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Edward Theodore Riley aka Teddy Riley wurde am 8. Oktober 1967 in Harlem geboren. Bereits mit drei Jahren begann er Schlagzeug zu spielen, mit fünft spielte er auch Gitarre und Trompete und mit acht Jahren Klavier. Als Teenager machte er in mehreren New Yorker Bands mit. Später begegnete er dem „Kool + The Gang“ Frontman Royal Bayyan, welcher Teddy Riley die Kunst des songschreibens und produzieren beibrachte.
1984 arbeitete Teddy Riley erstmals an grösseren Projekten, so kamen auch Remixes für Heavy D zustande. 1985 gründet er mit seinem Onkel Gene Griffin und den Brüdern Aaron und Damion Hall seine eigene R`n`B Band „Guy“. Schnell machte er auf sich aufmerksam. Mit seinem einzigartigen Sound war er an vorderster Front eines neuen Musikstils: dem „New Jack Swing“. Diese einzigartige Mischung aus R`n`B, Soul, Hip Hop und Funk beeinflusste Ende 80er Jahre bis in die 90er Jahre die Blackmusic Szene stark. Teddy Riley gilt als der prägendste Entwickler des “New Jack Swing”.

Teddy Riley arbeitete mit Künstlern wie Keith Sweat, Daja, Bobby Brown und der Rap Gruppe Wrecks-N-Effect.
An der Küste Amerikas hatte sich Teddy Riley ein Anwesen gebaut: „The Future Enterprise“ – Ein riesiges Aufnahmestudio mit allen möglichen Geräten. Hier verbrachte er seine meiste Zeit, komponierte Songs und experimentierte mit seinen Maschinen, Mischpulten etc. Im Jahr 2008 musste er das Studio aus Geldnot verkaufen.

Als Michael Jackson Ende 80er Jahre ein neues Album plante, wollte er einen innovativen Produzenten finden, mit dem er zeitlose Songs entwickeln konnte. Nachdem ihm die Aufnahmen mit Bill Bottrell und Bryan Loren nicht alle vollständig befriedigten, suchte er weiter, und stiess schliesslich auf Teddy Riley. Nach Gesprächen war bald klar, dass sich die beiden musikalisch als auch persönlich verstanden. Teddy Riley und Michael Jackson nahmen diverse Tracks für das Dangerous Album auf, von denen sieben auf dem Album landeten. Ein weiterer Song, Someone Put Your Hand Out, erschien im folgenden Jahr als exklusive Pepsi-Single in Europa. (Pepsi sponserte die Dangerous Tournee)
Auch für History, das im Jahr 1995 erschien, arbeitete Jackson mit Teddy Riley. Diese Songs wurden allerdings nicht veröffentlicht. Nur auf einem Blackstreet Album erschien ein Song von Teddy Riley und Michael Jackson: Joy.
Anfang des neuen Jahrtausends arbeitet Michael Jackson erneut mit Teddy Riley. Vier Songs schafften es auf Invincible.

1993 gründete Teddy Riley nach der Trennung von Guy das eben erwähnte R`n`B Trio: Blackstreet. Ihr erstes Album erhielt bereits Platin. 1997 hatte die Gruppe einen Mega-Welt-Hit: No Diggity. Auch dieser Song aus Teddy Rileys Feder. Neben Blackstreet arbeitete Teddy Riley unter anderen für Jazzy Jeff, Mary J. Blige und Jodeci.
Nachdem er 1999 noch eine Platte mit Blackstreet machte, folgte 2000 eine eher erfolglose Re-Union von Guy.
In den folgenden Jahren musste Teddy Riley leider mit Geld-Problemen kämpfen. 2002 ging seine „New Jack Swing Productions“ Konkurs. Im März 2003 erschien ein weiteres Blackstreet Album.

Während seiner Karriere entdeckte Teddy Riley einige namhafte Persönlichkeiten im Musikbusiness. Darunter Timbaland, (bestens bekannt durch seine Zusammenarbeiten u.a. mit Missy Elliott), The Neptunes (Pharell Williams und Chad Hugo) sowie Rodney Jerkins.

