This article was posted on MJJforum by JamJamMJsTheMan..
Thursday, 04 May 2006
Teddy Riley is a man who needs no introduction. Yep, yep, he’s the King of New Jack Swing, who’s innovative sound paved the way for many of today’s R&B artists. His work with the likes of Keith Sweat, Bobby Brown, Michael Jackson and his own groups Guy and Blackstreet have sold millions of copies worldwide. It has been 3 years since the last Blackstreet album, but they are back on the road along with Guy and have new albums in the works. We caught up with Teddy to talk plans for the future, Michael Jackson, Lil’ Man Records and protégés new and old.
Greg: Hi Teddy, welcome to Underground Soul and thank you for your time.
Teddy: Thank You for having me.
Greg: There has been a bit of a New Jack Swing revival lately. How has the tour with Blackstreet and Guy been going?
Teddy: Been going great man. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t be continuing, you know that! But it’s going really great man. I can’t even say you have your ups and downs because everything has been up for us. Selling out everywhere and it’s doing really good. I have no complaints and people are really happy when they walk away.
Greg: How many more dates have you got on the tour?
Teddy: You know what, I really don’t know about the dates all I know is we’re going somewhere about a week before. I don’t really keep up with the schedule; I just know we have a bunch of dates.
Greg: What’s next after the tour?
Teddy: I have to go work with Michael Jackson and I have to work on these Blackstreet and Guy albums. So I have a lot of things that need to be done. I put that off to do the tour, but now it’s time to really get to work so that we can stay out on the road. Because how long can we play our original stuff, our old stuff, without a record. People will get tired of that. Ok we heard the good stuff, now give us some more good. That’s what we’re trying to prepare for and if we wait too long it will be late next year. We want to try and get it out either late this year or the beginning of next year. For Blackstreet we are looking at late 4th quarter for our first single with a B Side of a Christmas song. For Guy we are trying to do the same thing. With Michael Jackson, if we could do a 4th quarter, which I doubt, it’ll happen. If not we’ll definitely do a 2nd quarter next year.
Greg: Are there other people working with Michael Jackson on his record or just yourself?
Teddy: There will be other people working on there but he’s looking at me doing some quarterbacking on the project. I’m probably the one who is gonna foresee this project going forward on the music technology production side getting everybody to finish their projects, and hopefully he designates me to be that quarterback.
Greg: I played all the tracks you did with Michael on “Dangerous” earlier. I feel they were way ahead of their time.
Teddy: That’s why it is still playing. It’s pretty much the way all of my music is made, even with Guy and Blackstreet. I kinda follow the Prince, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson formula — be ahead of your time so that your records are still playing years later.
Greg: Would you say the “Dangerous” album is one of your favourite projects?
Teddy: Yeah, it is one of my favourites along with Bobby Brown, Guy and Blackstreet.
Greg: I love your remix of “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love” by Jane Child.
Teddy: Yeah. That’s one of my favourites. Kept me in the business!
Greg: Which projects do you feel should have been bigger? I always felt that Bobby Brown’s “Bobby” album should have been huge.
Teddy: Yeah, the thing about the Bobby album is that they jerked me again on the first single, but it’s alright, everything happens for a reason. I felt like if they had put out “Getaway” or something smooth like “One More Night”, or “That’s The Way Love Is”, you know what I’m saying. “That’s The Way Love Is” should have been a leading single. That “Humpin’ Around” record didn’t make no sense. But that was the A&R’s that were in charge having favouritism of producers.
Greg: Are you going to be working with Bobby on his comeback?
Teddy: I don’t know. He’s sent a message through a few people that the only person he wants working on this album is Teddy Riley. But it is gonna be too late as I’m gonna be in Bahrain with Michael, Guy and Blackstreet with my writing and production team so it’s probably gonna be too late.
Greg: What label are these projects going to come out on?
