GUY: Groove Trendsetters Introduce New Sounds and Uptown Style to R&B Music

 

Picture a festive night without the typical posturing, ice-grilling and high-post profiling. It's New Year's Eve 1990 at Club Spotlite. You're playing the back with your third Long Island Iced Tea. You're kicking it with the waitress so drinks are on the house all night. A couple hours til her shift is up and you both are outta here. Fly girl Uniqua is holding court at the bar, gyrating to the music as her silky bob keeps time with the beat. The heat radiating from her barely-there outfit is twice as hot as the three-man crew rocking the stage tonight. The music is crazy and the lead singer's riffs are transforming the spot into a church revival. You pan the crowd and check Nino Brown getting hype in the middle of the dance floor among the regular folk without a bodyguard in sight. All of a sudden you hear the opening bars of your favorite jam and you rush the floor like a dope fiend at an open drug bazaar....

                 "My dreams are now reality/each and everytime you are here with me…”

                                                            GUY---I Like (1988)

When people wax poetic about post-soul R&B, GUY---Aaron Hall, Damion Hall and Teddy Riley are often criminally overlooked in discussions more often than not include Nineties pantheons Bell Biv Devoe, Jodeci, Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige and D'Angelo.

 It doesn't take a forensic genius to recognize GUY’S prints are all over a musical era fast overtaking 70s soul as the new old school. This isn’t your parents R&B. It was a different kind of vibe that spoke the language of younger generation caught between life's realities and carefree moments elusive in middle age like trying to lose that spread in the midsection or having a life without crazy bills. GUY's songs still hold up today, transporting Gen-Xers back to a youthful time when they were fly, fabulous and based on the dance moves---much more fit.

GUY came on the heels of R&B's old guard. Some dismissed their music as formulaic. Killing off traditional soul music. Over saturated. The industry caved in eventually though. Adapting Frank White's "can't beat'em-join'em" mantra from Abel Ferrara's cult film King of New York, Everyone from the Jacksons, James Ingram and Stephanie Mills signed on for musical makeovers. Labels unwilling to meet Teddy Riley's five/six figure producer fee hired cheaper imitators to duplicate the sound of the GUY phenomenon.

 GUY might have been too far ahead of the curve. In the eighties, black groups were in decline in favor of solo acts. Urban culture hadn't yet become American youth culture. There was no 106 and Park. The Sound Scan album sales tracking system revealing black star power's crossover potential was still years away. While their music rarely ventured outside of urban radio, collectively and individually they were associated with huge hits recorded by other artists. Many of their actual songwriting and production credits remained a mystery for years. A year into their run as R&B's biggest group, their momentum slowed when they found they were victims of a bad management contract that manipulated their earnings.

     James Ingram takes a break from the pop/R&B ballads as Teddy Riley and Gene Griffin make cameos announcing his New Jack Swing makeover predicting another smash.

Their tumultuous history played out like episodes of Behind The Music, Unsung and Empire. If social media existed in 1989, they would have definitely been a trending topic. Unlike label mates New Edition who weathered their own storm of drama and dysfunction and remained a unit, GUY's brief reunions and long hiatuses defined the group as much as their music. Bell Biv Devoe (1990), Forever My Lady (1991), What's The 411 (1992), CooleyHighHarmony (1991), My Life (1994) II, (1994) and Brown Sugar (1995) all deserve to be modern classics. But they must be prefaced by a group whose style and musical expression inspired a younger generation of creative movers and shakers to find their place in the music industry.

                                                             

                                                       ACT I: A Change's Gonna Come

                                                      “Let's Go Back.....Back Into Time.....”

                                                   It's Just Begun--- Jimmy Castor (1972)

Back in the days, black music was primarily an adult affair. If you were a teenager around 1984, most of your favorite recording artists were at least ten years older. The few teen artists that existed like Johnny Gill, Stacy Lattisaw and New Edition were carbon copies of an older generation of classic soul singers. 

                                                                                

                                           

                                          

                                              

Gill belted out ballads like Peabo Bryson. Lattisaw sang 70s slow jam Love On A Two Way Street and New Edition stepped like the young Temptations and on occasion, sang 50’s doo-wop songs like Earth Angel. Although ex-NE member Bobby Brown was inching closer towards his bad-boy swagger, his spandex look in videos like Girl Next Door (1986) found him looking more like Cameo than a future King of R&B.

Circa '87, twin pillars of champagne-and-roses grown-man soul music Luther Vandross and Freddie Jackson were setting hearts on fire with songs of genteel romance. Prince's Purple Reign was at its zenith, spinning off a revolving cast of characters elevating the Twin Cities sonic outpost to cult-like status.

                                                               

                                         

Funk chameleons Cameo still moved with the times. Visionary leader Larry Blackmon was the cod-piece wearing Steinbrenner still at the helm, switching up the group's line-up like the Yankees. He retooled their sound and transformed them into a sleek hit making machine. They dropped the horn sections in favor of drum machines and synthesizers. Their witty anthems with tongue-in-cheek humor using reggae, pop, funk, new wave, jazz and rock elements was recast as "21st Century Bebop". 

Hits like She's Strange (1985) and its Room 123 remix featured Blackmon's self-titled "thinking man's raps" proving Cameo's ability to throw creative curveballs while other funk bands struck out at the plate. They ran off six consecutive gold plaques before finally hitting platinum pay dirt with Word Up (1986).

                                                                              

                                              

Eighties black music was eclectic. Black-Brit soul outfit Loose Ends' Zagora (1986) was slick and cosmopolitan. Soul-synth duo The System's Don't Disturb This Groove (1987) was futuristic. Soul sister Janet Jackson came of age with Control (1986). Alexander O'Neal's Heresay (1987) had a post-Pendergrass swagger that was a big hit in Europe and America. LL Cool J's Bigger and Deffer (1987) and Freddie Jackson's Just Like The First Time (1986) rocked the boulevard and boudoir and Whodini's Back and Black (1986) continued their platinum winning streak moving rap into uncharted musical territories.

