MovieChat Forums > The Get Down (2016) Discussion > We need a Netflix series on the New Jack...

We need a Netflix series on the New Jack Swing era...

posted 8 years ago by StrontiumAE
12 replies | jump to latest

1988 - 1992. It won't look as historical as Mad Men, The Get Down and Stranger Things, but youth culture (culture in general) was going through a huge flux then. The 90s were the beginning of the modern era as far as I am concerned. Since 1992 everything has pretty much remained the same till today, particularly urban music and fashion, but leading up to that time everything else changed in a big way, like technology and mediums of entertainment.

Musically, the colourful dance/house music and New Jack Swing in the late 80s and the birth of Hip Hop Soul in the early 90s that stayed with us until the late 2000s, as well as grunge etc was a fascinating time for those of who were teens then. The 90s doesn't get enough love. I think we are now far away enough from that period to make a good period drama.

http://www.1971-reviewae.com

[–] javvieh 8 years ago

I'm surprised- as a musician- that I never meet anyone who even knows what NJS is. A lot of it was too pishex and MOR for me but dat sound tho..

[–] racl_101 8 years ago

I'll sure as hell have a lot of flat tops. That's for damn sure.

It would be cool if such a show casted Jaleel White as Teddy Riley.

[–] activista 8 years ago

I came up in the '90s---and as good and fun as the New Jack Swing sound was to listen to, it only lasted about six years--from '89 to about '95, and was pretty much a cool outgrowth of hip-hop. The group Wrecks N-Effect had a catchy tune called "New Jack Swing" that kind of kicked that sound off----I think it was music producer Teddy Riley who started that particular sound with the best-selling group Guy--their first album was huge back in the day, and had some great songs on it,too.) Other groups with that sound were Portrait, Joe, and maybe Toni Toni Tone, to some extent. Here's some examples of the New Jack Swing sound here.

Here's Wrecks N-Effect with their classic New Jack Swing---they're also known for their other classic hit "Rump Shaker":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h26GgWHfcxg

This classic hit song from 1988 sound like a New Jack Swing tune before that term was even coined---still sound great after all these years:

Johnny Kemp---"Just Got Paid":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl1mQASHc48

The group Portrait with their best-known hit from 1992---"Here We Go":

<a href="%3Cbr%3Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bVC8z_6b_Q%0D%3Cbr%3E">;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bVC8z_6b_Q
</a>

Here's another NJS song before that term was even coined----Keith Sweat's first major big hit in 1987----"I Want Her":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YJc80Xgubk

This 1992 hit "Live And Learn", by the group Joe Public definitely epitomizes all that was good about that classic New Jack Swing sound--it was almost a cliche by then:

<a href="%3Cbr%3Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbMKTZbUxzI">;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbMKTZbUxzI</a>;

[–] StrontiumAE 8 years ago

I think New Jack Swing was a little more mainstream than you make it out to be, even though it wasn't widely recognised by that name. Bobby Brown was pretty much the biggest New Jack Swing artist who crossed over, until Michael Jackson released Dangerous, which is arguably the biggest urban album under that genre too date. Plus today, people are still singing Montell Jordan's This Is How We Do It, like if it was only released 5 years ago.

I was in my teens then, but I think the NJS culture albeit more underground and hidden than the breakdance culture from the previous decade, was the more influentially on today's music and urban culture.

http://www.1971-reviewae.com

[–] activista 8 years ago

@StrontiumAE

Yeah, the New Jack Swing was definitely a mainstream sound---I heard virtually all the songs I posted on mainstream radio, and they were all big hits, so there nothing underground about them in any from or shape. But the bottom line is, it was a side part of hip-hop in and of itself and that helped to make the hip-hop sound a lot more mainstream,too. And it was the previous breakdance and hip-hop culture that's influenced everything today--that's what THE GET DOWN is about--where all of that came from.

Also, here's some old pics of today's old-school rappers from the late '80s-- early '90s, when they were still young, hungry, and on the come-up---Jay-Z almost looks like a little kid here,lol:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/gabrielsanchez/dope-early-90s-hip-hop?utm_term=.ckkE394EV#.ofLlZWDly

[–] coleburnz07 8 years ago

New Jack Swing was mainstream there is no debating that.

Alot of the respected rappers in that era attacked RnB and New Jack Swing in songs for trying to water down hip hop music by mixing with the genre.

"Money's flowing, everything is fine; Got myself an Uzi and my brother a nine"

[–] coleburnz07 8 years ago

New Jack Swing is only good for nostalgia purposes if you want to be real with it we have been stuck in that wack RnB/Hip Hop faze for the past 2 decades. Cheap watered down hip hop with RnB hooks on every song that's on radio.

And Wreck N Effect were a couple of coward ass punks. They jumped/beat Q-Tip and ruined his vision in one of his eyes over the Phife Line 'Strictly Hardcore Not a New Jack Swing". but were too scared to go after Ice Cube after he said 'And you can New Jack Swing on my nuts'.

"Money's flowing, everything is fine; Got myself an Uzi and my brother a nine"

[–] StrontiumAE 8 years ago

Never knew that Wrecks N Effect and Tribe Called Quest actually had any physical disagreements over that line, but its interesting that afterwards Tony Toni Tone, a former New Jack group, felt no fear about turning Ice Cube's lyric on its head and making it a part of a hook on one of their biggest songs.

http://www.1971-reviewae.com

[–] coleburnz07 8 years ago

Oh yeah... it's the reason Tip is wearing the mask in the Hot Sex video. They went after the 'easy' target. Tip isn't on any street/gangster nonsense and they knew it. Cube had the Lench Mob backing him... They were affiliated with the Crips.

Tony Toni Tone had the sense to not take Cubes lyrics personal enough to resort to physical confrontation. Plus they were actually talented unlike Wreck N Effect and were able to make songs out of the New Jack Swing era.

"Money's flowing, everything is fine; Got myself an Uzi and my brother a nine"

[–] activista 8 years ago

@coleburn07

Really? Didn't know that. So that's why Q-Tip was wearing that weird mask in that video for "Hot Sex On A Platter--I'm assuming that's the name of the tune. Yeah, all of that stupid jumping on each other rappers did in those days was stupid as hell, and people actually got hurt over that. A lot of them took that stupid gangster beef s*** way too damn far---that's the type of dumb s*** that led to both Tupac and Biggie Smalls' deaths.

[–] tiffanykk2002 8 years ago

Great idea, OP!

[–] nunyabiznesskay 8 years ago

That would be cool.
I would also love to see a show on the Jazz Age.