Week 5: New Jack Swing

We live in a world where hip hop and R&B are virtually synonymous—every 'urban' format radio station advertises themselves as playing "the hottest Hip-Hop and R&B", and most popular rap tunes have syrupy R&B-style sung hooks from guest vocalists. This all seems fairly unremarkable to us today, but nothing would've seemed stranger to rap fans 20 years ago. Make no mistake, hip hop and R&B were diametrically opposed musical philosophies in the 1980s; R&B was smooth music for adult contemporary stations, and rappers were young underground revolutionaries who spent a lot of time criticizing R&B for being "soft" or "commercial" or whatever.
Then along came record producer Teddy Riley, the guy behind Blackstreet, Guy, and Wreckx-N-Effect. He aimed to create a fusion of these two deeply different sounds, and his new sound (dubbed "New Jack Swing" by Above The Rim / New Jack City screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper) became the dominant urban sound of the late-80s/early-90s, making Riley the Timbaland or Neptunes or Kanye (or whoever) of his era.
This isn't to say that he was the only person with this idea: L.A. Reid & Babyface were doing pretty much the same thing at the same time, as were Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and (to a lesser extent) Dallas Austin. All things told, these four production houses account for over half the tracks in this mix (for the nerds, I'll post a who-did-what in the comments). You also had the whole New Edition contingent and their underlings (Bell Biv DeVoe / Bobby Brown / Ralph Tresvant / Johnny Gill / Boyz II Men / Another Bad Creation), although their production credits were still pretty limited in this era.
Anyway, this sound is basically R&B vocals over a swingy style of golden era hip-hop production—tons of samples, corny PCM drum machines, lots of that classic Technotronic-style DX7 bass, big dopey snare fills, and everything is super-shuffley and bouncey. And I love it.
So when KyleKlip requested a New Jack Swing mixtape for the blog, I got excited. I've whipped up what I believe to be the definitive New Jack Swing tape—I've shoehorned all my faves in here, and I don't think there's anything missing (although I am sure the comments section will prove me wrong soon enough). Before you say it: I left "My Prerogative" off on purpose. Three Bobby Brown tracks (for a total of six Ex-New-Edition tracks) is enough for one mixtape. Enjoy!

Chrissy's Year of Mixtapes Week 5: New Jack Swing.

1. Jade; Don't Walk Away
2. Hi-Five; I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)
3. Al B. Sure!; Nite & Day
4. Ralph Tresvant; Sensitivity
5. Soul II Soul; Keep On Movin' (Teddy Riley's Rubba Dub)
6. Bobby Brown; Every Little Step
7. Color Me Badd; I Wanna Sex You Up
8. Tony! Toni! Toné!; If I Had No Loot
9. TLC; What About Your Friends
10. Pebbles; Giving You The Benefit
11. Bobby Brown; Humpin' Around
12. Salt N Pepa; Expression
13. Bell Biv DeVoe; Do Me!
14. Keith Sweat; I Want Her
15. Christopher Williams; I'm Dreamin
16. Guy; Groove Me
17. Bobby Brown; On Our Own
18. Tevin Campbell; Round & Round
19. Wreckx-N-Effect; New Jack Swing
20. TLC; Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg (Remix)
21. Michael Jackson; Remember The Time (RIP HOMIE)
    
22. Hi-Five; I Just Can't Handle It
23. Boyz II Men; MotownPhilly
24. Another Bad Creation; Iesha
25. Bell Biv DeVoe; Poison (Remix)
26. Kid N Play; Funhouse (The House We Dance In)
27. Chubb Rock; Treat 'Em Right
28. Tony! Toni! Toné!; Feels Good (Remix)
29. Johnny Gill; Rub You The Right Way
30. Babyface; It's No Crime
31. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince; Ring My Bell
32. MC Brains; Oochie Coochie
33. Redhead Kingpin & The F.B.I.; Pump It Hottie
34. Bubba; I Like Your Style
35. Basic Black; Whatever It Takes
36. Johnny Kemp; Just Got Paid
37. R. Kelly & Public Announcement; She's Got That Vibe
    

Week 4: Toponyms

Ever since I was little, I've been fascinated by toponyms (which is really just a fancy-schmancy word for place names). Most placenames, when you dig into their origins, reveal a little something about the history of the place itself, and this thrills me to no end. I realize this is hopelessly nerdy, and I'm ok with that.