Teddy Riley (Blackstreet) entdecken bei:    Guy entdecken bei: Cede.ch / Amazon.de / iTunes

Offizielle Seiten: Profil auf Myspace

Im Interview (über Michael Jackson)

Das Jackson Fanmagazin Black + White interviewte Teddy Riley Anfang 1993, hier einige Auszüge, in denen er über das Dangerous Album spricht:

Wie haben Sie den Titel In The Closet komponiert?
Riley: Michael hat mir ein Demoband vorgespielt, das er aufgenommen hatte, und ehrlich gesagt hat er den grössten Teil des Songs komponiert. Er hat die Saiteninstrumente zuerst auf Synthesizer erarbeitet und dann versucht, Mundgeräusche für die Rhythmik zu verwenden. Das ist sehr wirkungsvoll. Wie eine Rhythmusbox, aber echt originell.

In She Drives Me Wild habt ihr die kleinen Trommeln verändert; so greifen sie dem Hintergrundrhythmus vor und verstärken ihn.
Es gibt viele Elemente in diesem Titel, alle Schlaginstrumente sind Motorengeräusche, Lastwagen, Autos, die losfahren und Reifen, die quietschen, Motorräuder, die knattern und losheizen sowie hupende Autos. Selbst der Bass ist ein Autohupen.
Wo habt ihr diese Klänge gefunden?
Ich habe sie selbst gemacht.
Sie meinen, Sie haben Ihr Aufnahmegerät genommen und sind auf einen Parkplatz gegangen?
Normalerweise gehen wir so vor. Wir haben selbst den Tiger von Michael benutzt. Wir hatten Geräusche von Tigern, Löwen und Affen.
Und wie steht`s mit den gewöhnlichen Schlagzeugklängen?
Wir erzeugen die meisten unserer Klänge mit dem Schlagzeug. Wenn das nicht der Fall ist, dann fabrizieren wir sie mit unseren Maschinen, so klingt das nicht wie ein “ganz fertiger” Sound.

Eine der typischen Arrangement-Techniken auf Dangerous zeichnet sich durch den Verzicht auf den Bass aus. Bei Jam, Why You Wanna Trip On Me, In The Closet und anderen Titeln des Albums seid ihr so vorgegangen. Habt ihr nicht gezögert, die Basslinie rauszunehmen?
Nein, wir haben immer gemacht, was wir gerade fühlten. Als wir den Bass rausgenommen haben, war der Rhythmus immer noch spritzig. Der Rhythmus lag genau zwischen meiner Musik und der Stimme von Michael. Solange alles zusammenpasste, wenn wir auf den Bass verzichteten, haben wir ihn rausgelassen. Die meisten Leute glauben, dass man einen Song nur mit möglichst vielen Instrumenten bearbeiten kann. Was uns betrifft, so haben wir keine Instrumente nur der Instrumente wegen hinzugefügt. Es ist wichtig, dass man in der Musik fühlt, was man machen will. Es gibt keine Regeln, solange die Sache steht, solange es echt klingt.

Natürlich wurde Riley auch auf Quincy Jones angesprochen: …Hinter dem ganzen steckt nicht die Lust, in die Fusstapfen von Quincy Jones zu treten?
Das reizt mit tatsächlich. Ich will wie Quincy Jones sein. Ich habe ihn stets bewundert, mehr als irgend einen anderen Produzenten. Er ist einzigartig. Und ich bin in gewisser Weise wie Quincy, da ich mich auf kein Genre beschränken kann. Das ist wie ein Wissenschaftler, der die Lösung zu einem Problem finden muss, den Impfstoff gegen eine Krankheit. Das machen Produzenten. Wenn sie mit jemandem arbeiten, müssen sie den Stil und den Sound finden, die zu ihm passen. Sie müssen um jeden Künstler einen Kreis ziehen und ihn danach hineinführen.

Haben die Verkaufszahlen einen Einfluss auf Ihre Meinung über eine Album?
In gewisser Weise schon. Die Verkaufszahlen sind natürlich nicht der einzige Aspekt. Ich bilde meine Meinung nicht nach der Menge der verkauften Alben. Ich glaube allerdings, dass ein Album, das sich gut verkauft, exzellent ist.