                                          

                                        

                                     
When Keith Sweat's Make It Last Forever and Johnny Kemp's Just Got Paid arrived at the tail end of '87, it was ground zero for the sound of R&B was to move into a higher gear. Enter Teddy Riley.
                                                                             
                                        

On October 18, 1987, the Village Voice published Harlem scribe Barry Michael Cooper's essay New Jack Swing: Harlem Gangsters Raise A Genius. Cooper cast a spotlight on a musical hybrid of go-go, funk, gospel and soul he branded New Jack Swing. He proclaimed it as the soundtrack to a gritty world where the American dream was seldom seen. Where those who got paid in the illegal pharmaceutical trade and others wanting a different kind of piece of the rock intersected as kindred spirits living in the crack era--- never leaving home without their urban American Expression and youthful bravado.

                                                                      

                                  

              "There's a world waiting for you/yours is the quest that has just begun"     
                               

 (To Be) Young Gifted And Black---Aretha Franklin (1972)

Picture Sunday morning songs of devotion in storefront churches. Saturday morning old school soul selections. B-boy anthems blaring from schoolyards and windows of tower-like structures with elevators that never worked. To the untrained ear these were just sounds of the city. To young Edward Theodore Riley they were all parts of an Uptown anthem; ingredients of a powerful concoction destined to be equal parts Olde English 800 and Moet Chandon instead of top shelf 80's Quiet Storm--- the choice of an older generation that went down smooth and easy like Chivas Regal or Harvey's Bristol Cream.

                                                       

A decade earlier, writer Nik Cohn's Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night chronicled a Brooklyn outer-borough disco dream scene. It was a story about working class Italian-American kids packing the Odyssey 2001 club shedding their mundane lives like a second skin if only for a night, dancing their troubles away. The story inspired the film Saturday Night Fever and Cohn's fictional character Victor became swaggering Tony Manero, Bay Ridge's greatest hustle king this side of Deney Terrio.

                                                                     

Years later, Cohn admitted his story was fake and was based on the British mod movement of his youth. He knew nothing about Brooklyn. His cribbed notes were fabricated. It was a weak product cut with too much base compared to Cooper's package that was real-deal Holyfield. Potent like the treybags of Red Devil angel dust of his youth. In the words of New Jack City's Duh-Duh man---pure adulterated.

Ahead of the curve, Cooper was literary lookout providing real-time commentary on Riley's musical mega blast during the era of R&B (Reagan and Bush---shout out to Chuck D). On side one was a pop playlist of black music littered with crossover teams that reigned supreme. Whitney Houston and Lionel Richie albums sold in the millions but their sounds were worlds away from their gospel and funk roots. On the flipside were retronuevo artists Anita Baker and Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. 

 Writer Nelson George coined the term in his seminal 1988 book The Death of Rhythm and Blues. A kind of precursor to neo-soul, retronuveo was music that retained its distinctive soulful elements while remaining true to the strength of R&B. It didn't pander to mainstream audiences nor succumb to an industry guilty of filing down the rougher edges of Soul Power--- buffing it to a sheen for platinum green until a kid from building 225 in Harlem's St. Nicholas Projects ushered in a brand new funk.

                                                   

Teddy Riley started out as a young music prodigy who made his bones playing in clubs and in church. He also sat in on East Coast studio sessions honing his craft. By the time he was 20, his keyboard chord changes and swing beat drum patterns laced classmate Doug E. Fresh and The Get Fresh Crew's The Show (1985) B-Fats Woppitt (1986), Classical II's Rap's New Generation (1987), Kool Moe Dee's Go See The Doctor (1986) and How Ya Like Me Now (1987) and Rob and EZ Rock's It Takes Two (1988).  


                                                                       

With a stint in defunct group Kids At Work already behind him, Teddy contently settled into the role of rap producer. When an old associate with a unique last name came calling for beats for a debut album that would become Make It Last, Teddy re-entered the R&B game, this time for good.

GUY was the first R&B group on Andre Harrell's Uptown/MCA imprint. They were the sight and sound powering Harrell's vision of a new kind of black superstar without the trappings of Berry Gordy's polish and refinement. Gordy's injections of artist development took three girls---Flo, Mary and Diane out of Detroit's Brewster Projects and turned them into glamour girls. Harrell saw perfection in imperfection. He understood a new generation was capable of accepting the scars of their rough-and-tumble stars---flaws and all.

               

Dwight Myers was a portly young emcee from Mount Vernon who was blind in one eye. He would become a sex symbol and your favorite rapper's favorite rapper recording a catalog worth of gold and platinum records. He was the hip hop Renaissance man who could do it all. Dancer, producer, actor, and record exec. He also worked with Michael and Janet Jackson.

                                     

Being Mary Jane wasn't a bed of roses for a young ghetto girl from the gritty Schlobohm Houses of West Yonkers. Literally, she was the proverbial rose that grew from the concrete. The combination of her jazzy but slightly off key vocal pitch, emotional lyrics and pierced heart of glass resonated with fans caught up in the rapture of her raw talent. At last, the hip hop generation had their own Etta James, Chaka Khan and Anita Baker. Her crown of thorns were fit for a queen. Her coronation was complete when she became the Aretha Franklin of her era.

Harrell was savvy enough to realize there was a market for a new kind of soul music custom fit for an audience raised on the syncopated sounds of Rakim and Big Daddy Kane. It just didn't include the music. There was also an image that went far beyond Timberlake New Jack parodies of Eight Ball jackets, brick cellphone props and wack imitations of Aaron's vocals on late night talk shows.

