Essential albums

BOBBY BROWN DON’T BE CRUEL

Dedicated to the former New Edition singer’s best friend James ‘Jimbo’ Flint who was stabbed to death when Brown was just 11, this 1988 album was helmed by some of the then-hottest producers in the biz, including Jam & Lewis, Babyface and Teddy Riley. Where Brown’s debut LP, King Of Stage, only made No.88 in the US, this more confident sophomore effort would top the Billboard charts, while all five of its singles would go Top 10 in the States.

JANET JACKSON RHYTHM NATION 1814

Janet conceived of her follow-up to Control as a gritty concept album that would explore racism, drug abuse and poverty in contemporary America. And with these new street-level concerns, came a new urban sound, courtesy of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. One of the most influential albums of the 90s, it did more than any other LP to help popularise new jack swing, shifting an estimated 12 million copies worldwide.

VARIOUS ARTISTS NEW JACK CITY OST

New Jack City was a 1991 crime drama starring Wesley Snipes, Ice-T and a young

Chris Rock, telling the story of a New York

City drug lord during America’s crack epidemic. As befitting the movie’s title, the soundtrack album works almost as a new jack swing best of, with tracks from, among others, Keith Sweat, Color Me Badd, Johnny Gill and Teddy Riley’s swingbeat outfit Guy.

EN VOGUE BORN TO SING

One of the defining female groups of the 90s, En Vogue’s 1990 debut may not have charted as high as their following long-players (it just missed the Top 20), but with the sex-fuelled

Hold On, the group secured one of their biggest hits and a new jack swing classic. Named Best R&B/Soul Album at the 1991 Soul Train Music Awards, it’s an LP that’s absolutely of its moment and one of the swingbeat greats.