Teddy: Can’t tell you yet! But Michael is pretty much with his bag of tricks. He’s always coming up with the greatest plans so I’m waiting for his word. (Ed: Since the interview it has been reported that Michael Jackson has signed an exclusive recording agreement with Bahrain-based Two Seas Records. The label is a joint venture between the Michael Jackson and Abdulla Hamad Al-Khalifa.)
Greg: So I take it that you are solely concentrating on those 3 projects right now then?
Teddy: Right, but I have groups that I am signing. I am trying to sign SWV, Silk, Next - all the new legends. I’m trying to sign them so that I can do a big phenomenal concert package on the road with my own tour support and these groups not having to worry about if they sell out tickets. If we take it overseas we can do 10,000 seaters with 5 groups - Next, Silk, SWV, Blackstreet, Guy - you know what I am saying. That would be a great ticket and with tour support they don’t have to worry about guarantees.
Greg: What is the current Blackstreet Line Up? There is yourself, Mark Middleton, Eric Williams and I hear you have a new member.
Teddy: Yeah, his name is Jay. We call him Brown (laughs) because he’s not Black he’s Brown. (Ed: In reference to founder member Chauncey “Black” Hannibal.)
Greg: Where did you find him?
Teddy: I actually met him a long time ago and he was in a duet group, him and his buddy, and when we were looking for a new member of Blackstreet he was on my mind and I said this is the cat that we need. I just put out an APB and we found him.
Greg: Are you still in touch with Chauncey at all?
Teddy: Yeah. I just spoke to Chauncey last week.
Greg: Any chance that he will be on the new record?
Teddy: Well he’s working on his new album. It should be out 3rd quarter, something like that.
Greg: So how would you differentiate between the sound of Blackstreet and Guy?
Teddy: Oh, it’s really different. I mean Guy is more of like the hyper New Jack Swing and Blackstreet is more like the smooth tone New Jack Swing.
Greg: A few years ago Aaron Hall was asked to define New Jack Swing. He said it was his voice and Teddy Riley’s music.
Teddy: That’s what it is! It is pretty much everyone who has contributed to New Jack Swing, their voice and my music. Bobby Brown’s voice, my music. Michael Jackson’s voice, my music.
Greg: So how would you define New Jack Swing?
Teddy: I always define it as the new kid on the block that is swinging it with Teddy Riley’s music.
Greg: You mentioned Quincy Jones, and I know he is a massive influence on you. I always wanted you to do that Quincy Jones style project. An album by Teddy Riley with both established and up and coming artists singing and you as the producer. The likes of Michael, Bobby Brown, Aaron Hall, Big Bub….
Teddy: There will be a time for that. It’s kinda like planning out the next 20 years of my career and there will definitely be a time for that. I just need to get everyone back together. Once I get everyone back together we’ll have another millennium version of “We Are The World” and a bunch of things. I have my composers and my scores and we are gonna do movies and TV projects. So just look forward to it.
Greg: It is also well documented that you nurtured the likes of The Neptunes and Rodney Jerkins. You must be proud of what they have achieved.
Teddy: I’m blessed and definitely proud. I’m proud of God blessing me with all the things that are happening for me. Because at one moment, just like everyone else, at certain moments you see that your career isn’t going in the direction that you want it to go in. But I kept God first and kinda preyed along the way and he steered it back and got it back on the road! That’s a great feeling, I’m really proud of him.
Greg: Talking about your career not going in the direction you wanted it to, let’s go back to the late 90’s with your Lil’ Man Record label on Interscope. Following on from the massive success of the 2nd Blackstreet album you looked all set to go with the label. The Queen Pen album was released but we never heard from your other artists 911, Mike E, Nutta Butta and David Miller for example. Was it your choice not to release those albums?
Teddy: I just thought that my career in that aspect was being held back. I was threshold, my label was threshold. It was basically people who didn’t believe in the next music. When I did Queen Pen it became successful with only a little bit of push, it did well. As a new label you gotta believe in your artists, and I always believed in my artists, but I didn’t have the backing.
Greg: You also had a deal with Virgin to do a solo project called, “Blackrock”. Why did that never see the light of day?
