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Teddy Riley (New Jack Swing)Teddy Riley (born Edward Theodore Riley, October 8, 1966 in Harlem, New York) is an American R&B and hip-hop singer, songwriter, musician and producer who was the ring leader of the most influential groups of R&B in two separate decades - Guy in the 80s and Blackstreet in the 90s. Riley is mostly responsible for bringing hip-hop and R&B music together into a melting pot that was first called new-jack swing and translated to hip-hop soul. A musician from a young age, he began to present his sound to the world in the mid-80s. Some of the songs he produced would be released to become hip-hop standards including the memorable 1985 tune, The Show, which featured hip-hop icons Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick. He also produced the memorable 1986 hit, Just Got Paid with one-hit wonder Johnny Kemp. He also produced hit records for a solo Slick Rick and Heavy D. & the Boyz. This was all before in 1987, he formed a group of his own called Guy. The original members include Riley and two singer-songwriters Aaron Hall and Timmy Gatling. Recording their first album for Uptown Records, what Guy created is now labeled a masterpiece, which they did with their self-titled debut. Though its release was preceding the one that had come out a year before - Keith Sweat's Make It Last Forever album, which Riley produced most of the tracks, became a breakthrough throughout much of 1987 and early 1988 and launched Sweat to the stratosphere as an early pioneer of the hip-hop soul genre. Afterwards, when Guy's debut came out, it helped break the mold of music as it was known back then. One of Teddy's friends gave it the name new jack swing to describe the music Riley was doing. In turn, Riley had become the ring leader of a sound that would soon dominate the sounds of now-grown up New Edition and Janet Jackson, who along with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced some classic new-jack swing material with her famed 1989 album, Rhythm Nation. Featuring memorable hits as "Groove Me", "Teddy's Jam", "Piece of My Love" and "Spend the Night", the first Guy album took Riley's career to the next step and has since been heralded as the group's greatest record ever, and some say, Riley's. Throughout his tenure with Guy and afterwards, Riley went on to produce and write hit singles for other artists and was responsible for the mainstream success of albums from Bobby Brown (Don't Be Cruel), Keith Sweat (Make It Last Forever) and Michael Jackson (Dangerous). Returning with Guy for their second and last album for more than a decade, The Future, Riley found his own fame singing most of the album's biggest hit "I Wanna Get With U" (which was a top 10 pop record as well as a #1 R&B record in 1990), which rivaled the other big hit, Hill's penned "Let's Chill". But after the success of that album, infighting, label infractions, several life-threatening incidents against Riley's family members and friends and a changing musical scene broke up the group and they decided to split after the end of their Future tour in 1991. After Guy disbanded, Riley stayed behind the scenes mentoring other groups including SWV and Wreckz and Effect, whom found their biggest success with the single, Rump Shaker in 1992, which featured Riley singing the most memorable chorus of the song. Four years after his last album with a group, Riley decided to form a new group titled Blackstreet. The original members of that group included friend Chauncey "Black" Hannibal, soul singer Dave Hollister and Levi Little. Their debut became a gold classic with "Booti Call", "Before I Let Go" and "Joy" becoming the main hits from that album. Career differences and solo ventures caused Hollister and Little to live with the former enjoying a modestly successful solo career. Recruiting Eric Williams and Mark Middleton into the level, Riley and Hannibal entered 1996 with a fresh new game plan. That plan resulted in the group's and Riley's biggest-selling album, Another Level. Off the heels of their first #1 pop single, No Diggity, the album would yield two more hits including the top 5 fave "Don't Leave". Riley then formed his own record label, Lil' Man Records, and produced female rapper Queen Pen's first record titled My Melody. Things were starting to come up for Riley as the 90s came to a close. But as the new millennium came, a lot of things tore up the partnership of Riley and Hannibal. After the failure of their third album "Finally" in 1998, the group disbanded. Around the same time, Riley reunited with the Hall brothers as a member of Guy and released their third album, Guy III in 1999. After their differences were resolved, Riley and Chauncey Hannibal reformed Blackstreet with the lineup of their second album - Middleton and Williams - and released their fourth album, "Level II" in 2003, which found little chart success in the songs "Wizzy Wow" and the sensual song "Deep". As of 2004, there are plans for a reunion album with Guy, though there's no word on Blackstreet and if the group would ever recover from their fall from grace. Despite that, Riley's stance as a groundbreaker, trailblazer and pioneer for 80s and 90s R&B and hip-hop still stands strong. Certain producers like R. Kelly, Sean "Puffy" Combs, The Neptunes, Rodney Jerkins, Jermaine Dupri and Missy Elliot owe their successful careers to Riley. Riley, Teddy Riley, Teddy Riley, Teddy Riley, Teddy
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