1991 -- Part II

Meanwhile, the success of teen sensations New Kids On The Block was rapidly losing steam. Although they’d released an urban-styled remix album entitled “No More Games” (performing the title track with Public Enemy's Flava Flav at the 1991 American Music Awards that January), by the summer of 1991, it was clear that the NKOTB had just about finished its run. NKOTB’s final appearance during the New Jack Era would occur in late 1991: the appropriately titled, “If You Go Away”.

At the movies, two films would be making big headlines in 1991: Mario Van Peebles’ “New Jack City” in March, and first time director John Singleton’s “Boyz ‘N’ The Hood” three months later. Unfortunately, both films were marred by some negative publicity at the time, when shootings took place at the movie theatres that happened to be playing the films.

Starring Ice-T as an NYPD undercover cop, and Wesley Snipes as a ruthless drug lord, “New Jack City” was one of the first movies of its kind: an “urban” crime drama that captured the essence of its subject matter with stunning authenticity. The star-studded “New Jack City” soundtrack also launched the careers of Color Me Badd with their hit, “I Wanna Sex You Up”, and featured other hits such as Keith Sweat’s “There You Go (Telling Me No Again)”, and Ice-T’s “New Jack Hustler”.

John Singleton’s coming-of-age tale “Boyz ‘N’ The Hood” was the first feature film to humanize ‘hood life in South-Central Los Angeles on the big screen. Starring Lawrence Fishburne, Ice Cube, and a breakout performance by Cuba Gooding Jr, “Boyz ‘N’ The Hood” gained critical praise, commercial success, and earned John Singleton two Academy Award nominations in 1992: Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director.

Editor’s Note: As the result of “Boyz ‘N’ The Hood”, John Singleton became both the first African-American, and the youngest filmmaker ever to receive a Best Director nomination.

In the world of hip-hop, LL Cool J’s ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ album virtually steam-rolled his competition. His singles “Around The Way Girl” and the title track were among the biggest songs of the year, the latter earning LL his first of two Grammys for best single. Other notable hip-hop releases of 1991 included NWA’s ‘Efil4Zaggin’, Public Enemy’s ‘Apocalypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black’, A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Low End Theory’, and Ice Cube’s ‘Death Certificate’.

Then it happened. MTV started its “buzz” clip campaign, usually promoting ‘anything-but-urban’ rock acts such as Live, Matthew Sweet, and most notably, Seattle’s Nirvana. As a result, the landscape of the popular music industry shifted, and “middle-ground” acts such as MC Hammer, Color Me Badd and Paula Abdul soon found themselves losing their audiences – and fast.

The last “middle-ground” hit of the New Jack Era, was probably PM Dawn’s “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss”, which incorporated Spandau Ballet’s 80s hit “True” with impressive results. “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss” managed to reach #1 on three separate Billboard charts: Pop, R&B and Dance. Other notable releases being celebrated during this time period include Michael Jackson’s ‘Dangerous’ album, Naughty By Nature’s self-titled debut, Paula Abdul’s ‘Spellbound’, and Mariah Carey’s ‘Emotions’.

The end of 1991 seemed remarkably different from the beginning. Perhaps it was the March 3rd beating of LA motorist Rodney King that seemed to say things weren’t as rosy as they seemed in American race relations. Perhaps Public Enemy’s slavery-themed “Can’t Truss It” video was just a little too much for the legions of young suburban MTV viewers. Perhaps the unpleasantness of it all began to racially re-polarize American pop culture. At any rate, even more changes in this separatist direction were to occur in 1992, the year that the New Jack Swing Era officially came to an end.


1992


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