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Sucka New Jack · by Rafi Kam
I was just bugging out on the fact that the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors are celebrating “New Jack Swing” at their award show airing October 8 but taping tonight.
First of all New Jack Swing was a trend – not an act – so they’re already breaking from their format to do this and setting a bad precedent. We may have hip-hop honors coming in future years for things like “bling bling”, “kid rappers”, “video game beats”, “mafia movie obsession”.
Second of all, New Jack Swing sucked! Rappers of the early 90s were quick to dis those who smoothed out their style to appeal to this pop aesthetic. Among New Jack Swing’s best critics were this year’s headlining honorees A Tribe Called Quest (the other choices for tonight are Missy Elliott, Whodini, the movie WildStyle) who were strictly about hard core tracks, not a new jack swing and also couldn’t pull the plug on R&B – and that’s bugged.
Since the Internets Celebrities are going to be in attendance tonight, I’m going to definitely try and re-heat some old beef between Tribe and the New Jack Swingers.
There’s also the great Cube line “It ain’t no pop cuz that sucks / and you can new jack SWING on my nuts” which would later be sampled by Tony! Toni! Toné! on “If I had no loot”. That kind of re-appropriation and inversion of a negative slur into a positive brought to mind another Tribe song….
The lost classic “Sucka New Jack” addressed Tip’s ambivalent feelings towards New Jack Swing and we present it today in honor of VH1 Honors Week.
Sucka New Jack
“hey sucka new jack, whoever you are” (repeat 2X)
“hey sucka new jack, hey sucka new jack
whoever you are, whoever you are”
I be hatin father MC, and the sucka new jacks
Posing like they R&B when they used to work at Arby’s!
Rhyme-wise I leg-hop like Kid, and do a 180 so precisely.
I said some words that made teddy riley want to fight me,
masked it up with tape!
my style is kinda fat – like that one girl from XScape
Young girls desires for open shirted metros
One day I’ll try that shit but not quite yet though
in the industry I got fame, Color Me Badd got game
a smooth hater directed the video but stayed out of the frame
See, “new jack swing on my nuts” was used back in South Central
Pouring out of Cube’s mouth like the coffee at a Winchell’s
It means he’d rather rock a fro, never dance or act funny
Other New Jacks in the East Coast Family think he looks kinda bummy
But I don’t, dont see why he’d want them to swing on his nuts
What happened to leaving that to brothers with funny haircuts
And being Tony Toni Tone use it as a term of endearment
Hardcore rappers bug to the dome cuz where the fear went?
Now the little shorties ABC say it all of the time
And even Wreckx N Effect throw the word in they rhyme
Yo I start to flinch, as I try not to embrace it
But the Keith Sweat is on my lips and I can start to taste it
Keith Sweat is on my lips and I can start to taste it
Keith Sweat is on my lips and I can start to taste it
Comments for "Sucka New Jack"
lol i love it, and fully support you in this.
— khal Oct 4, 12:52 PM
“you can color me bad,but you can’t sex me up”
— edmund skillary Oct 4, 12:58 PM
Missy Elliott is a Rapper? When did that happen?
— matthew Oct 4, 01:09 PM
i think they should make a last minute revision and replace the new jack swing with crunk music.
— Enigmatik Oct 4, 01:58 PM
hahaha
— the wrist Oct 4, 02:45 PM
what about the 4-trak trend?
— jose g.r. Oct 4, 03:41 PM
DEWD. New Jack Swing does NOT suck although it’s not exactly hip-hop so I don’t get the awards celebrating it. Pardon me while I go find my LP of ‘Don’t Be Cruel’...
— brandonsoderberg Oct 4, 03:55 PM
“Young girls desires for open shirted metros
One day I’ll try that shit but not quite yet though”
^ Whammy!
(c) Champ for the Channel 4 News Team
— Robbie Oct 4, 05:20 PM
wunderbar
— sankofa Oct 4, 07:36 PM
You remember Q-Tip got beat up by Wrecks N Effex dontcha? I think they messed his eye up so bad he had to start wearing glasses. I hope you don’t rekindle some old beef.
— a-one Oct 4, 10:09 PM
Yeah, never felt new jack swing. New jill swing on the other was fresh – Mary J. Blige and Jade.
— Jay B Oct 5, 12:14 AM
Still disliking New Jack Swing in 2007 is SO 90’s but “Sucka New Jack” was pretty funny.
I think most heads would cop to the argument that New Jack Swing was a related genre or cousin to hip hop. And, if most cats are like me, they have probably grown to have more of an appreciation for the sound now than they did back then although anyone who can claim with a straight face that they didn’t f-ck with the first Guy album and Bobby Brown’s “My Perogative” is buggin’!!
BTW I notice your problem with the VH1 Hip Hop Honors doesn’t extend to refusing to take their advertising dollars! :) I actually just came from the show and thought it was kinda lukewarm personally, a great rendition of “The Show” by Doug E. Fresh, Busta lighting up the joint with his verse from “Scenario” (as always) and an amazing finale to the Whodini set notwithstanding. The NY chants at the end of the Tribe set frankly felt desperate and pathetic….
