Teddy Riley tells the story of New Jack Swing | Red Bull Music Academy

good evening everybody welcome to our conversation this evening as a part of the Red Bull Music Academy NYC festival my name is Jeff Maehl and our guest this evening is one of the great musical innovators of our times you are undoubtedly familiar with his work as a recording artist songwriter composer arranger producer and a mentor to others and he is of course the architect of the New Jack Swing sound ladies and gentlemen please welcome mr. Teddy Riley thanks so much for being here tonight thank you for having me you're back here in New York this is where it started for you this home is it always home is it always feel like home of course all the time living in the projects will make you remember and never forget where you come from and I never forget Sam McBride X was the the light of my life and the start of my career so we're wearing them home where we wear would st. Nicholas projects be what part of the city was every column the spot you know but I lived in every borough except Stanton Allen so now when I take the boat everywhere but um there's still time you can move to Staten Island like right now and do it I can't do it it's too close to Governors Island yeah anyway cut that well Harlem is a great place to start actually because I remember reading you describing New Jack Swing as a sound and how Harlem was so intrinsic to that sound I don't know if the definitions and the of New Jack Swing has changed for you but how would you define the New Jack Swing sound what is New Jack Swing did you explain first of all it was the name that was given to me and I always have to give credit to baby Michael Cooper who actually gave me the name because I didn't have a name for it and it was just this music that was just you know transcending and people were just catching on to it and then you had record companies that didn't really give you a deal if you had if you didn't have that sound so we had to call it something right away because New Jack city was coming out and I can remember sitting with Barry Michael Cooper he was interviewing me he said we on call us and I said I don't know I never knew what my music was called with what I would call it until he gave me that name and then he said New Jack Swing I'm during New Jack city and you are the new jack swing using new kid on the block this swing in it so I always thought of it as the new kid on the block that swinging it until I took it into another direction of making it it's a technology of music which is putting rap and singing together and taking fusions of different music and fusing them all together because I had this dream of seeing like change Brown and Michael Jackson do a song together I had this dream of seeing the temptations and the shot lights or mixing groups together that I wanted to hear me music and when that didn't happen it wasn't like a dream that didn't come true because I made the dream come true anyway by taking their music and taking the essence not actually literally taking their music but the essence and what I was inspired by I took it and just fuse it together and I was always in church so I always had to have that church feel in my music and that's what kept everyone on the dance floor and I didn't really get it until I started seeing it and I was into I was meld enough to go to the clubs to see it so when I did a keep sweat and that's when I got back into R&B because I left it alone because the first record that I I did R&B record that I did fail and what I call a failure because it wasn't a failure to everybody but what I call a failure is when I don't hear my record a lot on BLS or wkp you or kids all the radio stations that was happening back then which which was those three I think it's not a hit so I said I'm leaving rap alone I'm just going to work with rap artists and I'ma leave R&B alone I'm sorry I'm gonna work with rap artists and that's it I'm just going to make beats for everybody and their mothers and that's what I did it and and and I can remember in Saint Nick projects all of my friends were just because I lived on the first floor and all of my friends would come would come to the window and that's how I know I had a hit so the record that you just heard rappers generation which was sampled by mary j blige um that record I did in the actual rooftop roller skating ring and I don't know if anybody here familiar a lot of you are young in here but I used to my uncle Uncle Willie I know you guys know about Willie burgers on a hunt 45th Street where you can get your turkey burgers and your hamburgers and the best um well that's my uncle he owned Willie burgers on 145th Street he owned sell celebrity Club SMS and for for after-hours spot and rooftop world escape moving along with my partner's my partner Augusto so gusto actually build me a studio and when he built me a studio like I was in heaven it was just like you know I'll be here I'm not going outside and they they see me there so much they built a bedroom for me you know somewhere where I can just lay my head because I never want to leave the studio especially you know I was in the projects and I didn't have a studio it's just like setting up my stuff on my mom and my pots the old jukebox we had a jukebox you know one of the only family and the projects that had a jukebox where you can play records and so I used to set up my whole setup point a jukebox and just make music and Dougie fresh would come to my house and and then Bobby would come to my house and Keith Sweat came to my house so we made music and Aaron hall slept on my couch every day we were making the guy album in all of these people came to my project and and my a NAS were all the kids and all of my friends from the phone they came up to the window I know I had something so they didn't come to the windows like uh the same working and that's what told me you know especially my brother my brother marquel from Lexington said he was my number one an are over all my music and he would just tell me that's not gonna work I don't think it's gonna work because you gotta you gotta swing him or you know how you did with dougie he will give me like references and and be really technical about it and I was just like it's a challenge for me because my brother my little brother is telling me he don't like something and I would go and change it and it want to work in and most most of my heads came from my brother all my friends from around the block come to the window and like they were hot and hot and then they go back to a day you know and so it's pretty good you know immediate feedback though I want to ask you this maybe a little bit more broadly and philosophically is there a uptown Harlem Bronx whatever you want to call it musical sensibility and style that helped inform what you created because you have this swing obviously with New Jack Swing but there is a bounce too I feel a lot of music something about it maybe it's not something you can put your finger on or maybe be hard for some people to describe you know technically or musically but is there something that puts that sort of bounce into certain types of music from Harlem yeah um it was a four major and Weiss a church because um the first churches I went to which was a universal temple it was well more like a mellow Church you come in with your tambourine and you just played tambourine I was the piano player for it I didn't have a drama so I was like man I wish I had a drama and next thing you know um a family member of ours said you should come to our church and it was Universal Temple actually across the street from the hospital I was born in which is Harlem Hospital and right around the corner was right that was the church that I went to in the actual drummer of the church was jazzy J from Afrika Bambaataa and you have jazzy J on the drums you know you won't get that bounce and we used to try to play secular music in the church and we just rocks like the music is like north and we will play a change pow it's like in a cop is that's the bounce I apply that to the music now I used to go in in the projects and they used to have the black parties order bring out the DJ equipment and everything and I used to have a little curacao curacao keyboard that had the beatbox and you play a key and explain the beatbox and the chords and all of that that bossa nova and you know that Casio type of and I used to take it in the park all the time this is another reference of how I got the bounce so it had already beats in it and you hit this one kids like the DJ was like two tickets good day today and what does that sound like a bunch of records that are out later on after that like I want to set you up I won't so that was the bounce and that's how I started getting my flowing and hanging out with my friends who were DJs and I wasn't details with God with the keyboard until I just saw him say you know what I'm a line out of DJ so I could do it all then that's that's that's what got me into doing everything my influences are kid Creole anybody familiar with kick real kick real arm and then you had for my my harmony and my vocal arrangements I listen to my hand transfer I listen to take six I listen to all of the groups and singing groups that had that harmony temptations and which gave me a lot of influence to bounce my music with the singing so I would I would get uh just a bunch of Records in starting lining them all and learning how they sound really you know cultivate the people and that's how I kind of learned you know just doing it myself and I didn't have a drum machine I couldn't afford it to machine so I used to take my microphone that my mom had with her singing gospel singing group I take out microphone which was the 57 and take a toilet tissue a roll of toilet tissue and take the microphone and stick it in the hole of the toilet tissue and I would do something like this and then when I hit it it was like my 808 but it didn't go long so it's like and then I was making all my beats that way put it on a tee a recorder and then I would do all of my harmonies and then I had this little keyboard compiex 100 and this little keyboard called a DX 100 I would play everything with that until I could afford what I needed to make my music ok well let's actually play something that you were an intrinsic part of it wasn't any of those records you mentioned but you did mention the person behind this record as well a [Applause] little bit of applause - there all right so very famous record it is very important record how did this happen well I was introduced by a mutual friend LaVon levell malleson who introduced me to dougie because I didn't know that I I knew it was dougie because I used to go see dougie at the real Hollywood club and he would reform which is on 116th Street in Harlem hmm 116th Street and Lenox Avenue and I would see dougie perform I would see Larry love I would see busy bee lovebug starski Hollywood and Dougie was always just rip it up because he was the first guy doing the human beatbox um and I used to always just be there if Doug he's gonna be there I'm obedia but I never knew dougie I was just a fan and you know hustler in the audience trying to get you know figure out that how am I gonna get on that stage and I never got up there but front set up meet him see him in high school like I'm like this fan in high school like hell that's like you I'm not gonna be all upon and like that you know just going to keep doing what I do and someday i'ma get to meet him and then finally three months in high school you know my I just got transferred to that high school and he's been going there so he's the guy that's the well-known guy in the school so I said you know what I'm gonna get to meet him but I was very very shy to meet anybody I've never met anybody in my school unless they came up to me and but with dougie I actually got to meet him and the vapor brought him to my house it's the best way it's the best way to meet somebody because in high school they can Sun you you know do something like the elk I got yeah it's nice to meet you but I got to meet him he came to my house and we just got right down to it you know and talked about the song and when he brought the actual song to me it didn't have all of the things that you heard in the record until I told him you know he said so what you would do with this he let me listen to it and put it on the cassette and I said what would you do to this and I said um well first thing I would do is take out all of the commercials you know it's too many commercials too many stops and drops so there were there were little skit get embedded more than one yeah and he had a commercial at the commercials just like every maybe eight bars or 16 bars and it was just a stop and I said man if you're going to keep that you got to keep the people dancing so you need that element that is going to keep the people dancing so I said I check this up and I open up I had a DX DX over hide the extra machine and I open it up you know and tune down the drums I tune down the shaker and when I tune down and shake it they looking at me like this dude's about to break this drum machine or what's about to happen so I open it up and I - now shaker and