Sie spielen auf allen Titeln, die sie mit Michael produziert haben, Klavier. Aber es gibt auch andere Musiker als Klavierspieler auf Jam.
Als man mir Jam gezeigt hat, war das eine durchgehende Schlagzeuggeschichte. René Moore und Bruce Swedien haben Michael diesen Rhythmus vorgeschlagen, man konnte ihnen das also nicht entziehen. Allerdings war das Stück noch relativ unbearbeitet, der Titel hat erst Formen angenommen, als Michael eine Melodie komponiert hat. Ich habe dann alles verfeinert. Um ehrlich zu sein, ich habe sämtliche Synthesizer-Partien hinzugefügt, alle Schlagzeugelemente, alle Blasinstrumente und Gitarren, um zur heutigen Version zu kommen.

Was bringt Ihnen heute die Zusammenarbeit mit Michael Jackson?
Ich danke Gott, dass es möglich war. Michael hat mir sehr geholfen. Die Songs, die ich für Michael komponiert habe, werden für meine Karriere entscheidend sein. Vor einiger Zeit hatte ich Angst, dass die Leute schnell von meiner Musik genug haben. Heute weiss ich nicht, was die Zukunft bringen wird, aber was auch immer passiert, es bleibt die Erinnerung an Dangerous

(Ein weiteres Interview in englisch gibt es unter der Quellen-Angabe…)
Quelle: u.a. www.soulsite.de
Interview: Black + White Magazine, 1993

WHEN „HEAVEN CAN WAIT“: Teddy Riley Remembers Michael Jackson
Interview von: hiphopwired.com by dasunallah July 8, 2009

As the world celebrates the life of Michael Jackson, one man truly has things to share when the moment arrives to “Remember The Time.” Producer Teddy Riley, who worked with Michael on the Dangerous, Blood on the Dance Floor and Invincible projects, took the time to share some of his journey with the late, great Michael Jackson.

HipHopWired: I caught one of your recent interviews on CNN, and you started to talk about some of the things that you learned from Michael; what did he help you to appreciate about production and songwriting?

Teddy Riley: He helped me to appreciate just the art of it and how it really was because back in the day you didn’t have a sequencer. Back in the day, you had a piano player there and people would write the song first with the piano or first with the guitar player and then everything goes to tape after that. That’s how the bands, after they knew the songs and after they taught all the musicians and all the background singers the parts that they would sing, they all would go into one room and cut it. He taught me the beauty of songwriting. That is the beauty. I think songwriting from a track is a little like making love without foreplay. And I never put it that way to anyone. But it just came to mind like, you going straight to have sex. Where is the beauty? Where’s the piano? Where is the piano? Where’s that Marvin Gaye song? That’s how love is made and that’s how music is made, with a piano to get you in the mood. That’s what it’s about.

HipHopWired: How long did the recording sessions last?

Teddy Riley: A real one? (Laughs.) A real one, I can give you some experiences of a real recording session with Michael. I sat in sessions with Kool & The Gang and it took like 8 hours just to tune the drums. Literally, like 8 hours. Go get tea, go get coffee, go look at a movie, while the engineer and the drummer just sit and hit the tom toms for about an hour and move the mic around. And then the piano, tuning the piano, the tuner would have to tune the piano, and we have to set up the mics on the piano where we would get the crispiness of that piano sound. That’s two hours alone. Now what you’d call a modern day session is fast. Like I can do a modern day session in less than an hour. Get vocals done in another hour. The session is over at the end of the day. “Celebration,” “Ladies‘ Night,” was three days. Michael Jackson’s “Heal The World” was a month. Matter of fact, I think longer than that ‘cause they did it in days like with a string session. What I did with Michael doing strings on “Heaven Can Wait,” was like, we did the track first, that all took one day, and then the string section and then we did the guitar session and that’s about three days. So the modern day is a little quick. Lil‘ Wayne, all those guys, the new cats, they cut a record in an hour. Michael Jackson, Kool & The Gang, Frank Sinatra, they take the time to get all that stuff tuned and get it all right so they are setting up the mood with the sound.

HipHopWired: So Michael would never have a “modern day” session?

