The term New Jack Swing wasn’t coined until 1988, but the melding of R&B and hip-hop was in motion a decade before. Most early hip-hop routines featured a mixture of singing and rapping, and of course, many of the breaks used during rap songs were based on soul and funk records. The fusion began to seem more organic thanks to hit records by New Edition (“Candy Girl”, “Popcorn Love”, “Cool It Now” and “Kinda Girls We Like”) and Full Force (whose “Alice, I Want You Just For Me!” features in this mix.

This JCC radio show is dedicated to the new jack swing sound, which wound up morphing into “hip-hop/R&B” in 1993-1994 thanks to SWV, Mary J. Blige, Jodi and TLC. Later on, the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC would ride to success on the pop charts using a new jack-reminiscent sound as well as some of the genre’s songwriting/producing talents, including Teddy Riley, Full Force and Joe Thomas. You’ll hear songs by the genre’s leading lights like Bobby Brown, Guy and Heavy D, as well as new jack tracks by grizzled veterans like Al Green, The Gap Band and Boy George. Enjoy!