I tune down the TomTom so that I can get that low 808 sound and I said what do you think it is play-doh cassette so you played the cassette and I just said okay I like that okay what you're gonna do next that's that I are we gonna do this that made the song that made the whole song he forgot about the drum sounds and all that stuff he's just like that's it this was going to keep people going on the dance floor so we can have a couple of these commercials in the drops and all of that stuff and then that shake is going to keep going while we dropping it and that's how I was added to song so was Inspector Gadget was that part of it already oh that's who I had at that but that wasn't no no no no the shaker was fill it the shaker was mainly it the Inspector Gadget was something that we was just you know intrigued about because it's Inspector Gadget we after three o'clock being in school we wanted to see Inspector Gadget didn't we so that's how that came about and I knew it because you know that was a song that I learned you know teach myself how to play so I said I'm ruling this Duty Tuesday get it and that is that's it - but the shaker was the main thing there shake well I always say you know if you familiar with hooks and what really hooks you and the song is really not the chorus it's actual to pre the pre-chorus that gets you rounded up and then you sing the hook because you already been hooked so the third addicted day that was the hook to get you into all right now let's go wow oh you just go through everything want that bingo bad bad you just you poke your neck to get on the dance floor and that's what dougie fresh did to everyone he's still doing it today we do a lot of performances and that song still stands the test of time it does yeah absolutely stands the test of time I mean and it's such an unconventional song just in terms of you know what was coming out and hip hop to that point just with the personality and the playfulness of it and everything as well um I mean it's funny because you mentioned just the hook the pre hook and I feel like a consistent theme with your music is this these rhythm it cooks I guess you know whether it is the shakers or it's you know later the string it's done I'll tell you the one thing that I put in my songs a lot it's something that is going to give people either the beat instead of the lyrics because you know a lot of people dance to the lyrics well I always like to put if you hear the song the Jack Swing anybody familiar with that alright so in that song there's a high sound that goes so it's like you know that's what keeps people going it's something that is going to keep you going I just recently did the soundtrack for the Globetrotters and Sweet Georgia Brown I remixed it and did something that kept people whine because if you look at the old Globetrotter you know round circle thing and you got some people [Music] [Music] so what I put in it was in a class while I'm swinging it and doing other stuff that people won't get unless they have the clap so when I did that and did so many versions and when I came back with the one that gives them the indication of this is what everybody's going to do when they hear the racket is clap the same way it's on the record and everybody will be in sync so that's my that's my formula I gotta have something in there and there's another thing I'll tell y'all that I put in my songs to make people emotional about it whether they're happy sad or they're just in a different mode but the music is going to make you come into it and you know everybody here have had a like a massage and when you go to the massage parlor what do they play they play music to make you calm where they're if you go online they're tones online that will help you stop smoking or be hypnotized or get up and be happy and that tone is in a lot of my songs I'm sorry uh I just uh but it's real you can look online and look for tones to make you smile or make you sad and those tones you put in the song and it gets to the person and it makes them feel emotional you know even if it's an up-tempo I can actually make you feel really and I used to feel emotional about songs like that old songs um let's make a baby and um songs like Smokey Robinson songs will make me emotional I get sad all of a sudden even though it's a happy song and I don't know what it was but I said you know to myself I said I want to be able to do that for people and I can remember a woman telling me that your salaam the Lord is real made my family member changed their minds about living they wanted to live it's like they wanted to die and they said when they heard that song it changed their life and changed their minds you know now they're in church and they're doing great and well and it's like they they would come and say what do you do in your songs that make people do that and first of all is the subject it's really the subject is really about what we're going through every day and I like to talk about I like to write about it whether it's lyrics it doesn't have to be lyrics because my music is going to tell you the story and most of my writers who write to my songs automatically get the actual hook if I don't get it they actually get the actual hook because it talks to them and that's what I want my music one of my music to do is speak to people whether it has vocals or not what is that process like I mean we'll go through some of the classics here but you come on you come in when you're collaborating with a songwriter and artist do you start with your rhythm I mean do you the process store before you get in the room together or does it only store when you're in the room together and you're starting to just work out a piece of music most times I would start a song with a mouth and now I'm a big big SoundCloud user but you would never know because everything is private because I put all my ideas and I'll hum it in my head and put the phone like this to my face and it gets actually a vibration of what I'm doing because you'll hear the bottom and the vibration of what I'm doing and that's how I come up with my songs and I'll take that because the software that I use which is called studio one I can actually take all my sound clouds because it's integrated with SoundCloud and put it in the sequencer and then I'll take the actual thing and and do a beat detection on it so that I can have it in time and once it's in time that's when I start creating and that's how my weird ideas happen you know because I'll put it on a dictaphone even before SoundCloud even before computers and technology I would have a little dictaphone and a few that Michael has given me he's like me I I know you do your ideas to take the phone so I want to give you a real one like okay it gave me a dead player from Japan and it was this small as small as that and I would record anything he was sent us out to go record the Lions and the Tigers and the his zulan and I will come back which is a bunch of stuff and and make beats and that's how i created i create my songs it doesn't matter what comes first it still starts from here everybody starts with me with everyone so that's how i pretty much make much I'm now working with Michael you can't go to your machine you can't go to any of those things until we get past the piano so I when I first went to Michael and I'm sorry hold on listen we're gonna get there okay I want to get it I must get there just yet so a couple more things to talk about before I did you got it I will go on y'all know this whole - how are useful that thought but before we get to that we have to we have to talk about a couple other things including this now why that's plan a while is Plan B sounds we're done on a course BDD one and my little tx100 that bass sound is called a lately bass and that's been used multi times with everyone but I used that bass a whole lot and the hips came from the drum machine because we didn't have a sampler so I would sample and play all the hits with pads and when I played that record for Keith we had just finished playing shooting the game dice with everybody from around the block and we took their money and then we went inside and and he said man I want you to if possible make me some behind B music I said man I'm done this was the time I was done with R&B I just didn't want to do iron B because I was like man it's going to fail again I was gonna do these rap records he said man just take the chords and a lot of people don't know how how keeps what and I we met actually we met we were libraries he was in a band called Jamila I was in a band called total climax and Johnny camp was in a band called kinky and we used to travel the circuit just in New York we know been on tour out so it was we go from the seller to the jocks place to the Raney's Lounge to try Becker's and then we were switched so Peggy Fox kicked on Johnny Kemp's band would have the cellar and they'll be there for about four or five weeks we would have jobs place we'll be there for four or five months until you know the seller would let us in for two weeks in and they'll put Kiki Fox back in there Thursday with a house band keeps wet they would play the Raney's Lounge they play Blue Note they'll play a lot of different places Atlantic's Atlantic City and we had a Big Apple contest that grant grants tomb and keeps sweatband was against my ban and I think Johnny Kim's ban was in it but long story short we want and that's how keep sweat really you know kind of looked at me as this kid from the blood prodigy kid and very young it was yeah I was I was actually fifteen and he's like man if you could take you know the church course that you do and just put it with them rat beach that you do you know this could be you know this could be great so he I said give me give me a day he gave me just a day and luckily I'm so like I'm eager about music I can't stop doing it you know it's my life it's in my bloodstream so I went in that house that's it you know I wasn't really like I don't know how to take a challenge so it's like you know I'm gonna do it anyway it doesn't matter this and I came up with this beat and when I came up with this beat I just didn't I didn't know what I was doing I just knew that it will be very interesting to people when I see them dance to it and it would be very you know to me exciting seeing them like really be you know what keep down like just doing what you want and that's what New Jack Swing did to people you didn't have a certain dance you wanted to do you just did what came to your mind because of the rhythm of the music you just you up you jus just doing anything the freak or whatever it was and that's what it did when we made it I had to get somebody and my sister and my sister coming out of the room and she's like ah that's all it's I'll do the foot you know keep the foot up there yeah I'm like what are you doing she's like that's how they gonna dance on the record you want to be show you that and and my sister my brother was just too young to know like he's just you know wanted to go outside and blow up m-80s and all that stuff and blew his finger in half and I'm still making these beats and he come inside no response at all so that was time he was just you know I don't know I don't know about doing you know he's like whatever my brother's doing is still I'm going out throw some firecrackers and whatever and my sister my uncle Buchi everybody have uncle that is just always in your business and my uncle was the guy that always came in and and just try and sing all just get in the middle of your song and you're like uncle puss come on in let me just I got to do this man I gotta finish Keefe sweater be here tomorrow he's a wookie Oh chief I know that means sound good you you keep playing you know they play I want I want to sing some to it so those are the things that I got but those faster that was the beauty of making music because you always had somebody to let you know it's some sort of sign and that's the sign that I gotten when I finally played it for him yo baby you that's hot yo you bring that down studio with you which what you got for it which got for it I say I am I'm gonna click on click on the vocals don't laugh at my vocals I go ahead babe Oh put you to death so what you think is I play the vocals and he said what's the same because it sound like I'm saying hi wanna cuz that's why I did the vocals and I said how I wanna but it's I wanna and he's like yo what should I say I said I don't know wait you shouldn't sing it high because Keith Sweat was a falsetto singer you know and his songs he did like reasons and always in flavor and he would do all of those high pot she said what was a falsetto singer yeah he hung a lot of fuss settle with his band he would sing his low notes but how you know when he do is risk and y'all see him doing that on stage to a lot so I say we're not doing this with high voice I'm gonna do it this way sing you last night sorry and we had no worries I didn't they did it's dead and we in the world maybe just him and I just going back and forth and I'm like all I wanted to know was he really there I like oh this is coming together I'm like I'm back in R&B again it's like my first time be record I was so excited but getting to with this