Toe Jay Simpson
Searchin’
I can definitely hear Timbo on Alone. He was working that style hard mid 90s with that guitar
Did Timbaland Ghost Produce Jodeci Diary of a Mad Band?
- Thread starter Dre Space Age
- Start date
I know right??
half of these dudes didn't even know who Devante was until a few years ago.
I just saw somebody in here tryna say that timbaland produced "feenin".
are you retarded??
that's because they were functional. Devante wasn't. and theres a grip of other greats I can think of, off the top of my head that weren't functional either. like I said, I already know not to waste my time with you on certain matters LOL. you speak as if Devante ever had a falloff period.
that link sounds goofy as f*ck breh. youre proving my point. its your typical half hot/half hot-mess beat from him.
it was a lot of people still doing it in '93 actually. but like you alluded to, it was the transition year.
but by the end of the year it was a wrap, and jodeci's album was late '93.
also, jodeci was never popular for their new jack swing songs to begin with. I don't know why you would even label Devante as a new jack producer.
joints like "U&I" and "I don't wanna do anything else" were the predecessor to what Devante was doing on this album.
Last edited:
I know right??
half of these dudes didn't even know who Devante was until a few years ago.
I just saw somebody in here tryna say that timbaland produced "feenin".
are you retarded??
that's because they were functional. Devante wasn't. and theres a grip of other greats I can think of, off the top of my head that weren't functional either. like I said, I already know not to waste my time with you on certain matters LOL. you speak as if Devante ever had a falloff period.
that link sounds goofy as f*ck breh. youre proving my point. its your typical half hot/half hot-mess beat from him.
it was a lot of people still doing it in '93 actually. but like you alluded to, it was the transition year.
but by the end of the year it was a wrap, and jodeci's album was late '93.
also, jodeci was never popular for their new jack swing songs to begin with. I don't know why you would even label Devante as a new jack producer.
joints like "U&I" and "I don't wanna do anything else" were the predecessor to what Devante was doing on this album.
There is a difference between functioning addicts and functional people with mental illnesses. In regard to Devante, there's only speculation of both. You can't say he was functional in either when he never really came forth and said he was suffering from mental illness or that he had issues with drug abuse. Yeah, he's had public instances of being arrested for drugs and alcohol and appearances where he's been erratic, that hardly screams addiction or mental illness. Why? People that are recreational alcohol and drug users get busted for drugs and alcohol possession all the time. Doesn't mean they are addicts, but does throw up a red flag.
In regard to Devante, this whole he was mentally ill and a drug addict thing is all excuses. Dude just completely just fell off seemingly overnight. The songs he did in 1998 for Kurupt were a far cry from "No More Pain". Talent doesn't just dry up like that.
In regard to the beat that I posted, it wasn't posted for critique. It was posted because it is much closer sonically to "No More Pain" than anything Devante has done before or after. What you think about it on regard to quality is irrelevant.
Timbaland is >>>>>> Devante as a producer by a significant margin. Versatility, creativity, longevity, impact, and influence puts him over.
I have never saod The Neptunes were >>>>> Teddy Riley
Word. Timbaland the
Word. Timbaland the
I don't even see how anyone could really put Devante over Timbaland especially when the same guys slighting Tim are the same ones saying Jodeci's albums were only good for slow jams.
It's just straight up hatred at this point but Timbo put it on himself due to years of mediocrity and only making teeny bopper beats for the burbs.
Indiglow Meta (R$G)
Ultra.
THAT IS PRODUCTION, FOOL.
Indiglow Meta (R$G)
Ultra.
he doesn't write raps and he has asst engineers as well.
he composes...
Semantics
Indiglow Meta (R$G)
Ultra.
that means you DID THE DRUMS. It's coproduction.
How you gonna tell me?
I'm telling you because he wasn't credited with co-production. A co-production is at the discretion of the people who actually worked on the song. If you have issue with it, that's on you.
Deadman187
All Star
Timbaland didnt ghost produce the album
Jodeci’s Diary Of A Mad Band LP revisited with Prince Charles Alexander | Return To The Classics
Alexander delves more into how each song was created by each member of the group.
