What does “new jack swing” mean?

A late-1980s style of R&B that combined hip hop drum programming with swing rhythm and R&B singing, shaped by producer Teddy Riley.

Entry · catalog no. 9637

new jack swing

/ /nu dʒæk swɪŋ/ /noo JAK SWING

noun · New York City (Harlem and Queens) · 1980s

✓ Verified

A style of R&B from the late 1980s and early 1990s that blends hip hop beats, a swung programmed rhythm and soul-style singing. It is closely tied to producer Teddy Riley and to records by Guy and Bobby Brown.

“Put on some new jack swing and watch the whole cookout get up.”

Origin & Attribution

Developed in New York in the mid-1980s by Black producers, above all Teddy Riley of Harlem, and named by writer Barry Michael Cooper in a 1987 Village Voice profile of Riley. Guy's "Groove Me" and Guy (1988), and Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" (1988), brought the sound to the top of the charts. "New jack" refers to the young generation then rising in city life.

1987

Barry Michael Cooper writes on Teddy Riley and names the style in the Village Voice.

1988

Guy releases its debut album, Guy, including "Groove Me."

1989

Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" reaches number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The Northeast

New York City (Harlem and Queens) · 1980s

Spoken by

R&B producers, singers and fans, especially from New York and Virginia

$NEWJACThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

2 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

30/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1987

in the culture

Recorded here

2026

point of first record

Mainstream crossover

1989

search interest spikes

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

Hear it spoken

By region — how it actually sounds

@bxgriot

The Bronx, NY

@phillyanne

Philadelphia, PA

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Citations & Sources

■

Barry Michael Cooper, Village Voice, 1987 profile of Teddy Riley

article, 1987

■

Guy, Guy (Uptown/MCA, 1988)

album, 1988

■

Bobby Brown, "My Prerogative" (MCA, 1988)

record, 1988

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