New Jack Swing pioneer Teddy Riley — who produced iconic hits including Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show” and Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative” — has announced his new memoir, Remember the Times, published by Simon & Schuster’s 13A / Gallery Books imprint.
Riley tapped music biographer Jake Brown to collaborate on the tome, which will chronicle his five decades of hits and trace the past 40 years of his influential impact on hip-hop and R&B for generations. Beyond helming earlier classics, including Kool Moe Dee’s “Wild Wild West” and Keith Sweat’s “How You Like Me Now?” he later teamed with Michael Jackson for the Dangerous song “Remember the Times.” In a press release, Jackson said of the collaboration: “Teddy Riley is just incredible and so innovative, I love working with him.”
“I successfully created the New Jack Swing genre 40 years ago so we could have our own generation of music, not their generation, and our own history,” Riley said in a statement about the project. “I’m so excited to share that history with my fans around the world!”
Biographer Jake Brown added: “I grew up on New Jack Swing and started listening to Teddy Riley when I was 11 years old and have been a fan ever since. To think that I’d be co-writing his memoirs decades later is a career-high moment any author would hope for. We have an amazing cast of co-stars Teddy wrote and produced the soundtrack to a generation for, and fans will be BLOWN away by the ride this book will take them on!”
The book will include stories involving some of music and entertainment’s biggest stars, such as Babyface, Bobby Brown, Uptown Records founder Andre Harrell, Keith Sweat, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Pharrell Williams, Rodney Jerkins, New Jack City screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper, and more.
Riley has also written new music, which will coincide with the memoir’s release and a tour to follow. The release date for Remember the Times has not yet been revealed.
Beyond news of Riley’s memoir, the trailblazing multi-instrumentalist will appear on Sirius XM pop-up channel Teddy Riley’s New Jack Swing Radio as part of Black History Month. The show will air on SiriusXM channel 79 from Feb. 20 through Feb. 26 and on the app from Feb. 2 through March 1.