— ian Oct 5, 12:58 AM
Ian,
I don’t think I said I have a problem with the VH1 Honors. Certainly not one that would stop me fromt taking their ad dollars.
I just came from the show too… the Tribe tribute and performances were both hot. But how’d Lupe end up doing a verse in the Tribe tribute? I bet Minister Farrakhan brokered that.
It sounds like I had a better time than you, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with the show. It’s just fun being retarded on camera. We spoke with a bunch of people, crashed the VIP lounge and touched the heralded red carpet. Good times.
Oh and My Prerogative was totally the joint. But I never fucked with Guy.
— rafi Oct 5, 02:33 AM
But the Keith Sweat is on my lips and I can start to taste it
Keith Sweat is on my lips and I can start to taste it
Keith Sweat is on my lips and I can start to taste it.
Pause
— Chux Oct 5, 02:44 AM
It’s because of drops like these that I keep my two(2) Camborghini shirts neatly folded in hermetically sealed plastic bags.
— Billy Sunday Oct 5, 06:02 AM
> It sounds like I had a better time than you….
Well I just broke up w my girl the night before so i’m in a generally foul mood nowadays. How do you not f-ck w Guy though??
— ian Oct 5, 08:54 AM
Perhaps you could get KRS to kick that PM Dawn guy’s ass again.
— dante severe Oct 5, 04:29 PM
Tony Toni Tone is NOT new jack swing, they’re neo-soul.
If Tribe hated Tony Toni Tone, why did Ali Shaheed Mohammad form a R&B band with Raphael Saadiq (Lucy Pearl), which had a song with guest rap verse from Q-Tip.
Get your facts straight.
— NoMamesBuey Oct 9, 02:13 PM
buey, there are so many things wrong with your comment, i don’t know where to begin.
— rafi Oct 9, 02:37 PM
there’s nothing factually wrong with my comment, therefore you have nothing to say.
— NoMamesBuey Oct 9, 04:09 PM
Buey,
You lost, big time. Leave this one to the grown ups.
— eauhellzgnaw Oct 9, 06:47 PM
Name a rap song that can compete with Big Daddy Kane’s “I Get The Job Done” and then only I allow you to diss New Jack Swing. Stick to “bow wow” nuts dude.
— mbaku Oct 10, 04:35 AM
I don’t know if you ever read Hiphop America by George Nelson but there is a hilarious segment in there about new jack swing. Dude is basically crushing hard on teddy riley. The book is fucking crap but it did make me a laugh quite a bit.
— SergDun Oct 11, 11:29 PM
who the hell is Rafi Kam at the end of the day? neva even heard of you…and wheres Teddy Riley? makin more money than you so you the sucka I think…punk
dont hate cos brothers r doin well in a system that wants to keep them down….I feel for people who hate on people who do well in life, they got nothin betta to do than run others, so they can feel good about themselves – dont be miserable – go out and achieve somethin and concentrate on yourself, instead of focusin on others – youll be so much happier in life.
— anonymous Jan 27, 07:08 PM
hate on new jack and you’re hatin on music in general.new jack swing led to the other kinds of r&b you hear today. reconsider your thoughts
— new jack lover May 22, 11:46 AM
Rafi, it’s quite sad when a grown man still behaves like a 15 yr old kid, who needs to diss others to make himself look big.
First of all, get your facts straight so that you have a valid argument. New Jack Swing is not just a trend. It is a subgenre of RnB that dared go first where ALL hip hop and Rnb artists go today: into mixing RnB and hip hop(with a touch of some other quality genres).
At first, hardcore rappers frowned upon it. But that time is long gone, when even icons such as Big Daddy Kane and Heavy D showed all that New Jack is a force and highly acceptable by crowd and music/icians. Or have you not noticed the last 26 yrs of Urban music which joins RnB and hip hop in almost every track? New Jack Swing stood strong weather you like it or not, and the classics like Poison/Rub you the right way/So you like/New Jack Swing are heavily rotated even today.
Someone mentioned crunk here:I have just one request 4U: show me a crunk tune that is classic. I didn’t think you could. It’s quite simple: crunk has no musical or lasting quality. Unlike New Jack which has given us countless classix.
You lot dissing New Jack Swing is dissing RnB,Soul or Funk. You can’t diss quality. You can say its not your taste, but you cannot diss a quality.
What actually buggs you so much about it? That the tracks were happy go lucky? That people actually could dance their asses of listening to it? That people wore some crazy fun clothes? That music had a soul touch and were singable? Or that there was no mentioning of drugs, hoes, guns and how much money does one boring rapper have? Well I got news for you: people actually enjoy listening to HAPPY tunes, love and having dancing battles rather then fist ones.
And THAT is why New Jack SWing was so huge. Because music was incredible, moving, danceble and fun.
So you can diss all you want. It only shows what YOU are about.
— Gee Aug 24, 11:55 AM
I’m just glad the band-aid came off and hip-hop got real.
— b-chilla Aug 25, 11:40 AM
Yeah. REAL nasty, abusive and disrespectful, glorifying violence, prostitution, drugs and money.
If you want real hip hop, listen to the old skool.
— Me Aug 25, 05:23 PM
You fucking suck, not New Jack Swing you lil bitch.
— This BlogSucks Nutz Dec 7, 02:34 PM