MarbElite

What is NeoJaque? It's an extension of the sonic genius birthed by collaborators Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis that we know as “Rhythm Nation.” NeoJaque contains the ancestral language of Black music. The call and response bassline, the swingin beat that can be heard in many diasporic musical traditions, and of course, the youthful spirit of revolution. NeoJaque is New Jack Swing for a New Jack called Marbelite.

Despite the tremendous success of Rhythm Nation and New Jack Swing, today the genre has been deemed a “gift shop” genre by music publications. Meaning that New Jack Swing only exists as a hallmark of a bygone era of music, only valuable to sell as a nostalgic product. I've been told by curators that I shouldn't market my album as New Jack Swing, because no dance publication would be interested in hearing that type of music.

Well, in spite of the downright antiblack and ignorant attitudes of these curators, not only am I doubling down on crediting the inspiration of my album to New Jack Swing, I am now devoted to evolving this sound further past the definition that's been put on it. NeoJaque is New Jack for the New Jacks. It's New Jack for the Club. It's Techno infused, industrial, Afrofuturist music.

I’m doing all this in the spirit of what Black queer musicians have always done. We do alchemy of future and past, creating new substances of sound by pulling from the vast archive of musical elements made available to us by our ancestors. Techno was birthed in Detroit by gay niggas… like, do I need to go further? NeoJaque is for niggas, btw.

My hope in doing this is to inspire a new sound to emerge in the legacy of New Jack Swing. I hope this inspires us to bring that signature swing of New Jack back into the clubs for a new generation of New Jacks that need a soundtrack for the revolution. Art is inherently political. Either you’re saying something, or you’re silent. NeoJaque is political. It’s music birthed from Black revolutionary thought. This is my epiphany.

Red n tender

Creative direction: Marbelite