Blackstreet - Another Level [30th Anniversary]

Teddy Riley invented new jack swing, got bored of it, and then made Another Level. Released on Interscope in September 1996, Blackstreet's second album is the record where nineties R&B stopped being polite about its debt to hip hop and just fused the two outright.

"No Diggity" is the reason most people know it. Built on a slowed sample of Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands," with Dr. Dre guesting and Queen Pen closing it out, it went to number one on the Hot 100 for four weeks, ended the fourteen week reign of "Macarena," and won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group in 1998. It has outlived every trend it was accused of chasing.

The rest of the album is deeper than the single suggests. "Don't Leave Me" and "Never Gonna Let You Go" are straight harmony showcases, "Fix" brings in Slash and Ol' Dirty Bastard for a genuinely strange collision, and "The Lord Is Real (Time Will Reveal)" closes things on gospel. Riley produced almost all of it and stacked the vocal arrangements four deep throughout.

This thirtieth anniversary edition spreads the full album across two black vinyl discs. First widely available vinyl pressing in years.