“Devante would start out with the idea then K-Ci would sing it the way it sounds when someone who can sing their ass off sings it,” says Alexander. “Then when you hear that you get another idea and you would throw that idea at K-Ci and he sings the hell out of that and then you go on and on from there. Jojo would put the harmony to the song as well. The really funny thing about K-Ci and Jojo is we didn’t have Autotone or Vocaline back then. K-Ci would go in and sing a note and our specialty was doing stacks. We wouldn’t do two or three note stacks, we would do four note stacks.
“I had been doing this for years with other people and when you go in and do a double, it had to be tight. His double would be raggedy as hell and the timing would be off and the pitch would be all over the place. I would say, ‘Don’t we want to tighten that up a little bit?’ to D because we would be in the control room and K-Ci would be in the booth and D would say, ‘Naaa, that’s cool.’
“We would do the third and fourth notes and they would sound just as raggedy, but when you would hear them altogether they would sound crazy and it sounded beautiful. It was the first time I had experienced something like that. For the average person it doesn’t work and it sounds like crap.
“There had to be something magical going on in the way K-Ci was singing it and the way Devante was hearing it. I guess Devante had been recording K-Ci long enough to know that K-Ci could do that. It would sound like it was off, but then sound like it was really on. He would do another note and then Jojo would go in and do his four notes. We would find a missing note and he would sing another note. It would end up being that trademark Jodeci sound.
Normally, when people sing as hard as K-Ci they don’t sing that hard in the background. They sing that hard in the lead, but not in the background. This is first group I worked with where singing that hard in the background made sense. The background is normally eerie, light and fluffy. K-Ci is wailing in the background and doing four tracks of it and the same was true for Jojo. The creative process on the songs was definitely a collaborative effort between everybody.
“It was almost like an unspoken language that existed between Devante as one type of creator within the group and K-Ci and Jojo bringing out the vocal end of the creation. Dalvin was kind of the youthful energy in the group. He would be looking at the Hip Hop concepts, hanging out with Missy and Timbaland drawing on where the music could possibly go moving forward. That’s why his input shows up on the ladder stages of the album. They were working on not just being a ballad group, but finding other places to go with the group’s sound.”
The first single to be released off of the album was “Cry For You.” It peaked to #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart, #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and #20 on the UK Singles Chart.
Alexander recalls how the song was constructed.
“On ‘Cry For You’ I mixed the song and I sent it to Andre for him to listen to it,” says Alexander. “He came back with a note and said the background vocals were too loud. And I was like ‘What?’ because that was Jodeci’s sound and they weren’t your average R&B group. We actually went back and forth on that for a couple of days. The version that ended up on the album the background vocals were lower. The way ‘Cry For You’ sounded when I first mixed it sounded more like ‘Forever My Lady.’ ‘Cry For You’ has a more mature sound, a more smoothed out sound. It sounded rawer to me when the background vocals were higher.”
The next single released was the popular song entitled “Feenin’.” It peaked to #2 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart, #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and #18 on the UK Singles Chart.
Alexander remembers the original concept behind the making of the song.
“’Feenin’ was a song where Devante wanted to do a song where he played the Talk box like Roger Troutman,” says Alexander. “The Talk box is a tube that you stick in your mouth and you play the keyboard. The keyboard goes into an amp and then amp blows the sound through the tube into your mouth. Then you’re able to make syllables and words with it. He really wanted to do that so he took ‘Feenin’’ to do it and it was like his version of “Computer Love.” We used a sample of “Computer Love” for the song ‘What About Us’ later on in the album.”
The final song to be released from the album was “What About Us.” It peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart. Alexander recollects on his involvement and how Devante completed the song.
“On ‘What About Us’ it was me playing the flute and tenor sax to open the song and throughout it as well,” says Alexander. “I overdubbed the flute playing over the tenor sax. I actually played both of those instruments live in the studio. Devante was playing around with samples. He sampled my sax and the flute then Darryl Pearson played the guitar and Devante sampled the live guitar that Darryl played. He put the song together with the live instruments we played and he added it to the groove he was already playing.”
Jodeci – “What About Us”:
Alexander also mentions how a few of the remaining songs on the album came together.
“’My Heart Belongs to You’ was all Devante,” says Alexander. “The solo to open that record was nasty. It was a continuation of “Forever My Lady” like a part two. We were just trying to get some hard knocking drums on the track and Devante was just going buckwild with the keyboards. You throw K-Ci and Jojo on the track and it was just magic on that song.”
