★★★★★
Guy's self-titled 1988 debut was the first New Jack Swing or Swing Beat album ever made. The album's influence and that of its producer Teddy Riley on R&B; cannot be understated, as the album single-handedly created both a sub-genre and sound aesthetic which would remain popular through to the mid-nineties...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2010-08-22
★★★★★
Until you absorb the beats and focus in on Aaron Hall, Teddy Riley's main band sound like almost arrogantly anonymous light funksters. Riley would always rather insinuate than overwhelm, and Hall lacks the chops and the inclination to soul anybody out--learned his main shit from the Gap Band and Stevie Wonder. He often sounds like he's winging it. But where Bobby Brown and Al B. Sure! play the love man falsetto straight, Hall adds depth by straying toward the manly emotionalism of the church...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2010-06-11
★★★★★
The 1989 album Guy established the sexy, lurching "new jack swing"style as a commercial breakthrough. Guy...The Future builds upon thisachievement. Full of potential hit singles, it's also one of thewittiest and most well-thought-out pop albums of the year. Althoughproducer-lead singer Teddy Riley and his teammates Damion and AaronHall have things to say about well, about the future, including pleasfor strong black leadership, most of Guy...The Future is an uncommonlycanny party record...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Producers of big-money black music as skilled as Teddy Riley create self-destruction engines: Their sounds get copied worldwide, and then they disappear in a field of beat biters. But Riley is back in the game with Guy, his late-Eighties group, which defined the sophisticated New Jack Swing style. Guy III is an act not just of caprice but of divine right. "We're back," Riley intones on the opening track. "And guess who brought us back? It's God. And you...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Sometimes you have to move backwards to go forward. It's fitting Teddy Riley should choose the year 2000 to revisit the new jack swing brand of modern-day R&B that made his name. And the recent demise of Blackstreet has left the door open for the Norfolk, Virginia producer, along with Aaron and Damion Hall, to reform Guy, who dissolved in some acrimony ten years ago.
- nme.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Between 1987 and 1994, three influences dominated R&B: Teddy Riley, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, and the team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. These producersmusic's equivalent of a film directorkept R&B thriving while rap was earning its sea legs with distinct, but co-habitable musical styles.
Teddy Riley's niche was melding traditional soul melodies and harmonies with hip-hop's harder "bring those kick-drums right up front" style, while constantly paying tribute to his idols'70s funkst...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-21
★★★★★
Back when slow jams and party rap were polar opposites in the world of black music, creating a style that could create a bridge between them theoretically didn't make a lot of sense. What, for instance, would a blend of Whitney Houston and Heavy D sound like? Few of us dared to ask that question. But if a simple rhyme over a break beat could ascend into the mainstream with a rock companion (see: Run DMC and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way") then why not merge R&B with hip-hop sensibilities...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-21
★★★★★
With its thick, multilayered soundscape, Guy's first single, "Groove Me," from 1988, came at the listener in a rush head down, fists clenched looking for a fight. Near the end of its five-minute beatdown, keyboardist-vocalist Teddy Riley announced, "It's not over!" Indeed it wasn't: The hits just kept coming. This Harlem trio Aaron and Damion Hall are the other members pumped up jams and chilled out hotties with swinging titles that included "Piece of My Love," "Spend the Night" and ...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-03-20
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