9. BlackstreetAnother Level
I had a skewed entry into writing because I wasn’t massively into the dominant pop culture of the time. It was at City Life magazine, like Manchester’s Time Out but less slick and funnier. Everyone in the office was obsessed with Oasis or jungle – it was 1995 – and I just wanted to write about Take That, which the editor let me do a lot, bless him. I loved their story. They reminded me exactly of the boys I went to school with. I wasn’t listening to Britpop or drum and bass, I was still listening to swingbeat and house. TLC’s CrazySexyCool, the first couple of Mary J albums, Motorbass, SWV, Nu Yorican Soul and the incredible second wave pop overgrounding of hip-hop by Puff Daddy. It was fleet-footed, new and the bass was endless. Blackstreet’s my favourite from that time, the last of Teddy Riley’s significant work. His use of Debarge’s ‘A Dream on Don’t Leave Me’ is inspired, Dre on No Diggity is a sensation. ‘Another Level’ also famously begot the boy-band of the same name. So you could say that without this, there is no Jordan/Dane Bowers sex tape, no ‘Out of Your Mind’ with Victoria Beckham.