A lot of places (perhaps most, even) are just named after prominent geographical features: Mesopotamia (Greek for "the land between two rivers"—namely the Tigris & Euphrates), Amsterdam (the dam on the Amstel river), as well as Chicago, the Maghreb, Rio de Janeiro, Waterloo, Copenhagen, & Detroit. A sizable chunk of toponyms (especially on my side of the globe) are rip-offs—names taken from Native American tribes, or from pre-existing places: Miami, Philadelphia, Kansas City, New York, Kingston, etc.

If you're lucky, you might get a place named after you (like Italian cartographer Amerigo Vespucci or early New Amsterdam landholder Jonas 'Boogie Down' Bronck.) It helps to be a saint, or a monarch, or both (StL represent!)
If you can't manage to get a city named after yourself, a nice consolation prize might be getting a city named after a company you run: Atlanta isn't named after Atlantis or the Atlantic Ocean—it's namesake is the Western & Atlantic Railroad. It may not be the noblest of origins, but it's catchier than "Coke-Town".

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here is a mixtape stuffed with tunes about places and travel and hood-repping and all that great stuff, with toponyms in the title of each. I've purposefully avoided Frank Sinatra, as I don't much care for him. If you want to hear "New York, New York" or "My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)", feel free to line 'em up after this mix in Winamp or whatever the kids use these days.

Chrissy's Year of Mixtapes Week 4: Toponyms

1. Will Smith; Miami
   
2. B.B. King; Philadelphia
   
3. Juggy Jones; Inside America
   
4. The B-52s; Mesopotamia
   
5. The Budos Band; Chicago Falcon (The Washington Sq. Lads & Mark Ronson Remix)
   
6. Hubert Laws; The Chicago Theme (Love Loop)
   
7. Tommy Wills, Man With A Horn; K.C. Drive
   
8. Luis Enriquez & His Orchestra; Rendezvous In Rome
   
9. Peter & Paul Lewis; Ethiopian Land
   
10. Two Man Sound; Que Tal America
11. Calypso Rose; Kingston Breakdown
12. Zoo Brazil; Tokyo
    
13. Fierce Ruling Diva; Amsterdam Slide
    
14. Jermaine Dupri & Ludacris; Welcome To Atlanta
    
15. Jermaine Dupri; Welcome To Atlanta (Coast 2 Coast Remix feat. Diddy, Murphy Lee, & Snoop Dogg)
    
16. 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman; California Love (Remix)
    
17. The Main Ingredient; California My Way
18. Kool & The Gang; Hollywood Swinging
    
19. Atki2; Vietnam
    
20. Cesaria Evora; Angola (Carl Craig Remix)
21. Man Parrish feat. Freeze Force; Boogie Down Bronx
    
22. Kraftwerk; Trans Europe Express
    
23. Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto; Trans Europe Express
    
24. Serge Gainsbourg; New York, USA
25. Mateo & Matos; New York Style
    
26. Ray Mang; Praia do Londres
    
27. DJ Mark Flash; São Paulo
    
28. Monkey Steak; Maghreb
    
29. James Braun; Oi World This Is Copenhagen
    
30. Van Halen; Panama
31. Siouxsie & The Banshees; Hong Kong Garden
32. Telex; Tour De France
    
33. ABBA; Waterloo
34. Affairs Of The Heart; Waterloo Sunset
35. Duran Duran; Rio
36. DJ Marquis; D/E/T/R/O/I/T
37. 313 Bass Mechanics; D.E.T.
38. DJ Nasty; In The D
39. DJ Chip; Streets Of The Chi
40. Kim Wilde; Kids In America
41. Ultravox; Vienna
    

NEXT WEEK: New Jack Swing.