                                                                         

                                                                             


                                                                
                                

                                           ACT II: The Evolution of Ghetto Fabulous

"GUY's look [of Dapper Dan-era Harlem hustler, all talent show coordinated]is the first example of ghetto-fabulous, a mix of hip hop, R&B and glamour"

                                       Andre Harrell---Vibe Magazine, February 2000

New York City has a long history of being suited and booted. Their penchant for flipping styles and brands is just as legendary. Jazz singers and musicians "flammed"  their own styles instead of square buttoned up look of their white counterparts. Just like the rappers who came later, Billie Holiday, John Birks Gillespie, Lester Young and Edward Kennedy Ellington were more well known by their alter-egos and signature looks: Lady Day and her ever present gardenia. Diz's jaunty beret. The Prez's porkpie hat and Duke's elegant wardrobe. 

                                                                                  

Even though ready to wear garments were the norm, custom made clothing was still a status symbol. Ivy League tweed and wool were fabrics of choice during the fifties and sixties when the look of Quiet Money hustlers and nattily dressed businessmen was interchangeable. 

                                                                         

Mohair and silk suits were a slicker alternative. The Continental look---form fitting suits along with expensive Italian knits and alpaca sweaters from the House of Blye attracted athletes and entertainers of the day. 

Made in Italy by a company called Blye of Florence, they were also highly covetous among sharp dressed black and brown youth. During a night of wilding in response to questionable neighborhood police tactics, they ripped down the shop's metal gate and made off with thousands of dollars in merchandise.



Before the materialism in BET videos, Otis Redding's Tramp video catches him balling out at his 300 acre Big O Ranch. Redding is flossing his personal private jet, fleet of luxury whips, corporate businesses, big bank roll and slick Continental wardrobe that defined the mid-sixties fashion.

Before the advent of suburban malls, NYC menswear haberdasheries were located all around all five boroughs. There was Wallach's and Cy Leighton's. Mr. Tony's and Orrie's. House of Cromwell and BB Lorry's.  Main shopping drags Fulton Street, Fordham Road, Jamaica Avenue, and Delancey Street catered to the more common but no less fashionable crowd.

The shearling coats defining '70s Western chic were appropriated by b-boys and rebranded as "sheepskins" joining other American functional brands Stratojac, Lee and BVD that were being absorbed into New York urban style.  


                                                                     

                                         

New York was also a destination for imported luxury and international brands targeting affluent and middle-aged consumers. The products would also became hood certified. From England came Kangol 504 and Spitfire caps, Wool Grousers and knit Tropic Casual bucket hats. Luxurious Cortifiel coats from Spain and high-end German and French eyewear by Cazal and Yves St. Laurent added to this cosmopolitan mix of apparel in New York urban fashion.

                                        

Bally of Switzerland's exquisite leather and suede trampers were especially popular. Originally leisure footwear for the international jet set summering at beach resorts, they were sold in shops from Europe to Australia (home of the infamous $600 Coogi Sweaters later made popular by Notorious BIG). They came in a host of colors ("flavors"). Retailing for $39 bucks in '76 and ballooning to a pricey $175 by the time the rubber soled kicks became associated with the hip hop crowd. Anxious to maintain exclusivity with its core consumer market, Bally pulled them from all urban retail outlets and the shoe disappeared.

Crepe soled kicks like British Walkers, Playboys and Clark's of England were staples among the UK pedestrian crowd. They became a more stylish alternative to sneakers while presenting a more grown-up look for the first generation hip hoppers. They were worn with Cortifiels, tailor-made gabardine pants and Damon Italian knit shirts named after Jewish clothiers David and Mannie Rappaport.

 Life and GQ Magazine may have sang the praises of Steve McQueen’s Playboy Chukkas and Clarks Desert Boots but in movie theaters on 42nd Street, real heads watching Black Ceasar (1972) also knew what time it was.

  Fred Williamson's Tommy Gibbs character rocked the  two-toned joints as he slid Gloria Hendry a gift from Bergdorf Goodman on tony Fifth Avenue.
 

Real life street kings Guy Fisher, Nicky Barnes and fictional ones like Ron O'Neal's Youngblood Priest along with Super Knick-private dick tandem Walt Clyde Frazier and Richard Roundtree's John Shaft combined to represent black masculine flamboyance worlds away from the current skinny jean/sneaker culture.

                                                                               

These items were purchased at spots like AJ Lester's on 125th Street during the era of Angel Dust, Super Fly days of white powder sales and motion picture street tales. Unlike today's older generation's current fixation with youth culture, this was a time when young males were keen on being perceived as adults and dressed the part.

 It planted seeds for what was just around the corner. By the eighties, brothers were less influenced by The Mack (1973) and more invigorated by the film Scarface (1983). The gear became more flashy, giving new credence to the Shakespearean term all the world's a stage. Straight out of central casting were drug dealers like Rich Porter, Azie Faison and Alpo Martinez. Dapper Dan's Harlem boutique provided the wardrobe, remixing the high snobriety of upscale brands like MCM, Gucci, Fendi and Louis Vuitton with a street look that transformed the streets into an urban runway.

                                        

                                                                               

                                       

                                               

                                                  

Overnight, the New YBE's (young black entertainers) became understudies clocking cats getting money around their way. With newfound wealth, they brought the look to life in music videos and album covers. The next level of urban fashion was solidified. The ghetto-fabulous look was born and in full effect.     

                                            

                                                 

                                     

GUY exemplified the NYC hustler-chic look. They imported the look to R&B and had it down to a science. Jean-Paul Gaultier designer shades. Fur coats. Dapper Dan MCM suits, razor sharp goatees and fresh fade haircuts sculpted in the "dry" S-curl style originating in barbershops with iconic names like Jerry's Den and Superstar. They rocked wife beater tank tops with a neckful of crazy jewelry from Midtown's Diamond District. Butter leather and airbrushed denim jackets accented in rhinestones and custom silk outfits and lizard skin loafers. GUY's image was how a modern-day R&B group coming up in the rap era was supposed to look.

