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An innovator credited with creating New Jack Swing, a genre of music whose influence permeated musical categories for more than 30 years, including contemporary R&B, Hip-Hop, Gospel, Soul, and Pop since the early 80s, Grammy award-winning, multi-platinum mega- producer Teddy Riley continues to remain a relevant force in entertainment. Companies including Yamaha, PreSonus, and AKAI have benefited from his technical expertise, lending to the creative properties in some of their products, which have been major contributions on today’s ever-evolving market.
Teddy Riley’s career has embodied ingenuity as a recording artist, Songwriter, Producer, Composer, Arranger, Engineer, Music and Technology expert, and World music trailblazer. With over 1000 credits to his name, the musical icon produced Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album, which sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and was the fastest-selling album of all time. He has been inducted into the Hip-hop Hall of Fame, awarded the Soul Train Legend award, received his Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, and, most recently, inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame.
The precocious young talent co-produced Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew’s classic “The Show” and then, at the age of 17, he produced rapper Kool Moe Dee’s single, “Go See the Doctor,” which became a mainstream hit, reaching #89 on The Billboard Hot 100. Riley was fast building a name for himself and was introducing a new sound fusing hip hop and R&B music that would become known as New Jack Swing. On November 25, 1987, he co-produced R&B singer Keith Sweat’s debut solo studio album titled “Make It Last Forever”, which went on to sell three million copies. One of the biggest hit singles from this album, “| Want Her’ (#1 R&B/#5 Pop), ultimately ushered in the New Jack Swing era.
Riley brought his much-sought-after talents in-house when he, Aaron Hall, and Timmy Gatling formed the R&B group Guy. Riley’s work with Guy firmly cemented the New Jack Swing sound in popular culture as he infused his own unique blend of Hip beats and R&B progressions with the Gospel vocal stylings of Hall to create this fresh fusion of musical styles on Guy’s eponymous debut in 1988. The following year, Riley, who was also still in high demand as a producer, produced Big Daddy Kane’s classic “| Get The Job Done”, as well as other work for The Jacksons, the Winans, James Ingram, and the majorly successful remix of Jane Child’s crossover hit “Don’t Wanna Fall in Love”.
In 1992, Riley began to turn his focus to his hip-hop group Wreck-N-Effect and their second album, Hard or Smooth. Based in Virginia by this time, Riley discovered and signed production duo, The Neptunes (composed of then fledgling producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), during the making of Wreck-N-Effect’s smash hit single “Rump Shaker”.
In late 1991, Riley formed another group- Blackstreet. A few years later, they would go on to release several major hits including “Don’t Leave Me” (1997), “Girlfriend/Boyfriend” (1999), with Janet Jackson, Eve, and Ja Rule and, of course, the Grammy-winning indelible classic “No Diggity” (1996, featuring Dr. Dre and Queen Pen), which reached number #1 on The Billboard Hot 100. Riley’s illustrious catalogue encompasses a massive list of timeless hits that he has composed, produced and/or written including: Guy (“Groove Me”, “Let’s Chill”, “I Like,” “Teddy’s Jam”); Johnny Kemp (“Just Got Paid”); Bobby Brown (My Prerogative) and many other hit songs.
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