It ain’t hard to tell

Hip-hop is, of course, synonymous with the creative use of a sample, the interpolation or straight repetition of a segment or whole of an old record to create a new one. But up until the early 1990s it was rare for other musical genres to follow suit. But the early 1990s was the era of New Jack Swing, of R’n’B mixing with the aesthetics of hip-hop and literally dominating the ‘urban’ side of the charts.

So it was perhaps inevitable that the use of other records for beats and melodies would soon make its way into R’n’B as well, and possibly the queen of these efforts is the monster 1993 cut from SWV, “Right Here (Human Nature Mix)”. Now I don’t think that the song has dated brilliantly, but there is no doubting that on release it was simply huge, and could be heard everywhere from the sweatiest underground dance floor, to the most commercial of radio shows. Not to say that it is not still very pleasing to the ear, and of course the spark of nostalgia still shivers the spine when it crops up unexpectedly, but it was its original context that is most significant.

For here was a time when new Jack Swing truly stood astride the world, and Teddy Riley and Babyface in particular as the key architects of this sound were its king and crowned prince. It was Riley who oversaw SWV’s production, and his masterstroke to take the average R’n’B song that “Right Here” started life as, and set it to the most hauntingly beautiful of Michael Jackson’s melodies, taken from the already brilliant “Thriller” ballad “Human Nature”.

There is much to be said about this song itself, including naturally Nas and Large Professor’s own interpretation a couple of years later on “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” (an infinitely better use to my mind), but it was SWV who shook up the world slightly with its first commercially significant application. Smooth and honey-dripped vocals slide over the equally buttery flow of the sample, and from the opening bars it is clear that the tune is an instant classic of its type. And instantly recognisable also, for who cannot pre-empt the “S (s), Double U (u) V (v)” vocal cut as the beat breaks in the intro.

What I never knew was that this famous little interlude was the voice of a very fresh Pharrell Williams, at the time something of a Riley protégé. But novelty facts aside, this tune was a template for the emergent softening of new jack into equally pop friendly R’n’B, and for that it deserves full props. Just don’t expect the video to impress in the same way. Now that truly is well past its sell-by-date, if indeed it was ever fresh in the first place.