                                                                              

                                                       ACT III: Must Be The Music

       "I made the New Jack Swing/Make You Dance To My Thang/Is The Way I Entertain"

                                        New Jack Swing--- Wrecks-N-Effect (1989)

The group's debut album Guy (1988) and its follow up The Future (1990) both sold millions of copies and spun off multiple hits. Groove Me blew the hinges off black music and bodied everything in sight. It sounded like a cross between a block party and an altar call. There was nothing like it on the radio. Levert's Casanova (1987) and Janet's Nasty (1986) were the sign of things to come but this record swung. It went straight for the R&B jugular and left nothing but the carcass. Gutting out conventional song structure and lush arrangements, GUY resurrected the  free-wheeling energy of Kool and the Gang's Hollywood Swinging (1973), Earth Wind & Fire's Bahia(1976), Parliament's Flash Light (1978) and James Brown's Sex Machine (1970).

                                              

Just before the song ends, Riley stops the track and teases the listener like deejay ("it ain't over") bringing the track back to the breakdown before letting it groove out. Older listeners who dug the record picked up on the funk. Hip hop cats who heard it didn't miss James Brown's Funky President (1974) and The Mohawks' The Champ (1968) samples underneath the record. A congregation of future singers bore witness to Aaron's vocal testimonies and were converted instantly.

In 1988, Spin Magazine columnist John Leland described the sound as ''low budget without special effects and orchestra but still sophisticated." He was right. Teddy's living room and bathroom served as a studio. He created drum sounds with his mouth and used stock sounds from a Roland D-50 keyboard synthesizer and a Akai 12-track mixer to craft some of New Jack Swing's greatest hits.

It was this "make-do" spirit and simplicity that made for some of the greatest black musical movements. As Riley was creating history in St Nick projects, Chicago deejays found ways to manipulate keyboards and recording equipment to make their own versions of Philly International and Salsoul dance records birthing house music. Over in the Queensbridge Projects, deejay Marlon Williams' cache of drum reels with dusty R&B samples elevated hip hop production to a more soulful space.

In the hands of a lesser group, Teddy's Jam would be a throwaway album cut. Instead,it was GUY’s banging third single. Bearing a passing resemblance to the Gap Band's Jam To The Motha (1983) in terms of free-flowing concept, the song showcases Teddy's keyboard wizardry.  Spurred on by Aaron's vocals (Teddy, jam for me!) it was reminiscent of classic James Brown and Maceo Parker interplay. Held together by pounding go-go drums, a new version of the song showed up on each of the group's three albums. It also sealed Teddy's notoriety. Before TR, producers were more low key and behind the scenes. Jam and Lewis may have mugged in Janet Jackson videos, but Teddy was the first celebrity producer of his era. Puffy, Michael Bivins, Jermaine Dupri, Timbaland and Pharrell watched the throne and followed the blueprint.

In the sample crazy eighties, GUY's music erased the polarizing lines between rap and R&B. Whether replaying the guitar riff from James Brown's Get Up Get Into It, Get Involved  (1971) or incorporating portions of Lyn Collin's Think (1972), Cerrone's Rocket In The Pocket (Live) (1978), Kraftwerk's Tour De France  (1983) and  Trouble Funk's Pump Me Up (1982), GUY songs had a hip hop sensibility and the ability to go toe-toe with any rap song. Before Diddy's claims of inventing the remix, extended versions of GUY songs rocked their videos, clubs and radio.

                                                                           

     

 The combination of hip hop and R&B was considered a new concept in 1988, but there were earlier prototypes. Lakeside's Fantastic Voyage (1980) featured a short rap by the group woven throughout the song. Pumpkin and Larry Smith--- rap's first super producers served up sounds combining melody, vocalized harmony and structure song with hard drums. 

Before they became a full-fledged singing group, Staten Island's Force MDs pioneered the marriage of singing and rapping.  Full Force's Alice (I Want You Just For Me)(1985) and Unselfish Lover (1986) featured sampled big drum sounds and sound effects associated with rap records like rocker Billy Squier's Big Beat (1980) (see: Run-DMC's Here We Go). Midnight Star alums Reggie and Vincent Calloway's drums, synths and vocal stutter stabs on Casanova put Levert on the path to include New Jack Swing productions on future albums Just Coolin' (1989) and Rope-A-Dope Style (1990).  

The TR-808 drum machine defined ‘80’s hip hop but Jam & Lewis introduced to it R&B. The modern midtempo R&B ballad with heavy drum kicks can be traced back to the SOS Band's Weekend Girl, Sands of Time, Tell Me If You Still Care and Just The Way You Like It  from ’83 to ’86. Their sound was even borrowed by Black-Brit groups Loose Ends (Slow Down & Hangin' On A String) and 52nd Street (Tell Me). They even claimed to be New Jack Swing pioneers in a 2014 Billboard interview:

"Growing up in Minneapolis watching people like Prince, we saw that all ideas are valid, and color lines are blurred, rock guitar goes over funky beats, and keyboards replace horn sections. It was all of those things put together that became an incubator. We're influenced by everything we hear. We really liked the records Teddy Riley was making at that time. They were fantastic. New Jack Swing -- I always felt like "Nasty" was part of that. It has that feel. "Nasty" actually predates a lot of that New Jack Swing stuff. It’s just that we didn’t make 10 records that sounded like that. We made one record that sounded like that and then we moved on."

There was a difference from the producers preceding Riley. Full Force, Leon Sylvers, Jam and Lewis, Kashif, LA and Babyface were sophisticated musicians who were products of an era where music training was accessible. They came out of bands. Even when they experienced with sounds, their approach to music was still linear and conventional. It was the reason older producers viewed New Jack Swing as a popular or experimental sound of the moment. When they created their own take on the GUY sound with the same Sound Tools, Roland D-50 ,Yamaha DX-7 and samplers Riley used, their brand of New Jack Swing was totally different.

