Wreckx-N-Effect

American rap and New Jack Swing band, Wrecks-n-Effect (then Wreckx-n-Effect) was formed in 1988 by Teddy Riley's brother, Markell Riley, and Aqil Davidson. Childhood friends with Brandon Mitchell, they recruited Keith Harris and were signed by Atlantic Records after sending out a demo. After the release of an EP of the same name, Riley, Davidson and Mitchell continued as a trio, welcomed by the Motown label. Released in 1989, the single "New Jack Swing " reached No. 1 in the rap charts, and the album it came from, Wrecks-n-Effect, at a modest No. 103, received assistance from producer Teddy Riley, considered the inventor of the fusion between rap and R&B. In 1990, following Brandon Mitchell's death in a shooting in Manhattan, the remaining duo changed their name to Wreckx-n-Effect in his honor, then recorded the international hit "Rump Shaker" in Virginia Beach, in Teddy Riley's brand-new studio, which topped the dance charts worldwide (no. 1 on the US rap charts, no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 behind Whitney Houston's indestructible "I Will Always Love You" ). The now-classic track opens the album Hard or Smooth (1992), riddled with samples (James Brown, Lafatyette Afro Rock Band, DeBarge, Average White Band, Joe Cocker, Otis Redding, Barry White...), which reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200. Back in 1996, Wreckx-n-Effect delivered a final album for MCA, Rap's New Generation, before splitting up and reuniting in 2014.