Teddy: Because my music man was gone, they let him go. He was the guy who believed in me. The rest of them didn’t understand the Blackrock concept, but they still went ahead and tried to put it out overseas and leak it so that I don’t use it anymore, which I wasn’t trying to do. Once I shut down a project it’s shut down, it’ll never come out, but Virgin went ahead and still leaked it and gave away whatever they could of what they had.
Greg: So you don’t really re-use tracks?
Teddy: No I never re-use tracks like that, unless somebody request that I remake… like NSync when I did “Just Got Paid” over, they asked for it and I did it.
Greg: “Look In The Water” on the last Blackstreet album was originally a Mike E song though wasn’t it?
Teddy: Yeah, it was a Mike E song that never came out. These guys really wanted it so I said let’s do it. There’s another song that I want to re-use for Blackstreet which is a song that Michael Jackson did called “Heaven Can Wait”.
Greg: Pharrell Williams co-wrote “Look In The Water” didn’t he and Mike E was originally part of the Neptunes. Were the Neptunes going to be a group with Mike E singing and Pharrell rapping?
Teddy: Yes it was, but Mike E pulled out of it, quit.
Greg: But you kept in touch and brought him back as a solo artist?
Teddy: Yeah, we always stay in touch. In fact Mike E just e-mailed me yesterday.
Greg: Any plans for you to ever collaborate with the Neptunes? I know Pharrell always speaks very highly of you.
Teddy: Well that would be on them. If they request it I’d do it. I’m there. Anytime they request of me to do something or be somewhere, I’m there. Just to support and be back-up, I’m always with following up and supporting the artists and producers I bring forth. But it’s really on them to do the same thing. I’ll leave that to the Neptunes.
Greg: So moving forward with your new projects are you looking for a label that will back you 100%?
Teddy: We have our backing; we have everything that we need to put these projects out ourselves. We’re just trying to do the last thing that our funders are looking for which is do our own distribution plan so that none of our records are threshold and we can put out and sell as many records as we want without them stopping the production.
Greg: Have you got any other hot young producers in your camp at the moment that you are excited about?
Teddy: I have a few producers that’s up and coming. We have a kid named Jason, we have a kid named J-Styles, a kid named J-Mathis, we have another kid that’s coming — he’s top secret. We’re right now in the middle of negotiating something and I don’t want to publicise his name. When he comes he’s a beast! We got definitely what we would call the next Neptunes.
Greg: Have you got any writers? You did some great work with legendary Leon Sylvers III.
Teddy: Those guys that I mentioned are writers as well. J-Styles and a few other people. Also people who came from the Blackstreet albums like Karen Anderson and Sheri Blair.
Greg: What happened to Tammy Lucas?
Teddy: She’s still around. She just recently sent me her love through a mutual friend of ours and if I call her she would definitely come and be on the project as well.
Greg: How is your Brother Markell and Aqil Davidson these days? (Ed: Markell Riley and Aqil Davidson made up the group Wreckx’N’Effect)
Teddy: My Brother is a family man now; he has his construction company and doing his thing in North Carolina. I haven’t heard from Aqil.
Greg: So no Wreckx’N’Effect reunion then?
Teddy: I don’t see it. I mean if it happens it happens but I don’t see it because my Brother is pretty much finished with the business. He’s comfortable and he can just live life. He’s pretty much finished with music.
Greg: Finally, if you had to pick one song from your massive catalogue which would it be?
Teddy: Erm…… “Remember The Time”!
Greg: Great song. Teddy, I hope that all your projects go well for you this year.
Teddy: I know, God Bless’, it will. So far I’m feeling it. I’m just trying to stay calm, get my rest when I need it and keep it moving. I’m just trying to stay on the same formula that I’ve been on. The hardest working underground man in the business!
Greg: Thank you very much again for your time.