record being finished and going to the radio station that was the part that had me like oh god I failed again because we had a non jammer slam it yeah anybody familiar with jamming slamming radio station with you the people call in and they'll jam it or they slam it once it got slammed it got slammed but Frankie Crocker anybody familiar with Frankie clapper Frankie Crocker saved this record i'ma tell y'all right now cuz when he got did the slamma-jamma slam it he said y'all me slam dis records but I'm going to jam this record because y'all don't understand this is the new sound and that took my sound everything in Frankie Crocker is responsible for this record out the box being a smash hit and that's the story of I wanna [Applause] [Music] so that was the making of I wanna and I didn't want him to keep any of those logos because back then we didn't have the auto-tune or pitch corrector and all of that stuff so he just kept it and a lot of those vocals were kept from my my mile 12 track at a high 12 track and we couldn't get that sound to transit to the 2 inch tape so we bought the 12 track to the studio just like we did with the guy album and I find all the engineers asking me to bring the 12 track to the studio so that we can keep that same sound and and that's how we kept the continuity of it you know kept it you know that sound going like I made a lot of songs on this this a ky 12 fact all of the guy album I did a lot of uh so I did the wraps new generation I did go see the doctor all on a 12 track now what would your machine are you using now no in the middle that one on that one that's the court DVD one okay yeah okay so the question always since this era of anybody who's ever been in a studio fancies themselves as some kind of a producer is what's the setting what's the swing setting to get this that's the cadet Zare question I wish there was a template that I could make for everyone of what what I feel inside as far as the tempo in the template the the quantization for me is off I like to make and especially with the NPC the NPC the call vdd one did it perfect no quantization and some of that stuff is off arm but that when I got to MP you can tell me nothing I mean NPC the regular one is 63,000 I was just all over that machine creating my own templates and that we couldn't actually make as a template for the toll machines because it was just certain things were often certain things as on 16 triplets and then one 16 so there's no magic setting it's telling if I wish I could I wish it was but I never did like a lot of it's like when I did it's time to make that change you guys familiar it was go go go go you cannot sixteen triplets is not swing compared to go go go go was just office like you had stuff going one way another and it's just that's what it was for me I wish I could and I wish I did have a template for but now there's technology that can find my template so you're basically playing these I'm playing it live it's safe I never program I wanna I played it straight down I played everything which I can play with God let's straight down a whole five minutes and that's why I took long for a lot of these records to come out because I played I didn't have a sequencer and then when I finally got a sequencer it didn't work like for me I had the alesis and I did a I did my practice on the alesis but I want to plan a lot of this stuff over because it didn't have the be off and on swing that I wanted and I wanted it to be you know sometimes straight and same thing with the show that was played or live alright so you mentioned you mentioned guy what led to the formation of guy you obviously you doing you mentioned Bobby Brown keep switch on camp these are huge huge records what led you back to becoming an artist as well as producer because I wanted something different for us as producers before me you never knew who to put so what you're saying but I did because I did the research and my producer favorite my idol Quincy Jones Stevie Wonder Prince uh mm artists like watch to it and Phil Collins and their music total and and uh who else - so many groups out there but those were my my idols but a lot of people don't didn't know but I knew because if I watched Welcome Back Kotter I watch the credits Quincy Jones and then I watched spiny Miller and Chris Young Stefon son Wow Quincy Jones make that record that was something I wanted to if I could and I was you know working with Quincy I wasn't like question you need to be in a group because that's what my manager at the time told me in order for me to be visually seen and people to know who did that music you got to be in a group so I wasn't a group before and I kind of shut it down and want to be in a group ever again so that's why I went to produce in with everybody and their mothers and and working with cheese and and then Timmy Gatlin convinced me to be no he didn't convince me Aaron hall convinced me to be in a group because Timmy wanted me to be um just the producer on the guy album for the guy album for those two and Timmy and and Aaron used to work at a shoe store and I was mixing the Keith Sweat album I was in the mix and they came to the studio when I heard Aaron sing I was just blown away I was like you know anyway I could be involved you know I'll just produce it and I was like nah that ain't happening if you're not in the group I'm just gonna go solo and I said I'll join the group it was only because Timmy you know my best friend and Aaron incredible singer you know had a sound of his own that he was inspired by Charlie Wilson and Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway and all these great so it's like up my alley that I'm inspired by Quincy Jones know my Kannada Walden and who else Nile Rodgers and all the people that I was inspired by we had the same story to tell so Aaron actually you know didn't have a place you know he was working at Shoe Store and he would just you know kind of Lodge with different people and you know it kind of became something that he didn't want to do anymore he's like yo man I don't have a place to stay I said you can stay right here I'll ask my mom and you know as my mother said mom Kitty stay she said yeah he's fine if you don't have a problem with sleeping on the couch he's fine so Aaron states will stay with me for about 3-4 months and we did the Hawkeye album on the 12 track and he's doing the vocals I'm doing the vocals that I like and whatever voices he didn't have to do it and Timmy wood getting in and sing as well and we just had this thing going and came up with the the guy album title the title album and we didn't know what to do with it and we we just had all this musics like where we gonna go to and then we want him going to Jayne Griffin and Jim Griffin you know basically said so what y'all want to do and we was like oh we just want to get a record deal not knowing I could have got the record deal while myself because I was already working with Heavy D and working with uh finessing sequence and the Uptown you know under a hotel I found myself you know I couldn't with the hundred or upon myself in and got to deal but I felt like I need protection me Jeanne Griffin who's going to make sure nobody is taking from me and at that same time I was dealing with a lot of stuff that I didn't get credit from and and when that was happening I said you know I me I need protection I need somebody's management and I bought gene in and Timmy was cool with it and Anne was cooler with it and then we went in the studio he had got to deal with Uptown records and we finished the album when the studio and cut everything over with the 12 track recording to the two-inch and that was the guy out recording vocals in your in the back shot yeah we would take a blanket and pin it up just like it was a shower curtain in and we would put a blanket across the door because the wall had a coup stick you know sound and you know in the bathroom you know it's a coup stick sound you sound like you're in a chamber so we had did that and we put a blanket over the toilet because music travels through water to air through cracks and we just tried to get the room so dead so we didn't have the ambience and it worked we did I like everything all of those vocals are from the 12 track let's listen to a little bit of something from guys first album hi yeah when you fill so if you hear those fail applause yeah all the rhythms in these records will show you you know you can pick one and follow that rhythm and you got it with the girl on the dance floor I'm telling you it works every time I'm telling you and it's so funny because when I used to go to house parties with my mom and we go to the family of the family house and you know our family members in I was always asked to go and get on the dance floor but I wouldn't know what to do because those records back then didn't have all the rhythms unless you put on the George Clinton or you put on the Roger Troutman or Johnny Guitar Watson you know fat back band bad mama-jama you put those records on you know what to do because something is in there that's gonna make you punk and that's what got us all it gives you that with them and you pick one and just follow it so I remember when this record came out and just as a hip-hop fan being so impressed that there were these little accents of samples that are just so seamlessly integrated you know or what basically evoked the vibe of samples whether it would ya or pum paara a lot of people in this era we're starting to move towards sampling arm did you sample your drum sounds or were you creating your own actually I was I was using the stock sounds but I modified them you know cuz I didn't want the actual stocks now so I just added to it and you know I had this little board you know where I could put the he's just kind of turn the bass up a lot if I needed it you know and and with the all of different accents I kind of eq'd all of those things myself because I wanted it to come out a certain way sometimes I'll filter it sometimes I leave it was just like a rumble you know so like how you felt the bottom it wasn't from the drums it was from a low base that I would put under my kick drum so it's like so through the walls you're gonna hear the bottom and that was my thing as long as my bottom was hidden in my snares was making you like when you're on the dance floor users like you you're gonna do that when you hear my snares and is on purpose you know I like for my stairs and hit people in the head like yeah what is that and even with my class my class allowed you know and I'm getting with Michael I'm sorry for going back but getting with him he kind of just showed me how to turn music up and and really hurt he always say I want to hurt him and he always would go he'll always go and me and Bruce would Ian would sit the wheel he's like okay Teddy I just want you to I want you to um if you can turn up the snare when you have to say I just want you to really turn it up and the most important thing is to backgrounds it's got to be loud because that's what I want people to remember so I'm trying to I'm playing the music and he is just going treat me hey yeah I like it like I don't know what that beads without my table Santa sit up with but that's what happens you know when you get with certain odds like Bobby same thing he just want to hear the music like how you gonna hear it in a club and that's Michael all day he's like I just want to hear like it's going to sound in the club and wherever like if I'm playing in a concert it's going to be your music so it's gotta be knocking it's gotta hurt them we get hurt the people shock the world and I'm I'm just so for that you know after him it was just like stuff had to be BAM or you got to hear the essence of the sound so imma let you keep askin okay I'll tell you about as we go on what I mean by the essence of the sound I mean getting getting the call from Michael I'm sure had to be crazy but what was going in your life going on in your life immediately prior to that because you know you mentioned Jean you mentioned feeling like you had to have some sense of security what were you dealing with that you know what was going on in your life in your career at that moment before you got that cool well what's going into my life was I lost everything I lost everything but the gift that God gave me and that was my music my hands and my just a part of the chain and I was left at the airport with no money twenty dollars in my pocket and I just came to New York because I was living in Atlanta and I just came to New York to release everybody from their contracts and it was just me taking the front line and really taking a stand for the people I brought to the company it was gr productions Griffin Reilly but on the finance side it was just Griffin and it didn't matter to me because my music was getting out there and remember my goal and my mission was to get my music so the world can hear it and it didn't matter about the money so when he did all of this and I was stuck in the airport with $20 and couldn't get a seat on a plane and one person I call and it was my best friend Marshall mclogan she was in a group called abstract if you guys are familiar with GL productions abstract was a group that