Veteran R&B/Hip-Hop producer Teddy Riley revealed that two of his most enduring groups – Guy and Blackstreet – are reuniting and preparing new material for release.
Riley made the announcement today (April 25) with certain original group members present, during Tony Neal’s 5th Annual Core DJ Retreat in Atlanta, Georgia.
Group members Teddy Riley, Aaron Hall, Damion Hall (Guy) and Chauncey Hannibal and Eric Williams (Blackstreet) spoke on a panel during the event.
The two groups were speaking to attendees about artist and DJ relations, how to succeed in the music business and the importance of parents teaching their children “real” music.
During the course of the panel, Riley, who is A&Ring the music for Salt-N-Pepa’s reality show in addition to the movie Hype Nation, told the packed crowd of industry tastemakers that both groups are working on forthcoming albums.
“It took a lot for us to get here,” Riley told the crowd, just before founding Guy member Aaron Hall broke into song.
Both Guy and Blackstreet, will be performing tomorrow (April 26) during The Core DJ Awards, which is sponsored by Akon’s Konvict Music.
The Core DJ Retreat started on Friday (April 24) and run suntil Monday (April 27) at the W Hotel in downtown Atlanta.
The semi-annual event welcomes all DJ’s regardless of their DJ crew affiliations, to foster education, professional development and networking.
Guy was one of the first major groups to mix Hip-Hop sounds with R*B. The group featured Teddy Riley and brothers Aaron Hall and Damion Hall.
Riley is credited with the development of a new sound in R&B called “New Jack Swing.”
Using this sound, Guy was signed to the now legendary label Uptown Records, which was founded by Andre Harrell.
Uptown, which also launched the career of Sean “Diddy” Combs, counted artists like Mary J. Blige, Heavy D., Jodeci, Monifah, Christopher Williams, Soul 4 Real and Father MC as artists on the roster.
Under Riley’s production watch, Guy churned out a string of hits for Uptown, including “Piece of My Love,” “I Like It,” “Let’s Chill,” as well as two multi-platinum albums, Guy (1988) and The Future (1990).
Shortly after the success of Guy, Riley branched out and produced hit singles for New Edition as well as Wreckx-N-Effect’s classic “Rump Shaker” in 1992.
Riley launched Blackstreet in 1992, shortly after Guy’s break up.
The group’s debut album BLACKstreet produced the hit single “Before I Let You Go.”
Blackstreet followed up with their sophomore album Another Level in 1996, which contained the #1 hit single “No Diggity,” featuring Dr. Dre and Queen Pen.
Both groups tried their hand at comeback albums in the early 2000’s and toured briefly as recent as 2006.
“You can’t beat having Guy and Blackstreet unite for the first time after nine years, in front of 600 DJ’s,” Core DJ Founder Tony Neal told AllHipHop.com. “They have to understand the magnitude of what just happened.”
