Throwback: Jeff Redd – You Called & Told Me…

If you don’t recognize the name Jeff Redd or this song I’m not surprised. This song was actually off of the soundtrack for the movie Strickly Business. It came out in 1991 and it starred Halle Berry’s fine ass, Joseph C. Phillips (he played Denise’s husband Martin on The Cosby Show)…

…Tommy Davidson (from In Living Color), Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Torry, it even had Jodeci in it….well anyway this was the song they played during all of the club scenes and at the end of the movie.

Jeff Redd – You Called & Told Me

I swear I love this song, this shit makes me want to throw on a silk polka dot button up shirt, a pair of Cross Colour jeans, grow a hi-top fade and do the Tom & Jerry (note: if you’re under 25 you probably don’t know what the hell I’m talking about…it’s okay. Cherish your youth). This song epitomizes that early 90’s new jack swing sound. This was a time when people went to parties to party, when doing a dance routine in the middle of the club was considered cool and unfortunately, it was okay for people to wear colored jeans (like royal blue, red, green & yellow).

Nowadays parties are more “Top Model” than “Soul Train”, dance routines are reserved for the extremely intoxicated (or that one dude who seems like he was cryogenically frozen in 1989 and just thawed out before the party) and if you see any adult wearing colored jeans it’s a safe bet they’re homeless, a crackhead or both.

Terrible quality, but you’ll get over it…

Oh yeah, ladies if you’re a fan of Mary J. Blige, you can thank Jeff Redd for her discovery. A lot of people think that Mr. MAC Lip Gloss, Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy discovered her. While he did help develop her as an artist during the earlier stages of her career, it was Jeff Redd that helped her get signed to Uptown. Mary’s stepfather gave Redd (who was an A&R as well as an artist at Uptown) a demo tape of Mary performing Anita Baker’s “Caught Up in the Rapture.” After hearing the tape he sent it to Andre Harrell…and well you know the rest.