we sign and Marsha and I were very very close um and she worked for a bank I think was Citibank and with Citibank she was able to get a credit card she got American Express Platinum I didn't know what it was I was joking it was like was this is over card and she was like you're gonna need it I said what do you mean she's like keep this card you're gonna need it and I didn't get it until I was at that Airport and I had to call in I said I think I'm gonna have to come and stay with you until I am able to make some money to get back to my family and she said do you still have that silver card that you've been joking in your bag and I'm a heart of card you know I'm a real hard to keep cards and I I go back to them it's like I remember I needed a guitar player I remember I needed a stylist and I get all these cars and I keep them so I had my bag here I will show you all like cards you know people just meeting them insane this person you know I can help this person or this person we can do some things together it could be useful to what I'm doing so that was one kind I can't and I kept that kind and she said pull it out and give it to the clerk and when I gave it to the clerk I can only remember to plug saying do me now put the plane and I said what's hummus can I spin on his car and she said whatever you want she said you have a fifty thousand one hundred thousand dollar limit and you are a lifesaver and I owe you and I'm always told this story because this is the story of you know the record last night a DJ saved my life well masha keeps wet Javy Austin god bless him um Barry Hankerson Benny Medina everybody know who Benny Medina is he's the guy that saved me and gave me my first Chang after being broke having nothing and it's do I have time okay well Benny Medina called me up now this is crazy know everybody some people are spiritually I'm very spiritual because when this happened it just made me even more believe that yo God is real like good god how did this happen so I'm in the hotel room waiting to meet with Al Taylor who's the CEO then of MCA records and I'm waiting with waiting to meet with him thinking that you know that we either go and get dropped because I took up the group you know guy what is he gonna you know talk to me about I'm thinking I'm going to talk to the Wiz and and uh he sat me down he said you're a very talented kid and this first time I met him because I never knew any of the record the label owners and CEOs and presidents I never knew anyone because I never I wasn't it wasn't my interest to meet anyone so he thought I was this kid with some by Foucault's and you know scientists looking kid and I came in just nice New York and when in his office and and he said you're very talented you know I want to offer you a deal so meanwhile I'm here just playing whatever type of cards I can and I know Brooke and all I had was a bunk in a dream I went in his office and kept the you know the face you know the poker face he's like he said I want to give you $20,000 deal this deal is going to be for your label we think you deserve a label here this is what we want to do for you and this is how we're going to do it now I'm still broke and it's gonna be a little while before I get some money so I go back to my hotel room after the meeting I'm happy I'm just crying I'm so emotional in this hotel room playing now when God blesses you he pours it on you hard like do you want a blood and I get another blessing after another blessing so I get a call from Benny Medina he said prior to the call I'm listening to this record that he want me to remix I'm listening to it on MTV and it was gonna fall in love Jane child that record saved my life as well because that was my first record after leaving gene leaving guy all of this happen so Ben is like I need you to do this wrecking right away man we try to save this record we got to milk it then I was like whatever you need them well soon as I get back to New York he said well I want to send it to you so okay Synod he had a guy bring it over within 15 minutes one of others was down the street from Universal Studios so he bought it in 15 minutes and it so happened to be that record I said oh my god I'm gonna remix that racket that I love live like this don't wanna fall in I said I don't know what I'm gonna do to this but I'm gonna rip this record up like a hungry man I'm hungry every day just i'ma rip this record of peace it's just gonna be like I'm then he said okay i'm i'm a senior check i'm thinking and this is gonna jump on to get this i'm thinking all i'm getting for remix is $10,000 that's all I thought I was getting sounds like yet is $10,000 gonna help me get a truck get my family and everybody and we going back to New York and we're gonna live in the projects until we install over so because I still had my my apartment my mom still kept it you know and my father you know I've kept it nobody lived in it and what happened was I got back to New York and he called me he said she get your check as he is deposited five thousand dollars he said no but that's not what you're getting he's I'm giving you seventy five thousand dollars that's it and you know that's my Moses when stuff happens like this and you get a blessing you you there by yourself you got a quite a sum higher I tried the guy I was like man we what else what else you gonna do what else this is blessing beyond lesson I got a twenty million dollar deal that's about to happen I only got 75 thousand that's coming to me so what am I going to do now I get this call oh there's a city this is Quincy I say hello Chrissy's like yeah I'm just calling uh you had called me and yeah I did use my first call he's like I heard about you and Jane and you're gonna be all right you're gonna be all right I had somebody I need you to meet I need you to go to Clarence hey Yvonne tells anybody familiar with count Clarence Avon the Godfather of the business he's the true Godfather the business he's the one who actually equalizes the business so that everyone not just the blacks to whites every he's the equalizer when it comes to fear shake you go to Clarence and he will make it right he made it right for Clinton on a lot of things the white water and all of that stuff y'all I don't know if you're familiar with it but just to tell you what Clarence Avon and and what he means to the business he I went to his house I can only remember the one thing and I always joke him about it is after my whole thing and I'm explaining to him what's going on he falls asleep on me and when he fell asleep on me we we left about it actually four months ago when I met with him and I said you remember the meeting we had scary I remember it is I said you know father's before me there how bad yeah I fall asleep on every damn body so um Clarence Avon is part of the visitor he's partly responsible for me working with Michael along with Quincy along with who I call my uncle in the business my conception and I don't know if anybody's familiar with him but he's the guy that actually was a part of getting me the Interscope deal all of these things came at the same time it's just like really he poured it on me and it was it was like wow one door closed the other open with a whole bunch of money just falling out and and that was really not my goal my goal was I needed to get my family back to New York back to start all over but he said I you asked for it and you got it and that all is the cause and the answer to your question of why and what happened was struck all these things you know I had nothing but even when I had something I was always hungry and that's what that's why I'm 700 and some songs beat and that was and I and I do think Jean I think Jean I think Harvey I think Barry I think all the people dick Scott everyone that's been in my life and helped me state it the best way that they know oh and and the lawyers and I thank them all because if it wasn't for them I probably wouldn't never met Michael and I probably would never be here with you all so they all are responsible for a part of my Jack my - and if it wasn't for Jean I wouldn't be deep with all the songs that I've been doing because literally he was like a Joe Jackson without the belt and say may you can't go to the club you got to stay out of clubs it's too much trouble did you see these guys getting shot and you know me I was just I wanted just peace and I I stayed in the studio and I did everybody from Billy ocean to Jonathan Butler and and kool Moe Dee and all the people that I never thought I'd be wasn't with like Boy George and uh and um Tom Jones I worked on Tom Jones and on his umpteen album and it was just so amazing going to school because all of that was school for me working with Billy ocean with school you know the people who came before me were the teachers Mick Jagger and these guys were my teachers so um those were the things that kind of sparked me you know to make more music and never stop because the one thing that my attorney told me he said no Clive calda who's the head of jive and Zomba responsible for a lot of the boy bands like insane Backstreet Boys new kids on the block he's the guy really that discovered me this is the guy that saw me working and making a beat literally he stood behind a tinted window and looked at me make how you like me now he was watching me and then he came in and he actually called me another name because he thought I was actually living because he thought you know the vapors God it makes the beast but the vapors God I push buttons and make things happen he's the connector and he called Mila Weber and I said no teddy he said Teddy who I said Teddy rally he said so were you doing here where the guys said they went to go eat he said so you just here and then would you make him his beat I've seen you make this whole I need to hold excuse me a second he went back to his office called the whole staff and said I want this guy sign and that was my first published until my first publishing deal was $20,000 not a lot of money today but it was a whole hell of a lot back then and I got this back in 1984 round round then and so crazy 20,000 loves was so much money to me I told my mother quit her job she's Belle hell no is that you boy you crazy what could be after that $20,000 oh we gonna make some blow ball she said well you would you baked boy you got at least hundred thousand dollars in your bank account then I'll quit I said okay I'm gonna come back to you what did you learn from Michael Jackson for Mike for Michael Jackson oh I touches it like a stanchion so y'all see me on stage I'm trying to do that we'll walk still today um what I learned from Michael was a lot of things that I know now that I can share with other singers that you know I work with you know there are things that he taught me as far as doing backgrounds even better than how I was doing it because I was doing it you know the mom-and-pop way you know we live in the hood so we're gonna do it the best way we know how well he actually showed me the format and how he does all of his vocals even without having a computer and we didn't have that he did his vocals and one thing about Michael his pitch is amazing like he this is what he's singing okay he'll go to the side get his notes and he would come in and sing straight do you remember and his everything is the same each stack and what he would do was move around the mic and he would go this way for a different angle of the mic is almost like a photographer I want to get different angles of you and Michael would go to this side he would go behind the mic and sing the same step and it would be stack about five six seven ten times and then the next note I'm sitting here like Wow in his four bottle everything just the same it's almost like a sample of so learning this from him had taught me how to get what other things and show them how they can actually do their own backgrounds and not sound the same and it sounds like people instead of that's just you and that that that is how I learned how to do that you know it's about your angles as bunch of dynamics and it was like going to college you know because I finished high schools you know working with my my brothers and my sisters in there and my friends and their mothers and got what Michael and I worked with the King and it was just like it took a while for me to tell Michael was off-key until he really put me on Front Street in front of a mousseline and the assistants he's like I just want can you come in and did not know that the microphone was the one she's like I need you to tell me when I was key I need you to tell me if I suck whatever I whatever I'm doing I need you to tell me and don't be afraid and the same thing happened I didn't do no interviews for the album for long time is about six months and I didn't do not one interview talking about the album and he told me in a room again I'm thinking it is I'm gonna get fired or something's happening that I didn't long he's like I are you a part of this album I said yes I'm a hundred percent a part of this album he said so I didn't talk about it I said Michael you gave me I don't know how many pages 40 pages of a non-disclosure and I'm not validating that you're not taking me to court sue me for some not