Teddy: Thank You man. Take care.
http://www.underground-soul.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=275&Itemid=35
Hope things will go smoothly for Mick from now on
Thursday, 04 May 2006
Teddy Riley is a man who needs no introduction. Yep, yep, he’s the King of New Jack Swing, who’s innovative sound paved the way for many of today’s R&B artists. His work with the likes of Keith Sweat, Bobby Brown, Michael Jackson and his own groups Guy and Blackstreet have sold millions of copies worldwide. It has been 3 years since the last Blackstreet album, but they are back on the road along with Guy and have new albums in the works. We caught up with Teddy to talk plans for the future, Michael Jackson, Lil’ Man Records and protégés new and old.
Greg: Hi Teddy, welcome to Underground Soul and thank you for your time.
Teddy: Thank You for having me.
Greg: There has been a bit of a New Jack Swing revival lately. How has the tour with Blackstreet and Guy been going?
Teddy: Been going great man. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t be continuing, you know that! But it’s going really great man. I can’t even say you have your ups and downs because everything has been up for us. Selling out everywhere and it’s doing really good. I have no complaints and people are really happy when they walk away.
Greg: How many more dates have you got on the tour?
Teddy: You know what, I really don’t know about the dates all I know is we’re going somewhere about a week before. I don’t really keep up with the schedule; I just know we have a bunch of dates.
Greg: What’s next after the tour?
Teddy: I have to go work with Michael Jackson and I have to work on these Blackstreet and Guy albums. So I have a lot of things that need to be done. I put that off to do the tour, but now it’s time to really get to work so that we can stay out on the road. Because how long can we play our original stuff, our old stuff, without a record. People will get tired of that. Ok we heard the good stuff, now give us some more good. That’s what we’re trying to prepare for and if we wait too long it will be late next year. We want to try and get it out either late this year or the beginning of next year. For Blackstreet we are looking at late 4th quarter for our first single with a B Side of a Christmas song. For Guy we are trying to do the same thing. With Michael Jackson, if we could do a 4th quarter, which I doubt, it’ll happen. If not we’ll definitely do a 2nd quarter next year.
Greg: Are there other people working with Michael Jackson on his record or just yourself?
Teddy: There will be other people working on there but he’s looking at me doing some quarterbacking on the project. I’m probably the one who is gonna foresee this project going forward on the music technology production side getting everybody to finish their projects, and hopefully he designates me to be that quarterback.
Greg: I played all the tracks you did with Michael on “Dangerous” earlier. I feel they were way ahead of their time.
Teddy: That’s why it is still playing. It’s pretty much the way all of my music is made, even with Guy and Blackstreet. I kinda follow the Prince, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson formula — be ahead of your time so that your records are still playing years later.
Greg: Would you say the “Dangerous” album is one of your favourite projects?
Teddy: Yeah, it is one of my favourites along with Bobby Brown, Guy and Blackstreet.
Greg: I love your remix of “I Don’t Wanna Fall In Love” by Jane Child.
Teddy: Yeah. That’s one of my favourites. Kept me in the business!
Greg: Which projects do you feel should have been bigger? I always felt that Bobby Brown’s “Bobby” album should have been huge.
Teddy: Yeah, the thing about the Bobby album is that they jerked me again on the first single, but it’s alright, everything happens for a reason. I felt like if they had put out “Getaway” or something smooth like “One More Night”, or “That’s The Way Love Is”, you know what I’m saying. “That’s The Way Love Is” should have been a leading single. That “Humpin’ Around” record didn’t make no sense. But that was the A&R’s that were in charge having favouritism of producers.
Greg: Are you going to be working with Bobby on his comeback?
Teddy: I don’t know. He’s sent a message through a few people that the only person he wants working on this album is Teddy Riley. But it is gonna be too late as I’m gonna be in Bahrain with Michael, Guy and Blackstreet with my writing and production team so it’s probably gonna be too late.
Greg: What label are these projects going to come out on?
