(Todd A. Smith)
Hip-hop music and hip-hop culture have competition in their DNA.
But obviously, R&B has a competitive nature because singer Damion Hall of the legendary group Guy laid the gauntlet down when he said his group was the best R&B group ever on a recent episode of the “Holdin Court” podcast.
Hall said, “There is no group better than Guy.”
When the podcast’s host Big Court asked him what about The Jacksons, the member of the legendary trio said, “Listen, from when I came in to where we are, there’s two groups that will always be my everything—New Edition and Tony! Toni! Tone!”
Big Court then inserted Mint Condition into the discussion.
Hall replied, “What?”
He then qualified that response when he explained, “[Mint Condition lead singer] Stokley is one of the dopest musicians on the planet…But Guy has never opened up for them ni@@as.”
The singer, who also released a solo album in 1994 entitled “Straight to the Point,” asked, “Did we open up for Troop? You ask them ni@@as…
“Everybody got great songs, and everybody got swag and their audience. Ask them what happened whenever we didn’t headline…the audience started leaving.”
While Hall’s comments went viral and got old R&B heads talking, he does have a legitimate case for Guy assuming the throne.
But the R&B of the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s was too great for one group or artist to be the undisputed best.
Thanks to Teddy Riley’s songwriting and the powerful vocals of Hall’s older brother, Aaron Hall, no other R&B group contributed more to the genre’s sound than Guy.
When Riley introduced the New Jack Swing style, blending elements of R&B and hip-hop, he sparked a movement.
Many R&B artists tried to tap into the sound, from younger artists such as Bobby Brown to legends like The Temptations and gospel group The Winans.
The joke around Black neighborhoods in the late 1980s was that Riley was a member of every group at the time, as it seemed like he had a hand in everyone’s hits in the late 1980s.
The writer/producer from New York became so sought after that he helped write and produce Michael Jackson’s
“Dangerous” album in 1991.
After Aaron Hall went solo in the early 1990s, Riley created the R&B group Blackstreet.
That quartet went on to become one of the most successful R&B groups of the 1990s.
Out of that group, Dave Hollister became a solo star in his own right.
All that success came from the Guy family tree, not to mention their own classics like “Let’s Chill” and “Teddy’s Jam.”
It is great that Hall did not take Big Court’s bait on The Jacksons because very few Black groups can match their success, let alone the success of their lead singer’s (Michael Jackson) iconic solo career.
But despite Guy’s impressive family tree, New Edition also has an impressive family tree.
The modern-day boy band got its blueprint from New Edition.
Copycats like New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys and NSYNC got their entire style from the original boy band from Boston.
From New Edition, fans got the platinum solo careers of Brown, Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant.
The spinoff group Bell Biv DeVoe (BBD) went multiplatinum with hits like “Poison,” “Do Me” and “When Will I See You Smile Again?”
BBD and New Edition member Michael Bivins then went on to become a music executive at Motown Records, responsible for groups like Another Bad Creation and the legendary Boyz II Men.
The latter might have been the biggest pop group of the early 1990s.
Their rival in the R&B space was Jodeci.
While Boyz II Men had more crossover appeal than Jodeci, the group Jodeci had a lot of New Edition in them from use of rap in their music and their attire, which reminded many of BBD’s wardrobe.
BBD and Jodeci went on to influence girl groups like TLC and Xscape with their wardrobe and use of hip-hop in their R&B music.
Tony! Toni! Tone! and Mint Condition deserve their flowers because they are, arguably, the final great R&B bands.
Soul music always had great groups.
But during the 1970s and early 1980s, the genre had great bands like Kool & The Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire, Atlantic Starr and The Commodores.
With technology and escalating costs, R&B bands fell by the wayside heading into the 1990s.
Thankfully, Mint Condition and The Toneys kept that legacy going for as long as they could.
While Troop did not have the longevity of the other groups, they were still the soundtrack of many people’s formative years with original songs like “Spread My Wings” and “Mamacita,” in addition to covers of “All I Do Is Think of You” and “Sweet November.”
Furthermore, Troop could have been the top dancing group of that era.
Except for Troop, I have seen every group that Hall mentioned in his argument.
The only thing I did not see was people leaving when Guy did not headline.
I saw Guy open for Keith Sweat, and nobody left until Sweat finished his set.
Of all the groups that Hall mentioned, none disappointed.
My favorite was probably New Edition because I grew up with them more so than other groups.
As I grew older and my music tastes developed, their music did too.
And New Edition always seemed more personable and relatable than members of other R&B groups of that era, as if I personally knew them.
For that reason, New Edition is the greatest R&B group of all time, excluding The Jacksons.
Nevertheless, the competition and the discussion are great for the culture.
What would be even greater is if more competition existed between past R&B greats and the younger stars of the genre, because the undisputed best era ever was the late 1980s and 1990s, and the youngsters need a lot more practice if they are going to carry the mantle throughout the 21st century.