said you know about this project he said he started laughing he's like don't worry about that that's just just something I give to everyone when we do in our sessions I want you to take these interviews I have interviews and I need you to take them all and talk about this I said well first of all I don't even know what's going to be an album so what is there to talk about he's like okay I'm taking you further let's go to the room and he had his progress board and another board here and in the collage remember to collage the the Michael Jackson collage of the dangers out I'll tell you how that story is there okay okay um so on the collage he said we don't even have lyrics for remember the time something and how the hell mimics time get on the board he had visions before visions and he can tell you what's going to make it was not what he feel good about and what he don't feel a good feel good about it would be at the bottom of the list and all the records that he feel good about which he had about 5055 records and I'm looking at this list and I'm like how did keeping the clouds keep it in the closet be honest listen we don't even have the truck finish and then he put this chair market that I never heard jam and I never heard the record I was like so what is just sham record and why is my name next to it he said cuz you're gonna work on it and he said um joy joy I had a you know question mark behind it I think so what is joy why I have a question walk he said because I don't know if it's gonna make the album consider you as you can see we have so many songs and but I know that these are going to make the album so yeah I gotta go work harder because I see only three of my songs only I said he said so now you can talk about these songs and just spread the word I want people to know that you're working with me I said cool I must write the word she said great so I went back in and did those interviews came back in and made more like as I started working on driving me Wow and I can't let her get away and all these tracks I just started making some tracks and he's like peeping in until I made this record that really blew him away which was she drives me wild because he started hearing car sounds a pervert - fire trucks and I made this song out of car sounds vehicle sounds node wheel drums and all here was and and he couldn't help to come in that room and say what is this and that's how I got more songs on the album because I kept working I just kept working and just making I did ghost I did ghost I did blood on the dance floor all those I worked on all those records and he was like that's a keeper that's a keeper that's keeper - what are we gonna do it was like then finally when I did all of those records he he made it a point for me to go and listen to how he had Jam before I get to it is I really really need you to hear this racket I don't know what to do with it but do you all know that Michael created Jam on the drum machine himself and had an MPC in the bagging he said you got here to shrink it so he played this record does it jump up jump but it had nothing else but just a beat and he's like what'd she think I said this is crazy I don't know what I'm gonna do but I know I want to be a part he said you are you gonna take the drum machine and you go to work on this cuz I was working on all these beats and he's like I'm he's loving all these beats and he's like so this may kick jam out so that's why he gave me Jam and when I took Jam I was just sitting there analyzing how and what I'm going to do and what could I add to really take this where it needs to go and I started adding the horns and all the crazy stuff and all the villain stuff and he's like this is brilliant now I gotta go back in and rewrite and that's how we were making the records we were cashing them back and forth and he would start the lyrics for for remember the time but only certain words will come on you guys don't you do you know why Michael don't pronounce his words sometimes it's because it's the feel after the actual melody and if you can't put a word in there you mumble it and that's what Michael did and uh that's how we came up with mostly songs and then he said call some of your friend lighters and I called my best friend by not Bell and Bernard Bell came down and I said I'm gonna let you know right now got to stay along this melody you got to stay with this melody or you may not make the cut he said I got you I got you so he said do he want all these words pronounced because I don't know if I'm gonna be able to curve the words with the with the melody so don't worry about it just get as many words as you can in the song and he did he got everything exactly how Michael curved it we just taught me you asked me what did I learn it taught me with before I let you go I did all of the melodies myself for before I let you go and it was only because I was going through some stuff and I said lately I've been thinking dot dot dot dot dot dot ad you got an attitude if the conversation you're not in the mood like you used to those were the words that I put in but everything else was a melody and because I couldn't I didn't have time to write so I said Leon Silver's anybody familiar with Leon Silver's from the silver beyond Silver's is probably the best guy that can curve his lyrics to a melody he's probably the number one best you hear all this songs from the whispers and and uh Shalimar and all it is his records hit steady babe well he took before I let you go and follow every word that I put me and made it make sense and wrote that song the same way we did with Bernard Bell so that was the lesson of the main thing is melody is king that is Michael's slogan melody is king if you all are producers and writers any of you who inspired by music melody is king do not write your lyrics first write your melody and get everything out of that melody to make it do what you wanted to do your fall settles and all of that stuff then write your lyrics on top of it that was the Michael Jackson secret I don't take credit for it that's what he did every song even you dad you guys seen the number ones I do not see the making of the number ones where he was like you want to eat you can't me some you have to be and that was him in Randy who was the genius when he made those two did it that wisdom that the thing about how you make a melody you you do it in your jamming everybody we're in a room and you coming up with a line you come up with a line and the song is finished that's what I learned from Michael was really how to write a song without lyrics you write the melody I know we've we've heard this many times we have to listen to just a couple of seconds of this just a little bit of this week we had there was a creative battle with this song and why it took so long it actually took us four months to finish the song and I'll tell you why that's the funny story because uh when Michael was singing the verses to this song and I'm I'm actually coaching and letting him go and do his thing and just lay his vocals cuz he doesn't like to stop and go unless he say I like to supply so much I want to punch punch on to it well Michael was singing vocals straight through it would be like 20 tracks of vocals of one you know this is just a verse well we got the final verse done and he said I'm gonna lay a one-take now so okay after 22 tracks the vocals I want to see this and he laid a one-take because he knew what Michael does when he when he's doing his vocals like that he's taken what's good and really implementing it to the last track he's really like taking those phrases and and taken in really signature in it and then he makes the vocal and when he made that folk we were so happy and he disappeared Michael went to Switzerland right after the first verse he went to Switzerland to check on the small that was being built and he had a few he had stores in the mall I think it was his mall and he called me while he was on a plane from his satellite phone and said um I'm gonna be back in a couple of weeks and I said Michael I thought it was a little room I'm thinking we gonna get this record finish and you're gone he said oh we want to get it finished with this is a smash it's going to be on the album think he's gone I'm not gonna be here and maybe two or three weeks I gotta go back home and I said Michael whoa can I go home he said no I said why he said and I remember everybody who left like Dallas Austin left because nobody really had the patience for Michael you know he'll keep you in the studio and you being in he's not there and there's no indication or you know no guidance you know you got boosters in yeah that's great teddy huh keep going and um you know all of his workers everybody's just there for you and you need me food just like just to keep me in a room and so I said Michael I miss my family it's like doing them I said Michael I can't bring nothing he said call Norma bring them they can come I said I miss my friends too he said bring them don't worry I said well how are we all gonna get around with them all cars okay so Michael I could just go home for it no no no no no no no no please stay everybody left me I need you to stay this is you and I this is our album it's not just Michael your name is all over this and when he came back there wasn't a marketing meeting or anything without me being there and I can remember Michaels I chose the album cover which was you know that's amazing to be someone to put you in a position is like they had a bunch of pitches on the table and it's like hey what you think I'm nervous as hell like I don't want to pick the wrong thing and the whole record company everybody hates my idea well I said some none of those other outcomes he said what should I do a new photo shoot I said no they all agree but that's not the album cover the album cover is what you've been doing in that room it's that collage with your face in the middle and you're looking to all of your art and you've seen a vision in the colors of your music oh go get it the way people cope get it and they bring it in a bit of the table and everybody was like wow because I'm the only one who's seen it and maybe his workers walked in the room but they never thought twice because Michael always make a nod he's an artist I'm talking about a real craft men artists he just he'll take these apples and make it into art and put water and he'll just make this whole thing into and start piecing things together and take the plants and and the monkeys and and that's what you seen and it was so brilliant that they made it into a 3d if you guys can go on ebay you can actually pick one up and it's when you open it it's like you know the collage and it is life-sized it stands up and and I said to myself wow this is how God works so for you to be from here all the way to here in the marketing meetings and and from that to Michael being on Mac and music and Grammys and things about me that are so like wow I have a specific question about remember the time and I feel like the song always stood out to me just because of the register in which it's sung know Jesus is lower than he is on all the other songs you know to this point from the previous album more or less and even the other material on this album that had to be a conscious decision it is always my decision because that's how you know Bobby Brown walked out of the studio me because he didn't want to sing my froggit of the way I I we envisioned it and the way we hear it same thing would keep sweat he didn't want to sing I want to that way and I said keep you got to do it this way this is your signature and you don't understand it right now but you you understand later you gotta sing it this way he's like I I'm gonna try this way but it don't work out baby I'm doing my way same thing look with but bobby was like hi she's like I I'm telling you how see nothing yo I'm a hit I didn't girl next door that's all this what nice to you I was like what we got to do this Bobby he's like I am Oh God hidden thought that it roll and the record company literally had to tell her we gonna can your album if if you don't get back in that studio with this guy you know do you know who he is and best little solace god bless him who was responsible for me being on this album and only had this just walk two songs and he came back in and said to me if this don't want my children we don't do it my way cuz I i'm always the calm one see that's the job of producers you gotta be the opposite of your artists if your artists shied you gotta get that ass up come on now you gotta get in every woman's get that you're good and you scream out of it what if you bake them skin you get them get them nervous they start sweating voice get moist and then they go and get the focus time so where Michael broke out on me and Anna the purpose of him singing that low was I said you can't give everything away in the beginning you got to gradually get them there so as you hear song this is the perfect song for escalation it's like you climbing the steps and you get to the top of the stairs and you get Wow okay and it was he didn't do that around us it's the same thing when you go under students like certain things I do in the studio I don't want y'all in there like