Teddy: Can’t tell you yet! But Michael is pretty much with his bag of tricks. He’s always coming up with the greatest plans so I’m waiting for his word. (Ed: Since the interview it has been reported that Michael Jackson has signed an exclusive recording agreement with Bahrain-based Two Seas Records. The label is a joint venture between the Michael Jackson and Abdulla Hamad Al-Khalifa.)
Greg: So I take it that you are solely concentrating on those 3 projects right now then?
Teddy: Right, but I have groups that I am signing. I am trying to sign SWV, Silk, Next - all the new legends. I’m trying to sign them so that I can do a big phenomenal concert package on the road with my own tour support and these groups not having to worry about if they sell out tickets. If we take it overseas we can do 10,000 seaters with 5 groups - Next, Silk, SWV, Blackstreet, Guy - you know what I am saying. That would be a great ticket and with tour support they don’t have to worry about guarantees.
Greg: What is the current Blackstreet Line Up? There is yourself, Mark Middleton, Eric Williams and I hear you have a new member.
Teddy: Yeah, his name is Jay. We call him Brown (laughs) because he’s not Black he’s Brown. (Ed: In reference to founder member Chauncey “Black” Hannibal.)
Greg: Where did you find him?
Teddy: I actually met him a long time ago and he was in a duet group, him and his buddy, and when we were looking for a new member of Blackstreet he was on my mind and I said this is the cat that we need. I just put out an APB and we found him.
Greg: Are you still in touch with Chauncey at all?
Teddy: Yeah. I just spoke to Chauncey last week.
Greg: Any chance that he will be on the new record?
Teddy: Well he’s working on his new album. It should be out 3rd quarter, something like that.
Greg: So how would you differentiate between the sound of Blackstreet and Guy?
Teddy: Oh, it’s really different. I mean Guy is more of like the hyper New Jack Swing and Blackstreet is more like the smooth tone New Jack Swing.
Greg: A few years ago Aaron Hall was asked to define New Jack Swing. He said it was his voice and Teddy Riley’s music.
Teddy: That’s what it is! It is pretty much everyone who has contributed to New Jack Swing, their voice and my music. Bobby Brown’s voice, my music. Michael Jackson’s voice, my music.
Greg: So how would you define New Jack Swing?
Teddy: I always define it as the new kid on the block that is swinging it with Teddy Riley’s music.
Greg: You mentioned Quincy Jones, and I know he is a massive influence on you. I always wanted you to do that Quincy Jones style project. An album by Teddy Riley with both established and up and coming artists singing and you as the producer. The likes of Michael, Bobby Brown, Aaron Hall, Big Bub….
Teddy: There will be a time for that. It’s kinda like planning out the next 20 years of my career and there will definitely be a time for that. I just need to get everyone back together. Once I get everyone back together we’ll have another millennium version of “We Are The World” and a bunch of things. I have my composers and my scores and we are gonna do movies and TV projects. So just look forward to it.
Greg: It is also well documented that you nurtured the likes of The Neptunes and Rodney Jerkins. You must be proud of what they have achieved.
Teddy: I’m blessed and definitely proud. I’m proud of God blessing me with all the things that are happening for me. Because at one moment, just like everyone else, at certain moments you see that your career isn’t going in the direction that you want it to go in. But I kept God first and kinda preyed along the way and he steered it back and got it back on the road! That’s a great feeling, I’m really proud of him.
Greg: Talking about your career not going in the direction you wanted it to, let’s go back to the late 90’s with your Lil’ Man Record label on Interscope. Following on from the massive success of the 2nd Blackstreet album you looked all set to go with the label. The Queen Pen album was released but we never heard from your other artists 911, Mike E, Nutta Butta and David Miller for example. Was it your choice not to release those albums?
Teddy: I just thought that my career in that aspect was being held back. I was threshold, my label was threshold. It was basically people who didn’t believe in the next music. When I did Queen Pen it became successful with only a little bit of push, it did well. As a new label you gotta believe in your artists, and I always believed in my artists, but I didn’t have the backing.
Greg: You also had a deal with Virgin to do a solo project called, “Blackrock”. Why did that never see the light of day?
