It’s difficult to measure the weight of Teddy Riley’s influence on urban music, but it’s obvious that during the decade beginning in the late 1980s, the sound he created—New Jack Swing—was really the only way to create a hit in the world of pop R&B. Riley strung together so many hits (Johnny Kemp’s “Just Got Paid,” Keith Sweat’s “Make It Last Forever,” Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative,” and Guy’s “I Like,” just to name a few) and spawned so many artists and groups ready to mimic his style, even the King of Pop came calling for his services, and Riley obliged, working on Michael Jackson’s Dangerous and Invincible albums.
On Sunday, November 6, Riley will accept the Legend Award at the Soul Train Music Awards at the Orleans Arena. We spoke with the 49-year-old producer, performer and songwriter about the roots of New Jack Swing, how his sound is still present today and his plans to tour.
How much does this Soul Train award mean? It means a lot. It’s an accomplishment. I’m just very thankful and honored to still be around because nobody lasts this long. There are not a lot that last this long, 35 years now. It’s a beautiful thing.
You are still performing and writing and working with different artists, so does it feel strange to receive an award like this that kind of forces you to look back at what you’ve accomplished? It does feel strange, a little, getting an award because sometimes you get overlooked in this business. I find it hard to overlook what I’ve done, setting up in a genre like this, because there’s really only one person [credited] with doing this. Everyone started gravitating to this sound, people like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Babyface and L.A. [Reid], and all these artists started doing their version of New Jack Swing. Even Quincy [Jones] tried it with the Back on the Block record. This sound cultivated the market and the culture of music. And then you had boy bands that were doing it later on, New Kids on the Block and N’Sync and Backstreet Boys. Those were all New Jack Swing songs. Look at Bruno Mars today, he’s doing it with funk. It’s all coming back.
The new Bruno Mars song doesn’t even sound like an update on that era, it sounds like it’s straight out of that era. It might as well be a Zapp & Roger song. Yeah it is!
You’ve said in the past that New Jack Swing was at first a combination of singing and rapping, but that doesn’t really sum it up musically. What do you think defines it, and what guided you in that direction? Really, when I first started, I always wanted to see artists collaborate that we’ve never seen before. Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson. Al Green and James Brown. I took those styles of music, learned them, and put them together with others. Gladys Knight to Diana Ross to Barry White. New Jack Swing was always a mixture of sounds and styles, R&B married to disco, club married to gospel.
Some of the people that you influenced and really kind of groomed have become the most successful producers in the business and are now influencing and grooming a whole new generation. Is that a strange phenomenon? No, because you hope that happens, and I knew, with people like Pharrell [Williams] and Rodney Jerkins that came up under me, I knew if they could stay focused they’d [be successful]. You know, focus when you’ve seen the bottom. That’s me all day. I’ve seen the bottom and I know how to get focused and make wonders happen, and I think that’s what happened with Pharrell. People counted him out and he came back just off “Happy” alone. That was like how “No Diggity” took me there. I know there is always room for new innovative architects and producers.
What do you think of your genre today, pop music that is kind of mixed up with R&B, dance music and hip-hop? I think the most diplomatic way to say it is that it’s watered down. Everyone is doing the same thing. There’s no creativity there, no direction saying “Let’s try something else.” That’s my observation on music today is that people are not really being creative out there like back in the '90s. Back then nobody wanted to sound like anybody else. Even with me, everybody had their own interpretation of New Jack Swing and they did it well. That’s why that music is actually coming back around. A guy like Bruno Mars, he found his lane and he ran with it. The Weeknd really came with another sound. But if you look at a song like “No Diggity,” that record is still selling more than a lot of artists dropping records today, and it’s 20 years old.
What? You’re telling me Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” is 20 years old? That’s what I’m telling you.
Of all the hits from your own groups, is that the most requested? No! This is crazy. I just got offered a tour—it’s such a crazy thing—and it’s really to do three songs. This will blow you away. It’s “Rump Shaker,” “No Diggity” and “Don’t Leave.” And to take you even further, on this tour the audience is not mostly black people. It’s whites and Koreans and Hispanics. I’m on the bill with Snap! and C&C Music Factory, and they come in and do just their hits and get off the stage. The '90s is coming back big time. I’m getting a lot of calls to work with artists that want that '90s style, and these are new artists. That really was the home of classics, the time of classics.
If I went to your show and you didn’t do any Guy songs, I would be disappointed. Broken-hearted. Well, you should come out because you will not be broken-hearted. I’ve got Aaron Hall [singer from Guy] and Dave Hollister [singer from Blackstreet] and we’re going to give you a taste.
Are you going to perform at Soul Train? Oh yeah. I don’t think they would let me out of there without doing something.
And you’ll be touring again soon? There’s a bit of a bidding war going on right now for the Teddy Riley and Friends tour. Everyone is going nuts to see the groups I’ve worked with and those artists from the New Jack Swing era on the same bill. The best part is the opportunity to build with new fans who have never seen us live before. I’ve done the I Love the '90s tour and that’s all about building new fans.