Teddy Riley: Oh he had modern day sessions before, but he’s not used to it. Like he’s done Pro-tools sessions. He’s not really used to that but it made his life easier because he could sit and cut 24 tracks and then let the producer do what he do. Y’all want that work? Alright, you made life easier for me. But the sound is not the same. There’s a difference. It’s a big difference.

HipHopWired: You mentioned in the CNN interview it was difficult for you to produce him at first because of the awe aspect of how great an artist he is, to not be able to check him as far as his vocals, he had to pull you out of that. How did that dynamic work itself out?

Teddy Riley: Oh it worked itself out when he shook me. Not shook me literally, but when he shook me with words like, ‘Listen, you’re going to have to really produce me like you’ve produced a new artist. I need you to talk to me, I need you to criticize me, I need you to comment, I need you to give me all of you. I want the Teddy Riley that got that record out of Guy and the records out of your previous artists. It took you really producing them. I want you to really produce me. So I got used to it and I got into my own world. So that’s definitely a memorable moment.

The other memorable moment was we were in a session and he was singing a song in the room and an anvil case kind of fell his way and I don’t know if it really fell on him, but it kind of fell his way and he heard the loud sound of an anvil case falling to the ground. You immediately heard him saying, ‘Help,‘ but it was almost like him doing that ‘Ooh‘ like in that “Beat It” video. You heard that high-pitched voice saying, ‘Help! Help!‘ and we were like, ‘What’s going on‘ and then Bruce Swedien was saying, ‘I think something fell on him.‘ Then we all went in the room. We wanted to find out if he was ok first. Then when we found out he was ok, he was like ‘the loud sound just scared me.‘ After we found out he was ok, we just started laughing. You got to see if a person is alright. If they’re alright, then you laugh.

HipHopWired: We know about Dangerous, but Blood On The Dance Floor and Invincible, how did those projects work out?

Teddy Riley: The involvement was I was supposed to be on the History album and I came up for the History album but Michael wasn’t in the studio, he wasn’t really doing any work so I was just sitting there and I didn’t want to waste his money or his time, which I wasn’t wasting his time but, he was wasting his money by me sitting there, so I said, ‘Let me go home and then when you need me, call me.‘ And then Jimmy Iovine didn’t want me to work on that project so he scratched me from the project.

HipHopWired: Why would he not want you to work on the Michael Jackson project?

Teddy Riley: Cause he wanted all the projects for himself. I had just came off a double platinum album with Blackstreet. He wanted me to work on the second project for Blackstreet, which was the Another Level album, so he gave me anything that I wanted to get back to working on that album.

HipHopWired: So you got involved with the Blackstreet project. How did it go back to ya’ll reuniting for Invincible?

Teddy Riley: After “No Diggity,” I came back off my tour, he loved that record, so he called me and he said, ‘Listen, I want you to help me finish this record‘ and he had already did a bunch of tracks with Rodney Jerkins. So I got called in at the end of the project.

HipHopWired: How were those sessions in comparison to sessions for Dangerous/Blood On The Dance Floor?

Teddy Riley: It was more of a modern day session on Invincible as opposed to Dangerous. We went to traditional days of recording [with Dangerous].

HipHopWired: How are you coping? After seeing the CNN interview, I didn’t know how you would be about talking about this.

Teddy Riley: Listen. You know where I’m from. We come from the real. We come from a place where we keep it real and it’s just so crazy how this stuff here has been going on and now finally when something happens to him everyone wants to come back, pay homage, benefit from this and there’s no benefiting from this. People want to throw a party or do something but, this ain’t about a party. Yes, we should celebrate him because that’s what he would want of us, but all of the making money and all that stuff. No. If you don’t have any past things with him or you haven’t been there to check on him when he was going through his trials and tribulations, then I don’t see where you fit… I don’t see where you fit.

I have a legitimate contribution and I have a legitimate friendship with Michael Jackson. I have something that no one, a lot of people have never done with him other than Quincy Jones, Greg Philliganes, Bruce Swedien, Renee from Renee & Angela, and a few people… Babyface got to work with him. I got to work with this man. I got to sit and talk with him. I got to cry on his shoulder. I got to talk and really express some things that were just him and I that I just didn’t understand and he helped me understand it. Then there’s some things that he wanted to understand like why are they doing this to him. I couldn’t help him understand that because it was bigger than me, but I was always that shoulder. I was always that friend he could’ve said anything to. He expressed a lot of his most deepest concerns and feelings about a lot of things. I know some personal relationships that he has gone through, female relationships and different things like that but I would never disclose that. That’s the stuff that I know.