Week 3: Bleep Tape

So this week I've got a mixtape of Bleep, which was a genre from the north of England that existed / was fashionable for a (very) brief period in the early nineties. It was one of Britian's first attempts at a homegrown style of electronic dance music (i.e. something that wasn't directly ripping off Chicagoan acid house tunes), and perhaps the best way to describe it is as a mixture of Detroit Techno and Britain's own West-Indies-derived love of all things bass-heavy. This brief moment in dance history is also notable for being where the whole Warp Records/LFO/Designers Republic/Nightmares On Wax/Aphex/Baby Ford scene grew out of.

Chrissy's Year of Mixtapes Week 3: Bleep

1. Forgemasters; Stress (Network)
2. Cyclone; Internal Memory (Network)
3. Nightmares On Wax; I'm For Real (Warp)
4. Tricky Disco; Tricky Disco (Warp)
   
5. The Art of Noise; Catwalk (The Ground Mix) (China)
6. Baby Ford; Blow Back (Insumision)
7. Tomas; Mind Song (Warp)
8. Tuff Little Unit; Join The Future (Warp)
9. Juno; Soul Thunder (Bassic)
10. LFO; Love Is The Message (Beware Of The Bass Remix) (Tommy Boy)
11. Too Critical; Tension (white)
12. Rhythmatic; Take Me Back (Let's Go Back) (Network)
13. The Boys From Chariss; Computer Boom (white)
14. The Step; Yeah You (Robert's Mix) (Warp)
15. Sweet Exorcist; Clonk (Warp)
16. Xon; Dissonance (Network)
17. N-Joi; Techno Gangsters (DeConstruction)
18. CoCo Steel & Lovebomb; Feel It (Warp)
19. Cyclone; Stream (Network)
20. Forgemasters; Pump Me (Network)
21. Nightmares On Wax; Aftermath (LFO Remix) (Warp)
22. LFO; LFO (Remix) (Warp)
23. Sweet Exorcist; Psych Jack (Warp)

NEXT WEEK: Toponyms.

Week 2: Robot Love

So it turns out that, as a collector of disco, techno, electro, and a lot of other genres dealing with a lot of robotic futurey sci-fi themes, I own about a bajillion records dealing with robots and love: machines in love with machines, machines in love with people (and vice versa), machinery as a metaphor for human love, etc.
Some deal almost exclusively with the subject, some only tangentially mention it; some are really good, some are pretty regrettable. Here's a whole bunch of 'em.

Chrissy's Year of Mixtapes Week 2: Robot Love

1. Reggie Griffin & Technofunk; Mirda Rock (Sweet Mountain)
2. Midnight Star; Freak-A-Zoid (Solar)
3. Thomas Dolby; She Blinded Me With Science (Capitol)
4. James Brown; Sex Machine (Polydor)
5. The Pointer Sisters; Automatic (12" Mix) (RCA)
6. Black Gold; C'Mon Stop (Prelude)
   
7. Yello; Bostitch (Stiff)
8. Alexander Robotnick; Problémes D'amour (Chrissy Re-Edit) (Fuzz Dance)
9. Dee D. Jackson; Automatic Lover (12" Version) (Jupiter)
10. Kraftwerk; Computer Love (Remix) (Kling Klang)
11. Munich Machine; In Love With Love (Casablanca)
12. Lime; My Love (12" Version) (Matra)
13. The Other People Place; Eye Contact (Warp)
14. R. Kelly / Sportin' Life; Ignition / This Dance (Chrissy Blend) (Jive / Warp)
15. Lime; On The Grid (Canadian Mix) (Matra)
16. Diebold & Cataluna; Sex Technology (Megatone)
17. Jo-Carol; You Turn Me On (Chrissy Re-Edit) (Megatone)
18. The Miracles; Love Machine (Tamla)
    

NEXT WEEK: Bleep.