Jodeci – “My Heart Belongs To You”:
“On ‘Alone’ Darryl Pearson was playing guitar on this track,” says Alexander. “Devante sampled his guitar again. This song with the rest of the songs was being sequenced by the MPC 60 II. We were experimenting with sampling using this device on all these songs. There were many keyboards playing on this track and it may not seem like it, but there definitely was multiple keyboards playing.”
Jodeci – “Alone”:
“Won’t Waste You” has that Wu-Tang vibe, but the drums were a little bit heavier,” says Alexander. “It was a straight up hip-hop track. Devante was trying to get that fusion of Hip Hop and R&B and looking for that unique sound with this song. It definitely started from the beat and Jojo just went in the booth and started singing notes. The way the song starts reminds me of Mary J. Blige‘s song “You Bring Me Joy.” Jojo is actually singing the background vocals in that song and no one knows it. Jojo started the melody for “Won’t Waste You.” It started with a sample from a Dobie Gray record and K-Ci starts singing then Jojo comes in on it to bring the heat.”
“Won’t Waste You”:
“For ‘In the Meanwhile’ I remember Timbaland had this nice little beat and we were trying to figure out what to do with it,” says Alexander. “We printed it to tape and it just sat around for a while. One day K-Ci came in and started singing In the Meanwhile over top of the track and that’s how the song got started.”
Jodeci – “In The Meanwhile”:
“In ‘Gimme All You Got’ there was a horn hit in the beginning and I played the horn live in the studio,” says Alexander. “Teddy Riley was the king at Uptown Records for a minute and some of this stuff was Devante making his own mark by blending hip-hop and R&B. And making sure he had samples and fat beats. We were trying to showcase Dalvin to show some of his rhyme skills. “Gimme All You Got” was a song where it could be a headbanger, but still have great singing on the record as well.”
Jodeci – “Gimme All You Got”:
“Sweaty” we were just trying to be funky with this track,” says Alexander. “Devante brought out all of the synths on this record. Devante was really trying to show how funky he could be with this record.”
Jodeci – “Sweaty”:
Alexander spoke on the importance of Devante Swing’s influence within the dynamic of the label and group.
“Everything had to be signed off or co-signed by Devante,” says Alexander. “Even Andre Harrell trying to come into the studio to listen the music had to be co-signed by Devante. Andre couldn’t just pop in and I thought it was amazing because he was the head of the record company. Devante really had it like that. He had it to the point where he could tell the head of the company that you can’t listen to any music until I give it to you because I created hits on the first album and I’m going to create hits on the second album. It was art to access and sometimes that’s the way it gets done.
“I gave Devante credit for being extremely musical and being a musical genius. There were two things that happened. He kind of shocked me one day when we were in the studio. Something he played on the keyboard reminded me of Charlie Parker and I told him so. He said, ‘Who’s Charlie Parker?’ I said, ‘Whoa, you’re a musician and you don’t know who Charlie Parker is?’ Devante really didn’t know about him because Devante is from the church. Charlie Parker was a secular musician so I guess if you’re really born and raised in the church and your father doesn’t tell you about Charlie Parker you probably wouldn’t know who he is. So I was surprised that this great musician didn’t know the historical connection of what he was doing, but it showed that the generations of musicians were in the midst of a change. Devante, the genius that he is, was a reflection of that change.
“If you listen to the first album, Devante is soloing through that album, which is what musicians do. Musicians like to give you beautiful notes while the singer is singing. On the second album, he stopped soloing and he pulled way back. I was in that studio telling him to do solos on the record because it was part of the Jodeci sound. But he heard the same thing I was hearing in the marketplace. No one was doing that any more. No one was doing keyboard solos anymore and the music was swinging so far to hip-hop and it was only about the rhymes and the beats. Nobody was paying any attention to anyone who was doing solos. Devante was paying attention to that and he decided to pull it back. I disagreed with him pulling it back because his solos were HOT! Like most of the musical geniuses I know, he was in tune with what was going on in the culture of the music.”
Jodeci’s Diary Of A Mad Band LP revisited with Prince Charles Alexander | Return To The Classics
Alexander delves more into how each song was created by each member of the group.