Producers may have had the equipment but they didn’t have Riley’s creative lens. Although he was musically inclined having mastered drums, sax, guitar and keyboards, Riley viewed the music from a hip-hop perspective, crafting a type of R&B that mirrored rap records.

 Just as early b-boys anticipated the "get-down" instrumental parts of obscure funk records during the early years of hip hop, Eighties youth identified with rap's pumping beats and in-your-face lyrics. Riley used a hip hop aesthetic to craft a type of R&B that mirrored rap records. There was no room for Smokey's witty poetry or Stevie's metaphoric prose. There was no buildup to a brief funky breakdown. Lyrics were more straightforward and simple. It was about how they were delivered rather than what was being said. It was about keeping the beat going---R&B straight with no chaser with an emphasis on feeling. 

Riley sampled records and could replay them. His chords were so rhythmically expressive you knew they were his when you heard them.  In his book Hip Hop America (1998), Nelson George

attributes this new musical aesthetic to a post-soul generation making and consuming rap music that grew up using remote controls, microwaves and video games. Using sampling machines and technology to make music was just a logical extension. To this crowd manipulating this equipment to create was something to be taken as seriously as actual live instrumentation.

GUY's musical syncopation was a slick new package merging old and new. Their Don't Clap, Just Dance rose from the ashes of Sugar Hill's West Street Mob's Let's Dance (1981) right down to the background chants ("Let's dance/don't clap your hands--come on, get down!"). On Spend The Night, Aaron's "I know/ I can /give you some of my computer love" was a vocal aside to Zapp and Roger's Computer Love (1985) featuring Charlie Wilson on vocals. In the sixties Brill Building songwriters studied popular records and built their songwriting around the most attractive elements churning out hits that became part of the American Pop Songbook. Twenty years later, GUY  forged the best elements of hip hop and R&B into a winning formula.

                

New Jack Swing's faster tempos and textured rhythms required a different kind of vocalist to harness the music's energy---that singer was Aaron Hall. If Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder and Charlie Wilson were the kings of the gospel-like melisma on Livin' For The City (1973), You Were Made For Me (1978) Can't Get Over You (1982) and You Are My High (1979), Aaron was their worthy successor. His signature riffs and runs into New Jack Swing vocal cornerstones (Whoa-oh!).

Inspired by the Stevie Wonder compositions using the Moog Synthesizer, The Gap Band's lush production, synths/piano chords and Charlie Wilson's gospel vocals on You Are My High (1979) were reincarnated on GUY songs like Let's Chill, Not A Day Goes By and Rescue Me.

                                          

Aaron's spontaneous delivery and passionate vocals are evident on Can't Get Over You, a non-single release from the 1982's Gap Band IV, a platinum-selling album that was a virtual greatest hits package that foreshadowed GUY's debut released six years later.

Straight outta the Brooklyn church circuit, Aaron was a PK running in the same circles as gospel groups like the Daryl Douglas Singers, Bethel Gospel Tabernacle, James Cleveland Convention, Hezekiah Walker and the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir and the Delta Star Search.

                                          

                                                                    Aaron Hall--pre-GUY

Aaron's imitators followed his lead. Young singers with church vocals bypassed Luther's restrained diction in favor of Aaron's raw passion. Just as Otis Redding's occasional lyrical flubs were lovingly overlooked, Aaron's slurred vocals made A Piece Of My Love even more popular, spawning an infamous and long running urban legend (did he really say dumb b---h???) that ranks up there with the Ohio Players Honey album backstory.

                                                                                   

                               The ballad that launched a long-running new urban legend.

                    

"In come the era of the chocolate types/like your Bobby Brown, Aaron Hall and Wesley Snipes”

                                            Big Daddy Kane---Prince of Darkness (1991)

Nicknamed the Nasty Man by his fans for his raunchy stage antics, Aaron Hall was the flamboyant Black Moses of the New Jack era. A slight speech impediment didn't stop him from delivering vocals that hung from the rafters or getting his share of the ladies. He was a throwback to the days of accessible black stars who weren't hidden behind the shadowy cloak of bodyguards. Aaron was part star-part common man. 

His wide brimmed hats, dapper suits and African walking stick gave him the charisma of fictional Five Heartbeat Eddie King, Jr and David Ruffin. His lean muscled build was usually adorned with a gold Jesus neck piece and glittery jewels. His signature bald head, dark shades, goatee and penchant for pit bulls kicked off a smooth roughneck look that would live on through R. Kelly, Jaheim and a host of other future hip hop/soul stars. Alongside ebony-hued cats Michael Jordan, Big Daddy Kane, Treach, Wesley Snipes and Bobby Brown, Hall introduced in a new image of the 90's black male celebrity.

                                                                          

 Aaron's vocal style was New Jack Swing's signature ingredient and the prototype for the modern R&B singer throughout the Nineties and early 2000s.  A multi-talented instrumentalist who mastered keyboards and bass, Hall was a major contributor to the Guy debut album and Riley's early productions writing and singing background vocals. Hall also co-wrote My Prerogative and Just Got Paid.

                                            

Long underrated as the "other guy on the album cover," Timmy Gatling was a key creative component and co-founder of the group. Gatling held down a day shop  at Abraham and Strauss in Brooklyn where he and co-worker Aaron traded vocal riffs in the shoe department. Forming a creative alliance with Hall and Riley, his former Kids At Work band mate, they were on a path to make history.

                                          

 Gatling's voice can be heard on the intro of I Like. He did leads on You Can Call Me Crazy featuring Al B. Sure on background vocals. His lyrics on My Business, written in the spirit of Perogative, showcased New Jack Swing's assertive songwriting style normally associated with rap songs. The vocal arrangements offered a glimpse of how future singers and producers of the era would craft their own music. The group's writing was so prolific that future smashes that were given to Al B. Sure and Bobby Brown --- If I'm Not Your Lover and My Perorgative were left off their debut album.

