Est. 1998
Greg Clifford of Underground Soul, an Underground Music Community publication, recently interviewed Teddy Riley about his past, present and future career moves.
We are all aware of Teddy’s contributions to Michael’s music, notably on ‘You Are Not Alone’, ‘Remember The Time’ and ‘Dangerous’ to name but a few.
During the interview Teddy spoke of his plans to work on Michael’s new album and of his previous work on other tracks. The relevant sections of the transcripts are included below.
Greg: Teddy Riley is a man who needs no introduction. Yep, yep, he’s the King of New Jack Swing who’s innovative sound paved the way for many of today’s R&B artists. His work with the likes of Keith Sweat, Bobby Brown, Michael Jackson and his own groups Guy and Blackstreet have sold millions of copies worldwide. It has been three years since the last Blackstreet album, but they are back on the road along with Guy and have new albums in the works. We caught up with Teddy to talk plans for the future, Michael Jackson, Lil’ Man Records and protégés new and old. How has the tour with Blackstreet and Guy been going?
Teddy: Been going great man. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t be continuing, you know that! But it’s going really great man. I can’t even say you have your ups and downs because everything has been up for us. Selling out everywhere and it’s doing really good. I have no complaints and people are really happy when they walk away.
Greg: What’s next after the tour?
Teddy: I have to go work with Michael Jackson and I have to work on these Blackstreet and Guy albums. So I have a lot of things that need to be done. I put that off to do the tour, but now it’s time to really get to work so that we can stay out on the road. Because how long can we play our original stuff, our old stuff, without a record. People will get tired of that. Okay we heard the good stuff, now give us some more good. That’s what we’re trying to prepare for and if we wait too long it will be late next year. We want to try and get it out either late this year or the beginning of next year. For Blackstreet we are looking at late fourth quarter for our first single with a B Side of a Christmas song. For Guy we are trying to do the same thing. With Michael Jackson, if we could do a fourth quarter, which I doubt, it’ll happen. If not we’ll definitely do a second quarter next year.
Greg: Are there other people working with Michael Jackson on his record or just yourself?
Teddy: There will be other people working on there, but he’s looking at me doing some quarterbacking on the project. I’m probably the one who is gonna foresee this project going forward on the music technology production side getting everybody to finish their projects, and hopefully he designates me to be that quarterback!
Greg: I played all the tracks you did with Michael on ‘Dangerous” earlier. I ‘feel they were way ahead of their time.
Teddy: That’s why it is still playing. It’s pretty much the way all of my music is made, even with Guy and Blackstreet. I kinda follow the Prince, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson formula – be ahead of your time so that your records are still playing years later.
Greg: Would you say the ‘Dangerous’ album is one of your favourite projects?
Teddy: Yeah, it is one of my favourites along with Bobby Brown, Guy and Blackstreet.
Greg: Are you going to be working with Bobby on his comeback?
Teddy: I don’t know. He’s sent a message through a few people that the only person he wants working on this album is Teddy Riley. But it is gonna be too late as I’m gonna be in Bahrain with Michael, Guy and Blackstreet with my writing and production team so it’s probably gonna be too late!
Greg: What label are these projects going to come out on?
Teddy: Can’t tell you yet! But Michael is pretty much with his bag of tricks. He’s always coming up with the greatest plans so I’m waiting for his word.
Greg: So how would you define New Jack Swing?
Teddy: I always define it as the new kid on the block that is swinging it with Teddy Riley’s music.
Greg: You mentioned Quincy Jones, and I know he is a massive influence on you. I always wanted you to do that Quincy Jones style project. An album by Teddy Riley with both established and up and coming artists singing and you as the producer. The likes of Michael, Bobby Brown, Aaron Hall, Big Bub…
Teddy: …It’s kinda like planning out the next twenty years of my career and there will definitely be a time for that. I just need to get everyone back together. Once I get everyone back together we’ll have another millennium version of ‘We Are The World’ and a bunch of things. I have my composers and my scores and we are gonna do movies and TV projects. So just look forward to it…There’s another song that I want to re-use for Blackstreet which is a song that Michael Jackson did called ‘Heaven Can Wait’.
Greg: Finally, if you had to pick one song from your massive catalogue which would it be?
Teddy: Erm… ‘Remember The Time’.
Greg: Great song! Teddy, I hope that all your projects go well for you this year.
Souce: Underground Soul, MJNO, Morizwan & MJWN.
