Keith Sweatizms: for TOPMAN generation
A month or so ago I wrote a piece on Keith Sweat for a new online magazine... Here ya go
Last year, Keith Sweat celebrated his 50th birthday. Although this decade hasn’t matched the commercial success and relevance within the sphere of “urban music” enjoyed in years gone by, he remains one of modern R&B’s earliest and most influential pioneers. As we celebrate his career, and look back at some of the highlights, the intrinsic connection between one artist and the genre he propelled to the top of the charts is an intriguing one: what is Keith Sweat’s and New Jack Swing’s legacy on R&B and pop music?
New Jack Swing is a genre whose sonic journey, from raw to bastardised, niche to chart, mirrored its rapid ascent and spectacular fall from grace. It lifted grooves and syncopations from hip-hop and coalesced them with the vocal rhythms and harmonisations found in R&B. It proved so popular that nearly all turn of the millenium R&B is in one form or another a take on the genre. The accentuated hip-hop beat driving the sweeter, more melodic vocal, as found in Ashanti’s ‘Foolish’ or Ne-Yo’s ‘Sexy Love’, are two good contemporary examples.
Back in 1987 however, when Keith Sweat’s debut, Make It Last Forever, first hit the shelves, the boundaries between hip-hop and R&B were still distant. The album was an instant hit, selling over 3 million copies and receiving generally favourable reviews. Whilst the lyrical tone and content of the record was nothing groundbreaking, it was the production, handled by Sweat and Teddy Riley, that really stood out. Every track had a bump and kick to it that revolutionised the “slow jam” - R&B and and Keith Sweat’s most iconic style. Track 7, ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ is my personal favourite on the album, and when broken down perfectly illustrates how the first incarnations of New Jack Swing resonated in popular urban music culture. Although the song’s content - a pretty conventional tale about the uncertain nature of love - does nothing but follow the R&B slow jam norm, it is fused, almost forced on top of a grinding, hard hitting beat, with a growling bassline and a solitary, accentuated sonic 'boom' on the 3rd beat of every bar. The production of ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ illustrates how New Jack added depth, style and commercial possibilities to the much plundered R&B ballad. No longer the domain of feminine crooners and starlets, the genre thrusted the figure of the masculine, urban singer into the limelight.
Keith Sweat’s career reached its peak in 1997, if not in sales, but in popular recognition, as he won the American Music Award for Best Male R&B/Soul Artist. His eponymous album Keith Sweat, released the previous year, was his 5th platinum selling album in a row and is, without doubt, my favourite. It spawned two chart topping singles, ‘Nobody’ and ‘Twisted’. By this point, New Jack Swing had become a permanent fixture in the charts and minds of R&B and hip-hop heads. 1996 alone saw the release of two of the genre’s most memorable efforts. First up wasReturn Of The Mack by english singer Mark Morrison, a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic and the first time a black solo male act reached number 1 (in the UK). In Morrison, New Jack perhaps found it's embodied apotheosis - rougher around the edges than Keith Sweat but with the same coarse voice, he had handcuffs on one hand and held flowers in the other. His tunes flowed nicely whether dancing or kicking back. In essence, his personality appealed to all demographics. In July, Return Of The Mack was followed by No Diggity by Blackstreet (of which Teddy Riley was a member). The track, a US number 1, featured a guest rhyme by Dr. Dre, in a classic example of how rap and R&B had successfully permeated into one another’s universes by this point.
Criticised by some factions in the rap world as a commercial, genre-mashing venture with no soul, and adopted by a flurry of producers in search of the next big hit, New Jack Swing in the mid 90s was an altogether different proposition to the slow, hard style of Make It Last Forever. Although it had become a staple of urban music, its rapid commercialisation had ironed out some its clunkier sounding characteristics. Keith Sweat’s release was sandwiched betweenReturn Of The Mack and No Diggity, once again positioning Sweat, literally and symbolically, at the heart of New Jack Swing’s transformation.
As New Jack Swing slid back into the murky depths of chart obscurity, so did Keith Sweat. Popular urban music at the turn of the century turned its attention toward electronica, leaving its raw, stripped back legacy behind. R&B’s increasing fascination with dance music was a transition too far for him. What he and New Jack leave us with, though, is a musical style full of texture and groove, bounce and rhythm, a pleasure to listen to at home, in the car, in the club. So happy birthday Keith Sweat, and thank you!
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