                                           

The output of the trio of Riley-Hall-Gatling was enhanced by a collective of collaborators hailing from the New York-New Jersey area. They were a throwback to the peerless East Coast studio vocalists and musicians who graced records by The Chic Organization and James Mtume and Reggie Lucas during the late '70s and early '80's.

Teddy weaves a tapestry of Parliament, Joe Tex & James Brown on the #1 single New Jack Swing, rap trio Wrecks-N-Effect's anthem celebrating a movement, sound and dynasty in the making. The Apollo Theater erupts when Riley emerges to runs down his resume and the GR Productions Crew bum rush the stage.
                       

Tammy Lucas, Bernard Belle, Today, Redhead Kingpin, William "Zan" Aquart  Wrecks-N-Effect, Mary Brown and Marsha McClurkin (two thirds of New Jack girl group Abstrac') were key contributors to the New Jack Swing contributing song and rap lyrics, vocal arrangements and backgrounds. It modeled the methods of Solar Records producer Leon Sylvers. He enlisted an in-house crew of writers, musicians and artists for on his work with Lakeside, Shalamar and the Whispers as well as mentoring up-and-coming producers Jam &Lewis and LA & Babyface.

                                          

 A talented writer skilled in creating melodies, Lucas' sultry vocals graced her self-penned oft sampled Goodbye Love (baby don't go). Along with McClurkin and Brown, they were a perfect complement to Aaron's singing and Teddy's future production work. The combined talents of the future GR Productions crew separated GUY's brand of New Jack Swing from the many followers jumping on the band(s) wagon.

Teddy was also a master of interpolation. He cleverly breathed new life into old songs the way early hip hop pioneers like the Cold Crush Brothers flipped top 40 radio hits into their rap routines. Before Bad Boy's Hitmen production team touched up the classics, Riley reworked Bell and James' 1978 club hit Living It Up (Friday Night) into Kemp's Paid.

                                                   

                                                                                                                              

                 

The chorus from The Reddings' turntable hit Remote Control (1980) turned up in My Prerogative. The funky synth groove on Today's #1 hit Girl I Got My Eye On You (1989) was first heard  courtesy of Carrie Lucas' Show Me Where You're Coming From (1982).

                                                                 

Gatling's early departure opened the door the arrival of percussionist/vocalist Damion Hall. Recruited out of Virginia State University,. Damion's slick moves enhanced the groups flair and visibility on videos Do Me Right and D-O-G Me Out and television performances. What the group lost in Gatling's exit they acquired in Damion's showmanship. Damion's formidable tenor voice gelled with his brother on GUY album cuts and most notably a remake of Hathaway's Song For You. While the music does the song justice, a You Tube clip of the Halls' live rendition captures the chemistry between the brothers as their gospel roots come to the forefront.

                                                      

Damion cemented the group's classic lineup. It brought to mind another sibling oriented group of brothers---Ronnie, Charles and Robert Wilson whose own brand of bass driven, rubbery synth funk informed the Guy catalog.

During interviews Charlie Wilson readily acknowledges Guy's massive popularity and the pressures his group faced from an industry wanting them to copy the sound that they influenced. On the Gap Band's final major label release Round Trip (1989) and Wilson's first solo album You Turned My Life Around (1992) songs like Jam, Charlie's Jam and Sprung On Me find the teachers following the students and similarities were obvious.

Although Charlie had nothing but love for the artists coming up behind him, his Sprung on Me  took a dig at GUY and the other New Jack artists using his style letting everyone know who was first: “As I can plainly see/you’re really into me/I am reality/You’re just a fantasy”. The song’s video features Charlie rocking Riley’s shades, headset and keytar while his crew kicks off New Jack copy cats off the stage.

                                                                      

                                                 

                                                                                                 

                                                                    

               ACT IV:  For The Love of Money

 "There came a time where I just did not want to sing a single note. To be honest, it was the money. It just became too depressing. We were the biggest group in the world and we were flat broke. It took its toll."

                  Aaron Hall---Vibe Magazine 2000

        Life in the spotlight/quite hot/got tight/gotta funny feelin' Mr. Manager ain't right...

               Total Control ---GUY (1990)

                       Everything seems so wrong/when this relationship seemed to be strong....

                               Let's Stay Together--- GUY (1990)            

   

The Gap Band/GUY deja-vu connection didn't just end with the music. It bled over into business conflicts both groups endured at the height of their success. The Wilson brothers were locked into a decade long ironclad agreement with manager Lonnie Simmons who owned them lock, stock and barrel. In Charlie's autobiography I Am Charlie Wilson, he reveals how he unwittingly secured a less than equitable contract for the group. Out of gratitude, Simmons was enlisted as an unofficial of fourth member and awarded rights to songs. Part manager/label exec he orchestrated a conflict of interest nightmare the group never saw coming.

                                         

 They piled up a long string of hits selling out arenas and racking up sales of over 3 million albums and singles in just four years. While their funk peers rolled in the dough, they received small salaries and modest per deim checks. They didn't even own their cars and homes. They later found they relinquished all rights to royalties and touring income. Unable to secure favorable negotiations or leave, they were stuck on the label for nearly a decade, watching from the sidelines as a new era of music influenced by them passed them by.

 Known around social media as "the original Suge Knight", manager Gene Griffin dominated every aspect of GUY's career. On GUY and Wrecks-N-Eeffect album covers their group's logos were emblazoned with a Greek mythological griffin---a half eagle/half lion--- a not so subtle reference to the streetwise manager's last name.  

Unlike Knight's disdain for the "producer being all up in the videos," Griffin was everywhere. From cameos in the It's Real, Groove Me, New Jack Swing and My Fantasy videos to sitting in the audience during a Riley/Wrecks-N-Effect performance on the Arsenio Hall show. For a short time they were on top of the world. In spring 1989, Griffin and Riley signed a distribution deal with Motown for a new label Sound of New York (S.O.N.Y.) Records. By the end of the year things took a turn for the worse.