HipHopWired: How did that period of him going through trials and tribulations affect you as someone who knew and worked with him?

Teddy Riley: It affected me because as a friend, you on CNN. If the media can say so much about us to tear us down, why we can’t say something about them to tear them down? And the thing about it is, once we do that, we get cut off in the interview and some of it doesn’t get played.

HipHopWired: Were you cut off in that interview?

Teddy Riley: No, I wasn’t. I cut myself off. I couldn’t do it no more. I couldn’t take it.

HipHopWired: What was it like when you heard of Michael’s passing? On CNN you said that were bed-ridden…

Teddy Riley: Oh, yeah. Two days. I just said… You know, my mom convinced me to get out of bed. My mom convinced me and I said ‘alright, I got to get out of this bed.‘

HipHopWired: What now? Do you have any plans for doing anything in honor and tribute to him musically, creatively, or be a part of anything to that effect?

Teddy Riley: Let me tell you some of the things that I am doing with the family’s approval…The one thing that I wanted to do which I told him, and I got a chance to tell him, that I wanted to make “Heaven Can Wait” over with Blackstreet. He gave me the song “Joy,” it’s on the first Blackstreet album, he gave it to me for Blackstreet, his name is on the record if you go back to it, and he gave me his blessings. That’s the only thing that I asked to do and I will reiterate that with the family because I want that on the new Blackstreet record and whether a part of the proceeds go for his foundation or whatever, I don’t care, I want to do the song because that song never came out as a single and that was one of our favorites. When I did that song with him, he held his heart and he said ‘Teddy, is this mine?‘ I said, ‘It’s yours if you want it, Michael‘ He’s like: ‘I want it, let’s go get it!‘ He was so excited. I have a couple of witnesses that were in the room when he said ‘I want that song. I need that song in my life.‘

Interview von: hiphopwired.com, by dasunallah July 8, 2009

Im Artikel Groove Me: The story of New Jack Swing berichten New Jack Sing Musiker von Teddy Rileys Anfängen:

Andre Harrell (Gründer von Uptown Records): I knew Teddy [Riley] since he was 12 years old playing keyboards at Amateur Night at the Apollo for different artists. [He’s] always been nice and easy going, like a gifted young person. Had that glow, that personable charm. I remember he used to play for his brother-in-law, Omar Chandler, and that’s where I really knew him. I met him backstage at the Apollo.

Al B. Sure!: It’s extremely hard to describe a Teddy Riley outside of saying the word prodigy. Teddy’s a prodigy. He’s a very unique individual.

Keith Sweat: Teddy grew up in the St. Nicholas Houses and I grew up in the Grant Houses. Teddy was on 127th-131st and 7th and I was 125th on Morningside and Amsterdam.

Riley: Keith was in a band called Jamilah and I was in a band called Total Climax.

Sweat: Before we even had a hit record, we were in different groups back in the day.

Riley: We competed against each other in the Big Apple Band Contest and we won, we actually beat Keith Sweat’s band and Johnny Kemp’s band and we won the whole New York Big Apple contest.

Sweat: I wouldn’t say competed [Laughs]. We would do the club scene. We would do different clubs, so one weekend they might be performing at a certain club on 7th Avenue, 8th Avenue, Red Rooster, whatever and everybody would just play different venues. It might be us one weekend, it might be them the next. Kinky Fox, who had Johnny Kemp (“Just Got Paid”) in it, that was a group back in the day that would play different venues. That’s what we would do. Club hop with different settings.

Riley: We were in Harlem World. I was there when Busy Bee and Kool Moe Dee had the battle raps. Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J. I was there in the flesh. When Doug E. Fresh and Larry Love, when everybody was rap battling, beat battling; that was the movement, the time.

Kelly G: Little do people know, Teddy Riley produced “The Show” by Doug E Fresh.