1993 was a truly a transition year for urban music. The "post-New Jack Era" which began in late '92 was well on its way to making a full transition to the Hip-Hop/Soul Era, and Dallas Austin's sound had transformed from his earlier "rambunctious" sound to a darker, more sophisticated style. The change in sound from TLC's debut album and their follow-up, CrazySexyCool is probably the best illustration of Dallas' sonic evolution. Gone were the bubblegum sound effects and frantic drum loops from Austin's earlier days. After making a few more "rambunctious" tracks for TLC ("Get It Up" from Poetic Justice), Hi-Five's (Faithful album) and a track on DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's Code Red album, Dallas managed to fully reinvent himself as a producer.

Soon enough, Dallas was aggressively landing projects with alternative soul progenitors Brand New Heavies ("Dream On Dreamer") and Atlanta-based artist Joi, who's widely slept on Pendulum Vibe is considered by some circles to be one of the first neo-soul albums of the movement. It was also around this period that Dallas (through DARP - Dallas Austin Recording Projects) began to spawn a slew of up-and-coming producers. Among this number included Tim Kelly and Bob Robinson, (better known as simply Tim & Bob), and Kevin Wales (who had actually been working with Dallas as early as 1990). Friends of Dallas Austin who were also involved with the music scene - collectively known as The Dungeon Family - consisting of LaFace signees OutKast and Goodie Mob, and producers Organized Noise were all starting to emerge around this time. Background vocalist Debra Killings (whose distinctly raspy-yet-angelic voice you can hear all over TLC records like "Creep" or Outkast's "Southernplayalistic" single) was also putting her stamp on urban radio.

Speaking of "Creep," the stunning yet subdued single very successfully reintroduced Dallas Austin and TLC to the world of popular music. It was a new era - Hip-Hop/Soul; and unlike their peers from the New Jack Era (think: Bell Biv Devoe, Another Bad Creation) - Dallas Austin TLC had successfully made the transition from New Jack icons to major players during the Hip-Hop/Soul Era.

In addition to CrazySexyCool, 1994 brought forth Boyz II Men's II album, which featured one single co-produced by Austin himself ("Thank You") and a number of songs produced by Austin proteges Tim & Bob for DARP (Dallas Austin Recording Projects) including "Trying Times," "You Know," "Vibin" and "50 Candles." It should be noted that both CrazySexyCool and II would go on to win "Best R&B Album" in 1995 and 1996 respectively, each selling well over 10 million copies worldwide and representing a spectacular career high point for both groups. "Creep" also won a Grammy for "Best R&B Vocal Performance by Duo or Group" in 1996 as well.

Even straight-up pop music icon Madonna caught the sizzling hot "urban" vapors rising out of DARP studios hit-machine, and wasted no time recruiting Austin for her Bedtime Stories LP. By far her most "urban" outing ever (and a stunning acknowledgement of how divided along racial lines popular music had become at that point - she'd been forced to pick a side), Bedtime Stories featured contributions by Hip-Hop/Soul titan Dave "Jam" Hall, and New Jack alums Nellee Hooper (Soul II Soul), Dallas Austin and alt/experimental artist Bjork. Notably, it was Austin's song "Secret" that was chosen to be the album's lead single - and it performed incredibly well on the charts.

In many respects, Bedtime Stories was a comeback album for the material girl; "Secret" successfully re-introduced her as hip and current during the mid-90s, and her follow-up "Take A Bow" would go on to become one of the biggest hits of her career, thanks to the set-up "Secret" was able to achieve.

Meanwhile, visionary label executive Clive Davis would begin to reap the benefits of the boutique label deals he'd offered to two young producers making names for themselves. One was to Sean "Puffy" Combs, who in turn created Bad Boy Entertainment. The other was Dallas, who created Rowdy Records. The biggest star attached to Rowdy at the time (if not ever), was a 14-year old precociously talented girl named Monica Arnold, now better known as simply Monica. It was an ingenious sample of LL Cool J's "Back Seat (Of My Jeep)" that really set it off for her debut, "Don't Take It Personal" which was among the biggest hits of 1995. With this record, Dallas had fully entrenched himself as a major contributor to the hip-hop/soul era of urban music, as this track along with the rest of her extremely commendable debut album Miss Thang beautifully demonstrated.

It should also be noted that a frequent Dallas affiliate named Colin Wolfe was involved with both the Monica and Madonna projects. Like Teddy Riley, Dallas Austin served as a matrix of musical creativity that many people were able to tap into, and develop on their own (think: The Neptunes/Rodney Jerkins); we want to be sure that we are able to illustrate how just many producers/creatives were able to spin off from the DARP establishment that Dallas created.

Naturally, Dallas continued to follow in the footsteps of Riley when was tapped to produce tracks for Michael Jackson's highly anticipated HIStory LP, resulting in the song "This Time." Throughout the rest of 1995, Dallas also found time to work on one of LaFace's then new acts, A Few Good Men for their sole release, Take A Dip, Paula Abdul's Head Over Heels album, and the track "Sentimental" by Arista newcomer at the time, Deborah Cox.

By the start of 1996, Dallas proteges Organized Noize and Tim & Bob were both getting set to soar during the 2nd half of the 90s (thanks to ATL based-acts like Mista, 112, Goodie Mob and Outkast)...(to be continued).

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