jackson's "Remember The Time" is R&B Pop.

Smitty Benzo

PC69: Tom Mish - Water Baby Jamiroquai - Alright

djhyjak

Bell Biv Devoe & Bobby Brown were all apart of New Edition, you could do a whole special on that group it's self.

djhyjak

Keith Sweat famously has a lisp. I never thought about how it affects her singing, but I wonder if that's what y'all were hearing. BBD consists of Ronnie Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie Devoe from New Edition. They had a song called "Boys to Men" and that's where the group Boyz II Men got their name. The groups also signed with Michael Bivins when he started a label. Also the movie New Jack City (Wesley Snipes, Ice -T, Chris Rock) came out in 91 and the whole soundtrack was New Jack Swing.

ficy

My suggestion for PC69 is Mariah Carey Vision of Love. Also do yourself a favor and watch the Remember The Time video. You have too. Micheal Jackson's 90's videos are iconic. I remember we used to make sure we were home when his new videos would air primetime on TV. Can you do a reaction to the video? Rhythm Nation too! I always thought this video showed all of her skills well. New Jack Swing tracks are often dance tracks.

Shaquea White

Janet Jackson is an incredible dancer. Her performance style laid the foundation for all of the best overall female performers behind her. Beyonce, Ciara, Britney Spears, and so many other singer/dancers. The long breakdown sections in her songs also serve as dance breaks in her performances.

LB CaliMommy

Teddy Riley is legendary and was apart of the groups Guy and Blackstreet. Such a good time! Bell Biv Devoe were three guys that were apart of New Edition... they formed a group when NE broke up. Some fun facts. Great video

Teesa Lee

Omg! I'm looking forward to this!

Shaquea White

New jack swing took over my late elementary years through high school, this was so nostalgic for me. It's hard to encapsulate that sound in 8 tracks but you got as close as you can get. Great one guys!

jeff baker


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