New new new new new jack

Don't call it a comeback! Here's a sequel to my new jack swing mix:

Jack 'n Jill II: Swang (Right click > Save Target As...)

1. Hi-Five - I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)
2. Ralph Tresvant - Sensitivity (Warm + Sensitive Mix)
3. Janet Jackson - Love Will Never Do (Without You) (Shep's Love Mix)
4. Jade - Every Day of the Week
5. Zhané - Groove Thang
6. TCF Crew - I Ain't the One
7. Nivea featuring Brandon and Brian Casey of Jagged Edge - Don't Mess With My Man
8. SWV featuring the Wu-Tang Clan - Anything (Old Skool Radio Version)
9. Mary J. Blige - You Don't Have To Worry
10. Bobby Brown - Don't Be Cruel
11. Whitney Houston featuring Monie Love - My Name Is Not Susan (Dub)
12. Pebbles - Giving You the Benefit (Audio Video Version)
13. Guy - Teddy's Jam
14. Tevin Campbell - Round and Round (Soul Mix Edit)
15. TLC - Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg (Smoothed Down Extended Remix)
16. Michael Jackson - In the Closet
17. Karyn White - Secret Rendezvous (Extended Remix)
18. Bobby Brown - Humpin' Around (Extended Club Version)
19. Another Bad Creation - Playground (Rich's Not-So-Big-On-Children Young Jack Club 12" Edit)
20. Bell Biv DeVoe - Gangsta (Playing With Children Remix)
21. Boyz II Men - Motownphilly (12" Version)
22. Johnny Kemp - Just Got Paid (Teddy Riley Remix)
23. Tony! Toni! Toné! - Feels Good (Extended Version)

You know, I really miss the days when "thang" was interchangeable with "thing." I won't use the word "missionary," but you can consider this mix the first step in a campaign to bring those days back. Swangin'!

I made this mix via computer, unlike the last new jack swing mix, which was a vinyl-turntable-record button affair. Because of all the tweaking capability, computer mixes take at least twice as long as handmade ones. Who says technology speeds things up?

Oh, and the image at the top of this post was made from shots from Silk's "Happy Days" video. I wanted to include that track, but the vibe was too mellow. This is not strictly for the jeeps.

A few comments on the songs:

• I think the only thing made after '94 on here is Nivea's "Don't Mess With My Man," which was 2002. I think this was probably the last great new jill swing track, even if it really came a decade after it should have.
• I'm not the type to have "a vision," much less talk about it, but as soon as I knew I was going to make this, I knew that it had to start with Hi-Five's "I Like the Way," even if it meant that many of the warm-up tracks before it would have to play at 10 bpm faster than normal (which they do -- hope you don't get motion sickness!). "I Like the Way" wasn't playing during my first French kiss (with a girl, of course), but it was popular around that time (late spring of '91) and it came on the radio soon after we dribbled all in each other. FACT.
• Hi-Five's Tony Thompson released a solo album in 1994. Its title was Sexsational. FACT.
• "Sensitivity" is the best song about being a pussy ever. FACT.
• Tevin Campbell recites a limerick in "Round and Round." FACT.
• Bobby Brown gets two slots once again because he is the king of R&B. FACT.
• Can you believe Michael Jackson released a song called "In the Closet"?!?! So that "something" about you baby that makes him want to give it to you is a penis, right? Too easy, Mike!
• I really, really loathe Another Bad Creation (they sounded like deaf mosquitoes and "Iesha" is just a sped-up melodic retread of New Edition's "If It Isn't Love," which is clearly a more sophisticated song as it was cut by teenagers and young twentysomethings). Hatred in check, I was taken by just how thick "Playground" is after hearing it off my friend Kate's MTV Party To Go Vol. 2 CD (which is awesome, of course). So, I chopped out most of the nauseating rapping except for Red's because he does this Bugs Bunny thing that I find oddly appealing.
• I also kept that transfixing beat of "Playground" in for the track that follows it, Bel Biv DeVoe's "Gangsta." The production on that one is just too murky (you can hear it in one of the pre-chorus bridges when I drop the "Playground" beat), and mixing BBD with the sound of their tween counterparts brightened things. Children warm the hearts and ears, alike!
• I considered putting Salt-N-Pepa's "Let's Talk About Sex" on this after also hearing it on the Party To Go CD, but then (after, you know, listening to it), I realized that that song is full of shit! If you don't remember the bouncy self-righteousness allow me to refresh your memory. God, where to start? They remind us a few times of how bold they're being ("I don't think they're gonna play this on the radio!" and the suggestion that anyone thinks "sex" is profanity -- I mean, were they hanging out with nine-year-olds?), while apologizing the whole time. LAME. Their story of the woman who uses sex to advance her social standing but eventually finds herself despondent over the lack of love in her life? LAME. (She'll find love one day -- she's hot!) But what I hate the most is the whole "Everybody should be making love shit," because: FUCK YOU, SPINDERELLA. DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO FUCK. Seriously. I know that Pepa gets practical the second time around ("Come on, how many guys you know make love?"), but during the intro of this extended mix, Pepa's the one who's all, "But everybody should be makin' love." FUCK YOU, PEPA. DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO FUCK. Seriously, I don't even wonder about what Treach was like in bed (OK, I'm lying)...whatever, the point is that you aren't being so liberated and liberal and provocative if your statement on sex is just a slight moral shift away from the status quo and you're still judging judging judging. Arrrggghhhh! Stop judging me!
• In happier nostalgia, do you remember the video for Karyn White's "Secret Rendezvous?" It's pretty brilliant:

They knew that Karyn White's spastic jutting-twirling-thrusting was the only special effect they needed. Brilliant and economical.

Comments

[John R]

"FUCK YOU, SPINDERELLA. DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO FUCK"

God, if I had a dime for everytime those exact words crossed my mind....

Looking forward to the mix - Thanks!

I saw a trailer for the new Larry Clark movie (yawn)and Janice has a cameo: her trademark squint was unmistakable. WTF?

[brandy]

The video for "Lets talk about Sex" had several of the "cool" kids at my school wearing condoms on their clothing.
This was Grade 7ish.
They looked like douches.
That song was total bs.
I did however have a crush on Tevin Campbell, he was in the Prince movie Graffiti Bridge.

Thanks for the mix! Hope you had a good 4th of July!

[Penny Woods]

I am seriously considering buying at least Jade to the Max on iTunes someday.

And speaking of unrelated topics, they edited Jade's final CoverGirl commerical on the ANTM replay last night. It broke my heart.

[brian]

Okay. I love every bit of that list.

[Kelly]

Lovely darling, but it's been an age since we had photos and stories about your cats.

[Carly]

Don't Sn'P know that you can fuck someone you're in love with? At least, that's what Eddie Murphy taught me back in '87.

[Clint]

You just made my workday a bit better. BTW, thanks for adding me to your blog list.

[Joe]

i love new jack! i almost love it as much as i love freestyle! rich for president!

Was Kar"y"n White's weave not fabulous?

[patrice]

Rich, I saw that Karyn White video on VH1 Soul this weekend, and totally thought of you!!! Whatever happened to her, anyways? Now I'm gonna be singing this in my head all day! It won't stop, it don't stop...

[Clint]

While listening to the Jade song "Every Day of the Week" I was reminded of the episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where Ashley Banks sang the song "Wasting My Time". Are they both singing different songs over the same beat? Or did they sample the Jade song?

Does anyone know what I am talking about?

[SnapDragon]

My God. Karyn White & I had the same bangs in 1991.

[Eric]

While nobody wants S'nP to tell them how to fuck, they were quite good at explaining how to push it.

[RiceCrispy]

I love this mix!! The only one I heard, from Tony Thompson's solo release was "I Wanna Love Like That" and although I liked it, I never bothered to hear the rest of the album.

[JH]

Remember when S n'P went back and revised it to "Let's Talk About... AIDS" for a charity single? Gee, I wonder why that one didn't fly off the shelves.

[JH]

PA: This mix is a revelation! Jade, Pebbles, Bobby, BBD, Karyn.... dayamn, I'll be dancing all week to this.

[Iris]

I left my house humming (okay, singing out loud) "Just got Paid" and I come home to find this mix. Whooo!!

[vt]

i love ur mixes! this mix will def be one of the workout mixes just like the other ol skool 90s mix! thanks rich!

[gitupoffathatthang]

I totally have karyn white's cassette under my bed RIGHT NOW!

[Arthur James]

Christmas came early this year!

Thanks Rich!

[flipblack]

I hope you don't mind, but I'm using your mixes to introduce my Beijing coworkers to the New Jack era.

Good call with Tevin Campbell. Of course, I remember him best from Fresh Prince, where he went all googly for Ashley. HAHAHA, now that's acting.

[brandy]

Thank you Rich! I am so looking forward to shaking my thang to this....9 months pregnant and all! That is what I am talking about! I can't wait to introduce the young'ins to this genre....Love me some Jade, and Tevin Cambell. THANK YOU!!!!

[summer]

i just love you! great taste!

[Renee]

The running man in "Secret Rendezvous" is too good, good call on that song.

[anon]

Damn! what you got against salt-n-pepa? For a girl in Grade 7 that song was the jam! I really didn't know what they were talking about but it was great anyway (and it pissed our parents off).