“Devante would start out with the idea then K-Ci would sing it the way it sounds when someone who can sing their ass off sings it,” says Alexander. “Then when you hear that you get another idea and you would throw that idea at K-Ci and he sings the hell out of that and then you go on and on from there. Jojo would put the harmony to the song as well. The really funny thing about K-Ci and Jojo is we didn’t have Autotone or Vocaline back then. K-Ci would go in and sing a note and our specialty was doing stacks. We wouldn’t do two or three note stacks, we would do four note stacks.
“I had been doing this for years with other people and when you go in and do a double, it had to be tight. His double would be raggedy as hell and the timing would be off and the pitch would be all over the place. I would say, ‘Don’t we want to tighten that up a little bit?’ to D because we would be in the control room and K-Ci would be in the booth and D would say, ‘Naaa, that’s cool.’
“There had to be something magical going on in the way K-Ci was singing it and the way Devante was hearing it. I guess Devante had been recording K-Ci long enough to know that K-Ci could do that. It would sound like it was off, but then sound like it was really on. He would do another note and then Jojo would go in and do his four notes. We would find a missing note and he would sing another note. It would end up being that trademark Jodeci sound.
Normally, when people sing as hard as K-Ci they don’t sing that hard in the background. They sing that hard in the lead, but not in the background. This is first group I worked with where singing that hard in the background made sense. The background is normally eerie, light and fluffy. K-Ci is wailing in the background and doing four tracks of it and the same was true for Jojo. The creative process on the songs was definitely a collaborative effort between everybody.
“It was almost like an unspoken language that existed between Devante as one type of creator within the group and K-Ci and Jojo bringing out the vocal end of the creation. Dalvin was kind of the youthful energy in the group. He would be looking at the Hip Hop concepts, hanging out with Missy and Timbaland drawing on where the music could possibly go moving forward. That’s why his input shows up on the ladder stages of the album. They were working on not just being a ballad group, but finding other places to go with the group’s sound.”
The first single to be released off of the album was “Cry For You.” It peaked to #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart, #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and #20 on the UK Singles Chart.
Alexander recalls how the song was constructed.
“On ‘Cry For You’ I mixed the song and I sent it to Andre for him to listen to it,” says Alexander. “He came back with a note and said the background vocals were too loud. And I was like ‘What?’ because that was Jodeci’s sound and they weren’t your average R&B group. We actually went back and forth on that for a couple of days. The version that ended up on the album the background vocals were lower. The way ‘Cry For You’ sounded when I first mixed it sounded more like ‘Forever My Lady.’ ‘Cry For You’ has a more mature sound, a more smoothed out sound. It sounded rawer to me when the background vocals were higher.”
The next single released was the popular song entitled “Feenin’.” It peaked to #2 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart, #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and #18 on the UK Singles Chart.
Alexander remembers the original concept behind the making of the song.
“’Feenin’ was a song where Devante wanted to do a song where he played the Talk box like Roger Troutman,” says Alexander. “The Talk box is a tube that you stick in your mouth and you play the keyboard. The keyboard goes into an amp and then amp blows the sound through the tube into your mouth. Then you’re able to make syllables and words with it. He really wanted to do that so he took ‘Feenin’’ to do it and it was like his version of “Computer Love.” We used a sample of “Computer Love” for the song ‘What About Us’ later on in the album.”
The final song to be released from the album was “What About Us.” It peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart. Alexander recollects on his involvement and how Devante completed the song.
“On ‘What About Us’ it was me playing the flute and tenor sax to open the song and throughout it as well,” says Alexander. “I overdubbed the flute playing over the tenor sax. I actually played both of those instruments live in the studio. Devante was playing around with samples. He sampled my sax and the flute then Darryl Pearson played the guitar and Devante sampled the live guitar that Darryl played. He put the song together with the live instruments we played and he added it to the groove he was already playing.”
Jodeci – “What About Us”:
Alexander also mentions how a few of the remaining songs on the album came together.
“’My Heart Belongs to You’ was all Devante,” says Alexander. “The solo to open that record was nasty. It was a continuation of “Forever My Lady” like a part two. We were just trying to get some hard knocking drums on the track and Devante was just going buckwild with the keyboards. You throw K-Ci and Jojo on the track and it was just magic on that song.”