when I play the vocoder it's very only person I at learning studio and I kicked him out was one of my producers because he was in the back just laughing like crazy because I'm up here trying to get all the feelings so like y'all hear this music the way it is because the vocoder really cuz I'm screaming in that microphone that's how it sound before putting it in the vocoder and you got it literally to get the feelings out of a vocoder you gotta you know you just gotta be just uncomfortable really uncomfortable singing screaming lose my voice so I'll wait two days or a day of taking tea and all this stuff and then finish it out same thing with Michael Michael will sing that one part and he's in that room just going hard screaming get mad torn stuff and that's how he gets the the aggressiveness of that focal he'll go in and and I can remember one time the anvil cases fell on Michael and all you heard was help help help help me crews Teddy I said what happened oh he's this is booth I the ample case fell on him again and I didn't know that Michael goes through a lot to get himself in that mode of screaming and all of our cassettes um scream you you have to know that Michael is doing doing something to get himself in that mold mad aggressive you know like I hate you so much right now that type of thing and I've actually seen it once and it really gave me a whole lesson of why I do what I do you know sometimes I'll just take off my shirt and being nothing in do vocals because that's how I feel is how you feel your creative person your art so this is how you're going to be today if I don't have cameras in the studio because you know we we actually go to a lot to get the focus how we want to get them and exact and that's what Michael do but let me tell you something about Michael a lot of people don't know that Michael will have a real deep voice and a lot of people don't know why he talks like well the voice is the muscle the voice is like how you worked on the studio I know anyway you're going to get the muscles you got to keep working them out well him talking hi is working his voice every day to stay that high but one day Michael called me and say oh I'll speak to a theater Raleigh Theodore how are you and then he would go and laugh and go into that voice I don't know too much for me and that was why Michael sings high and why his voice is so clear when he sings high and his force metal is so silky and pure and you feel it don't you it's because he's working out every day and Seth Riggs who's one of the best vocal coach coaches in the world this is the guy that made Michael talk high no matter what you do when you talk to people you talk high and that's what he did hi how are you and if I wanted to be a high singer all I would have to do is just keep talking high and I can talk and sing high so I can talk to you like this every day hi ladies how are you doing I'll answer the phone this way and talk like a woman and you you wouldn't even notice the difference that's what Michael did that's the secret to Michael's madness of being such a great singer in the greatest Entertainer of all times we go through the motions and we go through what we do and what we have to go through to keep that sound to keep the voice and keep what you guys want to hear on stage if we didn't you wouldn't like us so now obviously you've done tons of work since working with Michael but after you work with somebody the biggest store in the world is there some part of you where anything after that is a tough like you know well this isn't working with Michael Jackson I mean how do you how do you follow that you know um after working with Michael ah Bobby and Whitney's waiting in in Virginia for me to work on the getaway out um it's a challenge that was the biggest challenge but I did what I could for Bobby's outlaws and we made a good record of course it wasn't the dangerous album so after making Bobby how I created Blackstreet was Chauncey it came to me and said no but I was little upset that Bobby wasn't you know singing all the songs that we had we got 13 done Bobby was like we finished I was like we need to do 30 more he's like man we finished um I'm out of here I'm getting married okay Bobby we're gonna do some more songs so we got to the point where he's like I he's not gonna do no more music we got to make the best out of this and that's what we did but it created black street because Chauncey was singing all the demos and when Chauncey did all the demos it was me training him because prior to Chauncey even singing for me I said he couldn't sing because the audition for God and all that my mind was just looking for somebody who could sing close to Aaron or have that Charlie Wilson voice so that I can get to at the top with the air and voice and me and Amy I'll take the bottom and we'll have that great you know that guy's down like where's your love and all of those Aaron hall backgrounds so it was as long as that was left was the songs that we use for the guy the black street album and we created black street and chauncey I said Johnny I said I can help you create a group but I'm not gonna be in it because I just ill had feelings for God you know I still had that in my heart and my soul you know we don't get back together you know and it was it was it took a toll of me to think about being in black street I was like no I'm not gonna be in this group I still got my group over here and but I want to be in in black Street and I want to be a nerection effect after after Aaron had did an interview and it was not good it was like you know forgive teddy it's like woman either it's like I'm doing my solo album I was like salon I could join this group now and I joined it and we made a big successful career album and it was amazing and I felt like well I knew I was making dreams come true so Chauncey and Levi and all the guys my goal was if they fail I made a dream come true because of what I said about Chauncey I had to correct that because that's not what Kings and teachers do you don't shut a person down you pick him up and that's what God bless you to do he bless you to bless others and I said wow I could be a blessing to this guy he had no job he didn't have any place to stay and I was leaving this is before I started working with microwave moved to Virginia had the studio and he's like man I need a job I don't want to move back to Jersey and I said oh you can come to studio he said man sleep on the floor doesn't matter I said I could stay here at the studio and you know you can monitor it with my god brother and my staff and you know just do whatever you can fill it and get in where you fit in and he did that he stayed the whole year in three months maintaining and helping around during the studio and that right there told me that this kid is gonna make it and I wind up just started putting him in studio I mean I mean you know he did all of them how you say duals he paid all his dues you know doing stuff around the studio and and I just said you know what it's time to really bless this brother let me do some stuff with him let him do these demos kind of get used to me and then maybe I'll bring him on as a solo artist but when he brought up the group that's what happened we put together black street and you also developed a sound that was the next evolution get over yourself well started with Michael Michael was the start of the new the new New Jack Swing he just took it to another level and that made me just where the innovative sign it was just like okay I got to be innovative after working with Michael I gotta come up with something that is just gonna shock the world and [Music] [Applause] [Music] story behind that record is amazing because first of all I have to give credit to my good friend he passed away 2005 who wrote the lyrics we'll stew it um Oh Stuart and I we've known each other since I was I think 1213 he'd know me you know because I was just a little kid making music and they used to come in my projects go see some girls I think it was my friend which is his partner Teddy Blinn who was seeing someone in my building and they all came up and the song you know I heard their voices they would call pure Blin and uh will was the writer along with Teddy and they were like the two copies of the group it was I think four members three or four members in will was in my studio and he had this sample was also a producer and he had this sample there with his grandma's hands and he played it for me he kept playing it I kept walking by the studio I was like what is this sample and why is this making me walk out of the studio keep passing the room and for him to just give it to me and I said okay this is it I need that sound for you can give me that and he gave me the sample as that got something for it I took it in my room and I cut it up in pieces where was by each hit so just to keep it in temple so I can remember the tempo being 88 and I said I'm gonna keep it 88 because if I speed it up it's gonna change the temple I just going to change the pitch so I don't want to speed it up I'm just going to cut it in many pieces and make the loop and then I'm just going to build from there and we'll kept walking in the rooms like you and hot it's crazy and then I said I'll call you what I'm ready for you so we can start writing the lyrics I'm gonna do the melody and then I'm gonna give it to you so um I got this record to where we are here at that piano line it was almost like I was thinking of you remember our attempter didn't don't enter or do you know after a joke is said well I thought of that hooked him being that for the racket say citizens of the town da da da da dun dun strictly business loan play around dad on an ant dance today so that's what the piano line was for me it was my my tag you know and I had to have it in me it was like I need something at the end because I can't let this beat go down it can't stop it got to keep going and only time is a drop is when I have to say something baby you're perfect in drop it butter on enough like the way you work in and that was my feeling of that song give it a new blues a new I'm be a new bounce and of course no one understood it but Heavy D who wanted to steal it for me who steals all my songs Heavy D will come in and it is money of the bully you know give me your lunch and Heavy D will come in and he took we got our own thing for X in effect he took was the other one now that we found love and and is it good to you is it good for you was read from the fax racket and I could only remember I'm not giving you this racket heavy I can remember we sitting in the room and he's sitting at the board I got the picture I wish I would have bought it but he sitting at the board I'm sitting at the boy and in sight you know you should give me that record I'm like not this time he said you know you breaking the rules with this racket I said what do you mean you said there's nothing like it that's the reason why it's for me I said no this is not for you heavy if you want to rap on it I would love for you to but I know we're here for your record we're here to make you a record not this racket you can't get this record right here you took every record of my brothers and I'm not letting it happen so we wind up doing um not a we fun love so take this record it was reximus equity it was like Oh God um so he gave me the thumbs up and then it was uh dr. Dre who gave me the thumbs up by asking telling Jimmy say when Teddy do this record he does the video to this record I want to be in it and I said to jimmy unless he gave me 16 bars you gotta give me 16 bars and then we can be in this thing together and let's make history and that's what he did the next day he cuz vocals he didn't even wait he cut it they sent it right to me and put it in the song and I said we can't just go with it like this we need a rapper in the middle he just gave me a beginning it's gonna be boring there's no escalation so this girl was my little sister miss Quinton who actually we met way prior to that and when we met we were in I hop my favorite I hop down the street from my studio is right go quest princess in high school which is where Pharrell went then I have and that's always on Virginia Beach Boulevard with the stool the studio in the IHOP and she came up to me and she said I don't want to make it look like I'm coming on to you but I rap I said cool to do something for me right here she said I'll do so I said no wait a minute because you probably don't be loud meet me at the studio and when you come to the studio I'll be prepared to listen to everything you got she came to the studio she spit and everything I was impressed but I said surely I ain't got nothing for you right now but soon as I get something I'm gonna give you a call and the call was no biggie she was home waiting for my call and I said find that girl did the girl the rap girls when it came on to me and I hop I love her so much and y'all pray for her you know she's she's going through it right now and and it's not anything financial because she's great but she's not able and I want everybody to just keep her in prayer um but when I got on that song it sealed the whole thing icing on the cake song done we took it to Jimmy Iovine and all I can