                          

In an exclusive February 1993 interview with Sister 2 Sister magazine, Teddy recounted the group's experience with Griffin. "With Gene we had to split five ways because he[Gene] was taking as a manager and as a writer and artist. Gene took 25 percent for management and 25 percent as a group member and then the 50 percent was left over between three guys. Gene got one over us by calling himself an artist. We really didn't dig that but we wanted to make a record. We would have done anything to make the record and Gene had the contracts on us."

Guy weren't the only ones that felt the pressure. In his autobiography Take It Like A Man, Boy George reflected on the Griffin-Riley sessions during his 1989 High Hat sessions. On the comeback trail, his publicist recommended Riley who was in the midst of a hot streak producing everyone from Big Daddy Kane, Deja,The Gyrlz, Heavy D & The Boyz and Kool Moe Dee. After negotiating the $75,000 fee, Griffin and Riley hopped aboard a Concorde jet headed for England.

Unable to adapt to a less autonomous collaborative atmosphere, he recalled the sessions as "torturous.” Expecting to have more creative input, Boy George dismissed the tracks---Don't Take My Mind On A Trip (presumably co-written/produced by Timmy Gatling years earlier), Whether They Like It Or Not and You Found Another Guy as "dusty" Bobby Brown rejects. He got on with Riley but was less taken with Griffin's overbearing ways characterizing him as Riley's "middle aged partner and daddy figure" who dominated the recording sessions while "hogging all the oxygen."

The seeds of the group's volatile relationship were sewn as Griffin's alleged manipulations began to place Riley out front while inflicting rigorous sanctions on the group. Wary of the management dynamics, internal differences and financial arrangements, Gatling cut ties with the group just before the Guy album was released. He went on to produce stellar tracks for Keith Sweat, Bell Biv Devoe, Stephanie Mills and recording a solo album of his own.

Tuff City Indie rap label exec Aaron Fuch was an associate of Griffin during the early 80’s when both ran their own labels through CBS Records. He characterized Riley’s affiliation with Griffin as him being the “property of a big drug dealer”---a throwback to the days when under-the-radar music figures unable to acquire corporate interest relied on street relationships with dubious figures to acquire financial capital and industry contacts. Fuch emphasized his business dealings with Griffin were above board and honorable. He acknowledged Griffin was the dominant force in the partnership dictating the terms of Riley's production work. 

Griffin's relationship to Riley had many different layers. There was the parental-mentor-guardian element . Riley even referred to Griffin has his "father" and acknowledged him as a "partner" in business. When reflecting back on the relationship years later, Riley was more coy. When interviewers inquired about the behind-the-scenes dynamics, Riley begged off stating "that's a conversation for you and me in a room."   
 

Griffin signed GUY and their GR crew to management contracts and secured a publishing deal with Virgin Records. Riley already established Don-Ril publishing through Zomba Records servicing acts on the Jive/RCA roster. His lucrative outside productive work---earning as much as $100K an artist was funneled through Griffin's GR Productions and Cal/Gene publishing. He would add his name to Riley's productions and GUY songs as writer and producer excluding Riley and Aaron's credits on My Perorgative worth $800,000 in royalties. He nicknamed his 22 year old producer "Midas" and watched him like a hawk, even blocking him from participating on the Michael Jackson BAD sessions for fear of Riley being stolen away.

Going into The Future sessions, things began to go wrong. Weary of Griffin's domineering ways, Riley attempted to part ways. He sued his ex-manager for $6 million charging that he only received $400,000 of the $2 million in production work he earned. He also claimed that all three GUY members never were properly compensated for their work together. The GUY album was now up to 1.5 million sold. 
 
Over the years Riley comments revealing the other side of Griffin became more revealing if still cryptic. On Griffin's manipulation tactics: "Gene said keeping a nigga broke was the best way to control him." Despite having $4 million in assets, he placed heavy restrictions on Riley's discretionary spending: "You don't make no money decisions unless I say so. I have all the money, I have all the control." Riley remembers standing up to Griffin regardless of the potentially fatal consequences: "This is the time for me not to be afraid and I'm not afraid to do what I'm about to do now."  Riley recalls having his "spiritual" brothers in place for protection as he broke the news to Griffin to end the partnership and for a time was accompanied by bodyguards in the wake of the separation. Griffin's claims of having "majority rule" and being "the leader of this" (the group) summarizes Riley's reflections of the relationship. in Vibe Magazine in 2000: "We were like his employees. We were being done---typical music industry story".

Griffin had a different take on the whole situation. During a 2002 interview with website Creative Loafing  entitled The Secret To His Success  he tells the story of meeting  a seven year old Riley in 1974 while hanging out in Harlem on the corner of 7th Avenue recognizing Riley's musical promise even then: 

"Teddy lived in the projects behind the Apollo Theater.

this little kid that was always talking about music, trying to play guitars and all that nonsense. And he became like a little kid of mine, he was 7 at the time. He didn't want to go to school, but I saw to it that he went to school, and helped his mom out, because his mom would come home late. And with me hanging out in the streets of 7th Avenue, he would just hang around me."

As Riley's musical prowess grew, Griffin used his contacts to sign Riley, Timmy Gatling, and Clurel Henderson to a record contract changing their names to Kids At Work. After a failed album in 1984 on CBS and another one on Rooftop Records a couple years later, a new revamped trio---GUY reconnected with Griffin, eventually signing a contract with Uptown Records. 