Jodeci – “My Heart Belongs To You”:
“On ‘Alone’ Darryl Pearson was playing guitar on this track,” says Alexander. “Devante sampled his guitar again. This song with the rest of the songs was being sequenced by the MPC 60 II. We were experimenting with sampling using this device on all these songs. There were many keyboards playing on this track and it may not seem like it, but there definitely was multiple keyboards playing.”
Jodeci – “Alone”:
“Won’t Waste You” has that Wu-Tang vibe, but the drums were a little bit heavier,” says Alexander. “It was a straight up hip-hop track. Devante was trying to get that fusion of Hip Hop and R&B and looking for that unique sound with this song. It definitely started from the beat and Jojo just went in the booth and started singing notes. The way the song starts reminds me of Mary J. Blige‘s song “You Bring Me Joy.” Jojo is actually singing the background vocals in that song and no one knows it. Jojo started the melody for “Won’t Waste You.” It started with a sample from a Dobie Gray record and K-Ci starts singing then Jojo comes in on it to bring the heat.”
“Won’t Waste You”:
“For ‘In the Meanwhile’ I remember Timbaland had this nice little beat and we were trying to figure out what to do with it,” says Alexander. “We printed it to tape and it just sat around for a while. One day K-Ci came in and started singing In the Meanwhile over top of the track and that’s how the song got started.”
Jodeci – “In The Meanwhile”:
“In ‘Gimme All You Got’ there was a horn hit in the beginning and I played the horn live in the studio,” says Alexander. “Teddy Riley was the king at Uptown Records for a minute and some of this stuff was Devante making his own mark by blending hip-hop and R&B. And making sure he had samples and fat beats. We were trying to showcase Dalvin to show some of his rhyme skills. “Gimme All You Got” was a song where it could be a headbanger, but still have great singing on the record as well.”
Jodeci – “Gimme All You Got”:
“Sweaty” we were just trying to be funky with this track,” says Alexander. “Devante brought out all of the synths on this record. Devante was really trying to show how funky he could be with this record.”
Jodeci – “Sweaty”:
Alexander spoke on the importance of Devante Swing’s influence within the dynamic of the label and group.
“Everything had to be signed off or co-signed by Devante,” says Alexander. “Even Andre Harrell trying to come into the studio to listen the music had to be co-signed by Devante. Andre couldn’t just pop in and I thought it was amazing because he was the head of the record company. Devante really had it like that. He had it to the point where he could tell the head of the company that you can’t listen to any music until I give it to you because I created hits on the first album and I’m going to create hits on the second album. It was art to access and sometimes that’s the way it gets done.
“I gave Devante credit for being extremely musical and being a musical genius. There were two things that happened. He kind of shocked me one day when we were in the studio. Something he played on the keyboard reminded me of Charlie Parker and I told him so. He said, ‘Who’s Charlie Parker?’ I said, ‘Whoa, you’re a musician and you don’t know who Charlie Parker is?’ Devante really didn’t know about him because Devante is from the church. Charlie Parker was a secular musician so I guess if you’re really born and raised in the church and your father doesn’t tell you about Charlie Parker you probably wouldn’t know who he is. So I was surprised that this great musician didn’t know the historical connection of what he was doing, but it showed that the generations of musicians were in the midst of a change. Devante, the genius that he is, was a reflection of that change.
“If you listen to the first album, Devante is soloing through that album, which is what musicians do. Musicians like to give you beautiful notes while the singer is singing. On the second album, he stopped soloing and he pulled way back. I was in that studio telling him to do solos on the record because it was part of the Jodeci sound. But he heard the same thing I was hearing in the marketplace. No one was doing that any more. No one was doing keyboard solos anymore and the music was swinging so far to hip-hop and it was only about the rhymes and the beats. Nobody was paying any attention to anyone who was doing solos. Devante was paying attention to that and he decided to pull it back. I disagreed with him pulling it back because his solos were HOT! Like most of the musical geniuses I know, he was in tune with what was going on in the culture of the music.”
Boonapalist
Superstar
I definitely prefer Devante’s production to Timbalands during their peak periods. But I wouldn’t rate him above Tim because Timbaland was more prolific during his peak, and it was quality music too.
Devante’s a perfect example of wasted potential too me. He was more talented than Timbaland and a lot of other R&B producers but he fell off the wagon so quick.
Devante’s a perfect example of wasted potential too me. He was more talented than Timbaland and a lot of other R&B producers but he fell off the wagon so quick.