remember was my manager at the time Madeline Madeline was like okay we're going to play the record I think I'm nervous because um enough is going to make it by the way the guys stuck me out they're just kind of like you sing the first verse it put me on the front line and that's the reason why I'm singing the first verse is because it wasn't my plan it's my plan for them to sing it because like I said I wasn't trying to be in black street like that but it just so happened I'm singing the first verse the guys is like if this fails it's going to be on I [Music] believed so much in this racket because I knew it was something new and the one thing that Michael told me is when you have something different know that you had the first and if it doesn't become the first you know big hit for you somebody else is going to sample it or somebody's going to be inspired so either way people got inspired from the record the sound the new sound and we took it to Interscope and we all went out there and sat down in front of Jimmy Iovine and and being at Jimmy is the type of guy to have the demo face and he's on the thing sitting up with his Blackberry while the record is playing and not bopping his head to it it's just like so you think Jimmy he says I get it I like it I just don't think it's the first single you're right he said by me love is the first single and the reason why because of his relationship with Paul McCartney and how much I love Paul McCartney and the Beatles so I was kind of cool with it but I wasn't cool when I said Jimmy I think we're making a mistake here he's like well I mean let me just think on it let me just sit on it and then Madeline is like you know we're gonna do the same thing we did with one Jenga we're gonna pass up a thousand copies and we're gonna put it out there anyway we don't give it to the radio stations because of our relationships and we're gonna let them play and they're gonna deny for Jimmy well all of this happened at the same time we was about to push the button get ready to play the record and then Jimmy calls back Jay Jay said he wants to be in a video okay so is it the first single and then I said no I need him on the record to be in a video and he gave us 16 bars and when he gave us the 16 bars we went into getting Queen and everything and it became our way you know how you get favor if you keep pushing it play until something happen and that's what we did we played on this record and was like this is going to be it this is going to be the single this is it done change Jimmy mind change the group mind because they didn't believe in the song and it changed the world for me because for me to be on a song that went number one 13 weeks or something like that and went platinum in no time and all these great things that Michael said was going to happen for me he said you're gonna get a big hit and watch this you're gonna really do it and you're gonna be real you're gone you're gone and I hope to get you guys on my tour I said all hail you at this make this record and we made that record and we really split I have to go back a little book in a knowledge let you know before black street was wrecks in effect so I hope we go into that because I really have to give you why and how that record came about and and how Pharrell was a part of it and all of the things that happened for that song and actually what maybe four or five or six months that song was made so no diggity was the actual record that was the go-by to finish the album now at the same time I was going through something really really hard and that was my relationship I thought it was going sour I was sick for two weeks after coming from Trinidad we made the whole no diggity album another level in Trinidad we did this out there while they were having Carnival so that's how you heard some of the rhythms from that you know just the rhythms in the song in the album period was from my excitement from being at carnival so when I came back I found stuff going on with my relationship you know and my ex was seeing somebody and it just made me write more songs but I wasn't able because I was just gone I was just out of it and the guys came to the house praying it came to the house and they played don't leave finish because I had finished the music and I did the hook and they came to the house and said yo just listen to this now baby now Big Damn did it all the vocals and I said wow I'm sitting up in the bed like emotional and about to break up but this record is in my head don't leave me girl please stay I didn't she think I know who cheated but I just loved it because I got a great album and y'all hear it now it's over what how many million over what six seven million sold that's big for me without Michael Jackson you don't say like I did a record without Michael Jackson with big and it really shocked the world because now still today no diggity is a mercedes-benz commercial it was on it was on pitch perfect and it was the bet commercial and it sure did it so that's what classics do for you you know these records are classics in I didn't know it would be I do want to give these guys a chance to ask some questions but I will just ask you one more before we hand the mic out to anybody who might have a question for you and maybe you can incorporate what you want to say about different back side effects and Pharrell but you are men you have been a mentor to people who have had a huge impact on music what is that feeling like from having this long arc of a career story as a very young person what does that mean now over these many years to be able to pass along something whether it's a Neptunes or Rodney Jerkins or Kimberlin check hope or whoever it might be what does that mean for you what it means is I'm doing my calling a my calling is to bless others my calling is not just to music is to do music and pass it on and that's how your legacy continues just like the Michaels in the prints we were given a gift and that gift is not to be taking it for granted it's actually to use it but not just for you it's for everyone I gave it to you to share and that's what it means to me and to share it and I'm able to share and I've been able to share it in my whole entire 50 years and I'm proud you know I feel like I'm a proud big brother problem into a proud father you know because my kids you know I didn't push them to do music I didn't push them to do anything I did push them in school and I pushed them to dance and look at the mouth the dancers for the top and their teaching and and that's all I wanted to see was them make something out of themselves and and do something for where they can share and that's what my oldest daughter Dasia you know she still today I still treat her like she's my my baby you know as she come and say that I need something I need this and she wanted to go back to school and she hadn't even have the means to because she got her own place and got so much to do and I said I gotta make this happen I have to figure it out and now she's teaching boxing and she's teaching dancing and she's doing everything and she's on growing up hip hop they were trying to figure out how she make it to grown up hip hop but a lot of people never understood like your dad to R&B no he started doing rap so these are all blessings they're not blessings just for me the pleasures for others that I'm attached to so I'm attached to everyone in here and I really see a blessing happening for everybody and I'm not trying to be a preacher or anything or prophesize but it's a connection and our energies flow through each other and something from this will make you go back home and be a creator whether it's art or anything that you're doing that's what this is doing it's like that's what God circulates through an arena like this and and everybody get it and they flow it in it they leave this thing I'm about to make a smash I'm about to make the best art that is going to sell an art gallery or whatever I'm about to write this book yes a mr. Chris so I've been yet to write a book where my book is finished but I haven't yet to put it out and when it comes out it's more than what we have here I mean I have over 35 years of things that you need to know and and watch out for so do we have anybody who has a questions mr. Teddy Riley please wait for the microphone I've been going my question is you talked about tone you talked about melody my favorite thing about a Teddy Riley record other solos and it's something that we don't see a lot of in music today so I just want to for you to give a couple takes about like horns who inspired that will influence that for you there's a few people that inspire me to do solos and and what it's a saxophone harmonica whatever it is I'll do a solo because it's only right and it feels good to do it wherever I did the my inspiration was inspired me to do it was a Larry Dunn arm I forgot the keyboard playing I don't want to say the wrong name but the keyboard player from Prince who did with himself when doves cry that's when music when you when you got a solo on the record it's like you really is like the essence of music you go and deep into the art of that song and people need to feel that so when I did Teddy Sam it wasn't my idea it was Aaron's idea to call it Teddy's jam and make my own signature song and I didn't truth be told I am NOT the greatest keyboard player in the world I'm not even half way there but I'm still in school with some of the greatest and still learning theory my godfather is Benjamin White who is a great opera American composer and and I live at his house he's still my mentor today and that's how I learned theory you know I learned how to get more interest so loved music because all I've been doing was winging it seriously I've been winging it because it was a blessing and that blessing pushed me to do everything without even learning how to read music everything came from here in here so my solos was from here in here and not being able to really fluently go and do the print solo but I shall make it close and as a creator we do and you know we work with what we got and that's what I did when those solos came it was just and it was like every mind me of when my favorite song was uh uh well track was a Beverly Hills Cop theme that was my favorite solo because I knew how to do it and that's what sparked me to do Teddy Jam because I wasn't with doing a Teddy gym I wasn't even wanted I didn't want to be in a group but being in a group I had to bring something to the table so that's why we did city jam and I did whatever solo I I knew at that time and as our progress I started doing better solo and you know really knowing what I I'm doing because it's if it becomes big it's my signature so I'm glad you pointed that out because you know a lot of people don't say you know we like your solos so thank you so much you know for someone who doesn't want to be in a group you've been in a lot of groups and they're all amazing and they're all wonderful so when when do you have another collaboration or group project on the horizon considering that you have really way more decades more music to give us no more groups for me without definitely work with artists and I'm working with a few artists now I just finished doing the mary j blige record and being a part of that it's my dream working with Mary Jay and and just fellowship and you know um was year no more no more groups I don't want to quit no more I've been quitting groups you know but I've been in five groups you know and they all we all made records in you know some would be for coding and losing my best friend when I was with guy that's what made me quit because you know I felt like it was all on me you know this is my best friend who came and was front and center just for me because you want to protect me and it really wasn't about us you know guy in addition and the whole thing that happened it was all a back line in the background people and it kind of put us in the forefront the first industry beef and all of that stuff but it really didn't have to do anything with the actual principles and that's what made me quit the group because I got this Michael Jackson project and I got all these things and these new deals and I said I can't do it all I gotta kind of sit back and make records and kind of build the catalog because that's the real estate of the business it's making and creating and writing the publishing you know so that's what I had to quit for it wasn't because we are at arts and you know the guys you know don't want me in the group you know I just had to take a leave and really regrouping you know I had already got everybody edited contracts and I took I took a big hit you know for my friends but they don't know that all I know is we out of the group we're gonna get back with Teddy and we don't you know that type of thing and and I had to really sit back and say dad I got to think about me sometimes and that's why I quit I it wasn't for anything other than that and you know I love my brothers and the guys in the group even the guys from Black Street I just really feel like sometimes when you do things for people they take you for granted and they don't understand where it really came from not me is God He blessed me to