Teddy: Because my music man was gone, they let him go. He was the guy who believed in me. The rest of them didn’t understand the Blackrock concept, but they still went ahead and tried to put it out overseas and leak it so that I don’t use it anymore, which I wasn’t trying to do. Once I shut down a project it’s shut down, it’ll never come out, but Virgin went ahead and still leaked it and gave away whatever they could of what they had.
Greg: So you don’t really re-use tracks?
Teddy: No I never re-use tracks like that, unless somebody request that I remake… like NSync when I did “Just Got Paid” over, they asked for it and I did it.
Greg: “Look In The Water” on the last Blackstreet album was originally a Mike E song though wasn’t it?
Teddy: Yeah, it was a Mike E song that never came out. These guys really wanted it so I said let’s do it. There’s another song that I want to re-use for Blackstreet which is a song that Michael Jackson did called “Heaven Can Wait”.
Greg: Pharrell Williams co-wrote “Look In The Water” didn’t he and Mike E was originally part of the Neptunes. Were the Neptunes going to be a group with Mike E singing and Pharrell rapping?
Teddy: Yes it was, but Mike E pulled out of it, quit.
Greg: But you kept in touch and brought him back as a solo artist?
Teddy: Yeah, we always stay in touch. In fact Mike E just e-mailed me yesterday.
Greg: Any plans for you to ever collaborate with the Neptunes? I know Pharrell always speaks very highly of you.
Teddy: Well that would be on them. If they request it I’d do it. I’m there. Anytime they request of me to do something or be somewhere, I’m there. Just to support and be back-up, I’m always with following up and supporting the artists and producers I bring forth. But it’s really on them to do the same thing. I’ll leave that to the Neptunes.
Greg: So moving forward with your new projects are you looking for a label that will back you 100%?
Teddy: We have our backing; we have everything that we need to put these projects out ourselves. We’re just trying to do the last thing that our funders are looking for which is do our own distribution plan so that none of our records are threshold and we can put out and sell as many records as we want without them stopping the production.
Greg: Have you got any other hot young producers in your camp at the moment that you are excited about?
Teddy: I have a few producers that’s up and coming. We have a kid named Jason, we have a kid named J-Styles, a kid named J-Mathis, we have another kid that’s coming — he’s top secret. We’re right now in the middle of negotiating something and I don’t want to publicise his name. When he comes he’s a beast! We got definitely what we would call the next Neptunes.
Greg: Have you got any writers? You did some great work with legendary Leon Sylvers III.
Teddy: Those guys that I mentioned are writers as well. J-Styles and a few other people. Also people who came from the Blackstreet albums like Karen Anderson and Sheri Blair.
Greg: What happened to Tammy Lucas?
Teddy: She’s still around. She just recently sent me her love through a mutual friend of ours and if I call her she would definitely come and be on the project as well.
Greg: How is your Brother Markell and Aqil Davidson these days? (Ed: Markell Riley and Aqil Davidson made up the group Wreckx’N’Effect)
Teddy: My Brother is a family man now; he has his construction company and doing his thing in North Carolina. I haven’t heard from Aqil.
Greg: So no Wreckx’N’Effect reunion then?
Teddy: I don’t see it. I mean if it happens it happens but I don’t see it because my Brother is pretty much finished with the business. He’s comfortable and he can just live life. He’s pretty much finished with music.
Greg: Finally, if you had to pick one song from your massive catalogue which would it be?
Teddy: Erm…… “Remember The Time”!
Greg: Great song. Teddy, I hope that all your projects go well for you this year.
Teddy: I know, God Bless’, it will. So far I’m feeling it. I’m just trying to stay calm, get my rest when I need it and keep it moving. I’m just trying to stay on the same formula that I’ve been on. The hardest working underground man in the business!
Greg: Thank you very much again for your time.
Teddy: Thank You man. Take care.
http://www.underground-soul.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=275&Itemid=35
Hope things will go smoothly for Mick from now on