Writer Nelson George reveals that Griffin was briefly incarcerated for a drug charge (categorized by Griffin as "selling weed in the streets") just as Riley's career was taking off. Riley signed a publishing deal with Zomba Music yet remained loyal to his mentor while he was away. Aaron Fuch confirms this stating that Riley suspended his production work with Tuff City until Griffin returned. George concluded that Riley's alliances with Zomba and Griffin restricted Uptown Records for taking full advantages of Riley's production services. All three entities would benefit Riley financially, steering projects his way.

Riley ruefully reflected on the failed partnership. "Alot of people wanted to talk to me back then because they thought Gene was ripping me off. What I did with Gene was something I wasn't aware of. I wasn't aware of him getting all the money. We didn't sign no agreement saying whatever you're doing  then---you know, going around changing names as far as writing in publishing or that I would still get my half. Gene was still taking and taking and taking. I thought as a partner I would still get my money."

Producers Jam and Lewis assessed that Riley's business complications may have affected his ability to win prestigious BMI awards and citations from the industry during his initial hot streak. Griffin had a different take. He countered sued, maintaining saying that Riley was overpaid.

According to Creative Loafing, Griffin believed factions at the record company interested in breaking Griffin's influence over the group worked to convince Riley that Griffin had taken money from him. 

Though a settlement for money withheld from Griffin during the dispute later brought him what he calls a seven-figure sum,  the damage done to Griffin's career -- both from the breakup with Riley, and from the harmful allegations against him -- kept Griffin largely on the outside of the music industry for most of the '90s. Riley confirms that after leveraging a $2.5 million advance for their second album, the group settled out of court incurring $340,000 in legal fees to free themselves and their GR crew from their contract with Griffin who rebounded with GUY sound-a-likes Basic Black. 

It shattered close relationships and a dynasty in the making. Just as James Brown and music affiliates resided in and around the Macon, Georgia area, Griffin and the group lived in the same affluent Berkeley Lakes neighborhood in Atlanta's Gwinnett County. Despite the settlement Griffin experienced hard times:

"I was straight-out scuffling," Griffin says of the period. "By them making the allegations that I had taken from them, young kids didn't want to deal with me. They thought, 'Well if he took from Teddy and he was his son, what would he do with us?' So we had to get that straight before I could get back on track."

At decade's end, the dispute -- nine years after it started -- finally ended. Griffin's credibility was largely restored, though he still feels the sting of his personal loss.

"I was real hurt over it, and bitter for a while, because I was his father," Griffin says. "It was family. I've got pictures around here of Christmases we spent together. He was like part of our family. So it was really disturbing."

Adding to the group's pressure the group coped with the stress of losing family, friends and close associates and friends to tragic and violent deaths over the course of their short career. Harrell called GUY the first group to bring "drama to the label" with the middle-of-the-night tragedy phone calls.
 

Along with the defunct GR crew members, GUY retreated to the studio recording tracks like Total Control  and Gotta Be A Leader---appropiately sampling Eric B and Rakim's Follow The Leader (1990) and James Brown's 1967 I Don't Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door I'll Get It Myself) shedding light on the GR Productions drama, openly chastising their ex-manager for his unscrupulous ways. Between the fatalities surrounding conflict between New Edition and GUY security members and their on-wax tirade against Griffin, GUY was the forerunner of the first R&B beefs that are commonplace today.

The Future spun off five singles between 1990-1992 but the group hadn't resolved their internal issues. Placing further strain on the group was Riley's outside creative endeavors such as the MJ Dangerous sessions breathing new life into his production career.

After a final concert in Madison Square Garden, the group disbanded in '92---the year the energetic New Jack rhythmic style morphed into the sample-oriented Hip Hop Soul. 

Born in the '90s as the GUY chapter was ending, R. Kelly parlayed Aaron's vibe and Teddy's sing-song talk/rap into his own lane as R&B's most prolific artist of the 90s and 2000s. Risque songs like Sex Me, Your Body's Callin' and Seems Like You're Ready bear close resemblance to GUY's Tease Me Tonight featuring Aaron's orgasmic moans.

When Nineties music slowed down to accommodate the head-nod litmus test of hot songs instead of hyper dance floor gymnastics of the New Jack Swing days, the GUY formula remained intact. The textured rhythms and dusty soul loops on songs like Mary J. Blige's Reminisce (1992) and Zhane's Changes (1994)  featured the same moody chord structures and wailing vocals at the intro were GUY signatures. Besides R. Kelly and Jodeci, Artists like Riff, Stokely from Mint Condition and Dru Hill all took a page from Aaron Hall.

When they reunited after nearly a decade apart for record GUY III, They conducted a 1999 interview with USA Today entitled Guy Swings Back. The group attributed their long absence to their inability to record together due to restrictions from their old management contract. They also admitted that they intentionally instigated their internal issues to keep the group's name in the public eye. The album spawned a gold single Dancin' and a single that predated Usher's Confessions using Aaron's paternity issues as inspiration--- Why You Wanna Keep Me From My Baby. Teddy was absent from the video and TV appearances in support of the record. The album was less than six months old when the group broke up once again. Conflicts again over direction have stalled future reunions as a new crop of artists arrived with their take on the GUY look and sound.

Three decades later New Jack Swing still continues. T-Pain, Drake and Chris Brown are the next artists carrying the hip-hop/R&B vibe into the next generation while Riley's synth chords had turned up in hip hop trap music. Rappers Loon and Nas dusted off I Like and Goodbye Love exposing GUY's music to a new generation.

GUY's New Jack Swing movement helped infiltrate a more age appropriate and homegrown industry of publicists, magazine publishers, record executives, choreographers and stylists connected to urban music, facilitating its growth and success. Future young producers took their inspirational cues from the musical merger of hip hop and R&B GUY exemplified. Their marriage of music and image represented a street culture. That street culture became youth culture and in turn, became American culture. Until their next reunion or when the trendsetting trio return to tell their own story, they will forever be recognized as seminal figures in modern R&B. Their legacy served as part cautionary-tale and part musical inspiration making a place at the table for future young black music and cultural tastemakers