bless you so used to return - god bless me back and that didn't happen at all so that's why I had to take a step back and look at myself and say what about me I have children that I've left and couldn't see them until I got home because I'm on tour thinking about you you understand so no more groups for me and if I do it would have to be Mick Jagger you know some of the people that get it and have it and don't have to say well tell you you got the money you spin it you know you do it you do this you produce it I want to get what people who wonder as much as me and we can do some stuff like how they did the super heavy you know Jesse's and and all the people who came along and they just did it for the fun of it so if I did something it would be a super group with people who want it just as much as me and who love themselves as much as I do love me who else has a question I do what made you choose Virginia for your recording studio I chose Virginia because um back in the day I don't know if you guys ever seen painting full well the movie was about Alpo AZ and rich Porter or rich port and I we went to Martin Luther King together and he was like my street mentor you know things he kept me farming told me I want to husband I went to doing this and I kind of went behind him and didn't do what he asked me not to do and rich Porter and Pat Patricia his sister was always like you know in school you know like because I was just noted kid but I did have a cool look yeah I didn't look like the dirt when I was this kid that was just if I said something that didn't come out right because I was a nerd for real I just looked apart there's a cool kid you know and they they took me you know rich and I'll Poe and a Z they all took me under their wings they always like yo sorry don't and I can remember being in a you know in a place where I saw my life before me and you know guns held to our heads and you know we didn't know what to do but just get on the floor and Timmy Gatling was there and Weber and all and we were seeing our lives before us and God just games like this it ain't nothin gonna happen and then the guys with the guns like don't mess with that short kid to the little shorty - shorty man that's the music kit he said you know that's the music MF and when that happened in my life was spirit that's what made me say I want to be long gone where the wind blows free and the only place I knew was Virginia Beach where I could be on the beach and get a house on the beach and have my studio at the beach and and it was a way to get away from losing I lost rich Porter Duke my little brother Brandon Vaughn drew and all my friends before 30 and that's what made me move to Virginia because we had went there for field trip rich Porter out pulling them they brought the buses they rented the buses and I was surely on the bus with my fiancee at the time Donna and we both looked at each other and said if we move anywhere we'll move here and we did it when you put stuff in the universe nine times out of 10 it's going to happen unless you mess up the dream or the - we take detours and our - and sometimes detours stop you from the dream so my dream was to live in Virginia's not known what I was going to do there but I started a music scene in vibe and and movement that was unheard of now Virginia Beach its way on the map and still so for jigna is my second home I lived in 17 years half of my life and it became the place to be for a lot of people I remember Heavy D coming to a genius saying when you come to Virginia you got to play the Teddy toll and I said what's the Teddy told he said man everybody know you here so I'm calling it the Teddy toll and puff came down everybody came down leaving Russell Simmons came down with a Leora and they came down for me to do gotta get you home with foxy and I remember doing that song and and uh and they came down and they was like man we got to go down to see him and he's gonna charge a lot of money but we still need to see him because we need to strike it fix and Trackmasters who I look up to and and I love they found everything I was like man this record is done like no today you won't touch this racket sorry so I took the rack in and put blacks trees on it and put the top box in the full quarter and all the things that I did and then they was like okay how much you want to get paid I said give me what you want to get me he said cadet I am is okay and bustles looking at Lee on the eye looking at us was like if he kitten come on man just tell us what you want we leave in this room until you give us what you want for this record it's a smash and we're well worth it we got a crazy budget but did I said I wrote to help this and I said take $1 out of your pocket and they looking at each other again like this bullcrap enough I said take a dollar out of your pocket he took a dollar out his pocket give me the paper thank you do the paperwork give me the points they didn't believe I could did the record for a dollar I did gotta get you home for one dollar and they started giving us gifts and Louie Vuitton bags and I said I don't want that give it to the band give it to me and all those guys I don't want that and I remember those guy by the name of red island who's the best friend of my uncle Willy who was the president of Atlantic Records he was to put this the president of the RnB department he said to me sat me down while we were uptown and he said this business is made up of favors give a lot and some will come back to you and that's what I thought about when I did the record for a dollar and Madeline was there you know and and I I'm sorry yeah we framed the dollar in and that's all I took for the record because I knew I these are two powerful people Russell Simmons and Leo : most powerful one of them to feed our most powerful men in the business I need my favor oh by the way I didn't look to them you know and it was just a good record I wanted to be a part and I wanted to do something with Russell Simmons and I wanted to do something with Leo and I didn't think back on the favor I just know that I did something that God pushed me to do with less people of us because that's what you are plans for that's my story we have one more question I think first I just have to say thank you for everything that you've done for music honestly thank you like as a person that's from New York that loves to dance I don't think there's a general music that makes me happy at a dance to the New Jack Swing honestly thank you thank you but my question is earlier you mentioned the song is it good to you and I remember there were two versions of that song it was Heavy D at his version and it was Tammy Lucas I believe was the vocalist on there and the song was was really really big during that time and I kind of didn't hear anything from her until I think gearsley and I remember hearing on super thug with Noriega and I just wondered why there was never a team Lee Lucas album or a project if there was I what really happened with her as an artist well it was a up and down moment with Tammy who's incredible singer-songwriter and visionary and why I say visionary because Tammy was the one that actually pushed me into making music just to a lyrics she would give me our Capella's or she would sing something and and I would get it right away and that's how we came up with goodbye love and we came up with certain records you know and is it good to you arm Tammy before I'm sure you know was a club thing and she sung club music and she had a big hit out there and I was pushing for her to make another record but we want to making so many records for everyone and Tami to me is real estate she's she's in the real estate music business he'd been writing for colleagues and all these people and she's still doing well you know somebody you know sometimes people find their place in this business or in life and they just stick with it and that's what she did she just said I'm not going to be an artist and I'm just going to be a writer and I would love to have Tami on my new album that I'm doing for my book I'm actually doing a soundtrack to my book so that you guys can hear music and and hear new talent to people in and um we're gonna have some fun with it you know have some interesting music pieces and I'm also doing some Symphony pieces because my dream is to be in Carnegie Hall you know the Symphony halls with people with tuxedos on dancing in their seats like and it just made me just that that's my dream y'all and I'm put in the universe is happening for me right now but you know I'm trying to pick up all and put all the pieces together and the people that I want to be to help me with it because as you know the reason why I never did a solo album is because I'm a team player I don't believe in you know there's no I and we and I don't I'm just a team player getting up join your group and I'll join your group but I won't be solo but now it's time for Teddy Riley of them because I feel like everybody's made an album Pharrell Tim Allen and all of my brothers they made albums and I feel like I should make an album but I wanted to be meaningful I'm not going to try and be like something that I'm not I know y'all gonna hear that talk box and y'all gonna hear that full quarter and you're gonna hear what I have some whatever voice and that you know a lot of people there you go you got a I like your singing I'm like yeah I wish I could do loofah you know I could do Aaron hall or somebody but you know I I do what I can do on stage and that's what you will see in my live shows you know we're towing now and people are so enjoying you know sometimes I get emotional in that stage with guy because guy on the stage is like pandemonium it's like people are like you got tempest in the audience crying because they you know they were in relationships and they out of relationships and in the pimping game and all of that stuff and I would literally see people in audience crying like where they been you can look like look at the expressions like my sunny days and that's the feeling I want people to have with my music with me but the art of it you know that's it that's all well I just want you all to look forward to more things because we have the film coming we have a bunch of films coming one of the films is coming that I know you're going to be really intrigued with is rooftop I can't wait for y'all to see rooftop my partner gusto and I we were putting our heads together because you deserve it you deserve to see what's been going on in Harlem because back then certain people couldn't come unless they add the limo driving through and seeing the sights but now it's beautiful it's art Harlem the whole New York is odd and I miss it I miss it so I'm sure y'all and your pie looks for me to come back here and but I'm definitely gonna do it I'm coming back I'm coming back for concert we working on it now I just been honored but I said I don't want it right now because I want it to be big I want it to be like cotton comes to Harlem or Harlem Nights you know and we're gonna do it Keith we all came up with let's do something for you know New York and and our home in let's bring everybody and it's called all nights at either the Apollo or the Beacon Theater or something like that so look forward to it because we're going to do it it needs to be done also look forward to King's of R&B it's a show and it's a keep sweat Bobby Brown and all the kings of R&B you know and we're just striving to be the Rat Pack or which striving to have our residency all over the world so look forward to all these things we ain't stop everything we love it that's the reason why somebody's talking talking me into doing unsung and I said I'm not on song I'm still on the stage and I'm still able I ain't unsung and I'm on a marriage a fly job you can't take that from me and I'm on maroon 5 y'all I'm doing what I still what I'm still doing you know it's like if you still doing what you're doing give me a documentary don't give me no one song I'm sorry and I'm just I just want people to feel my story on the screen and we're working hard to do it so if we add a bunch of films coming and roof top is one of them New Jack Swing remember the time which is the name of my book which is coming first so look forward yeah I really enjoyed myself here spend it took a long time where book us a minute to get you here pixal time it took some years some millions but I'm just so happy and blessed to still be able to tell my story and get my flowers while I'm still let's say thank you once again to mr. Teddy Riley [Applause]

Channel: Red Bull Music Academy

Views: 182,765

Rating: 4.9037433 out of 5

Keywords: “red bull music academy”, Teddy Riley, Teddy Riley Interview, Teddy Riley Lecture, Teddy Riley Red Bull Interview, Teddy Riley talks New York Swing, Teddy Riley on Swing music, Teddy Riley Live, Teddy Riley Discussion, Teddy Riley New Jack Swing, Teddy Riley on Bobby brown, Drum machines, Teddy Riley on Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley on The Neptunes, New Jack Swing Genre, Teddy Riley and R&B, Teddy Riley Music Production, Teddy Riley on Songwriting, the roots

Id: u_ZoJ6lkKAE

Length: 146min 59sec (8819 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2017