The 1990s File Feature
Nicety
Nicety: Michel'le and the Ruthless Sound of Early New Jack Swing Michel'le Toussant, known professionally as Michel'le, emerged from the South Los Angeles sc…
01 The Story
Nicety: Michel'le and the Ruthless Sound of Early New Jack Swing
Michel'le Toussant, known professionally as Michel'le, emerged from the South Los Angeles scene that gave birth to West Coast hip-hop and gangsta rap, but her vocal gifts placed her in an entirely different sonic territory. Her unusually high-pitched, breathy soprano was distinctive enough to make her immediately recognizable, and her alliance with the Ruthless Records camp, founded by Eazy-E and managed in part by Jerry Heller, gave her access to some of the most innovative production talent in the country at the end of the 1980s.
Michel'le's self-titled debut album was released on Ruthless Records in 1989, and it became a significant commercial and critical success within the R&B world. The album was produced primarily by Dr. Dre, who was then at the peak of his early career as a member of N.W.A and a house producer for Ruthless. Dre's production sensibility on Michel'le's record was shaped by the emerging new jack swing movement pioneered by Teddy Riley, which fused hip-hop rhythmic programming with the melodic and harmonic language of traditional R&B and soul.
Production and Release of "Nicety"
"Nicety" was released in early 1990 as a single from the debut album, following the success of her earlier single "No More Lies," which had peaked at number one on the Billboard R&B chart. The production on "Nicety" was handled by Dr. Dre and his frequent collaborator DJ Yella, both of them N.W.A members who were simultaneously building their reputations as architects of West Coast hip-hop. The contrast between their work for N.W.A and their production for Michel'le was stark, demonstrating the range that would later define Dre's career as a multi-genre producer.
The track featured the crisp, drum-machine-driven rhythms and smooth synthesizer arrangements that characterized the Ruthless R&B sound of the period. Michel'le's vocals were placed prominently in the mix, her falsetto runs and playful delivery creating an immediately likable surface texture over the more sophisticated production underneath. The combination of street-credible production and accessible pop-R&B vocal performance was precisely the formula that made new jack swing commercially dominant in the early 1990s.
Billboard Chart Performance
"Nicety" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 14, 1990, entering at position 98. Its ascent was rapid and steady: the following weeks saw it move to 74, then 62, 53, and 51 as radio play expanded. The song ultimately peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, with that peak arriving during the week of June 16, 1990. It spent a total of 16 weeks on the chart, a solid commercial run for an R&B artist whose crossover appeal was still being established.
On the Billboard R&B Singles chart, the song performed even more strongly, reaching the top tier and affirming that Michel'le's core audience was deeply embedded in the R&B and hip-hop community. The dual chart success demonstrated that the Ruthless R&B formula was working as intended, reaching listeners across the full spectrum of Black music radio.
Label Context and Industry Significance
Ruthless Records was, in 1990, at the absolute center of the music industry's attention. N.W.A had released Straight Outta Compton in 1988, and the furor surrounding that album had made the label synonymous with West Coast rap. Michel'le's success as the label's R&B act was important because it demonstrated that Ruthless could operate across genre lines and reach audiences beyond the hardcore hip-hop market. Her album sold over a million copies, earning platinum certification, and "Nicety" was a key element in sustaining that commercial momentum through 1990.
The song and album are now regarded as important documents of the transition period between classic 1980s R&B and the new jack swing era, capturing the specific sonic textures that Dr. Dre and his colleagues were developing before the seismic shift that would accompany the founding of Death Row Records in 1991.
02 Song Meaning
Confidence, Desire, and Feminine Agency in Michel'le's "Nicety"
"Nicety" belongs to a tradition within R&B of songs that celebrate romantic desire and attraction with directness and good humor. Michel'le's performance establishes the narrator as someone who knows what she wants and is unafraid to say so, a stance that was particularly significant within the male-dominated world of Ruthless Records, where the dominant voices were those of N.W.A members rapping from explicitly masculine perspectives.
The song's central conceit is a celebration of the qualities that make a romantic partner appealing, framed in terms of appreciation and warmth rather than complaint or longing. The narrator's position is one of active desire rather than passive reception, and this assertiveness gives the track a buoyancy that sets it apart from the more melancholy or conflicted R&B ballads of the era. Michel'le presents herself not as someone waiting to be chosen but as someone who has already made her own assessment and is stating it clearly.
Voice as Identity
Any serious consideration of "Nicety" as a cultural text must grapple with the instrument at its center: Michel'le's extraordinary voice. Her high, childlike timbre was a point of fascination and occasional controversy throughout her career, with some listeners finding it charming and others finding it incongruous given the sophisticated production around it. Yet the voice also became a marker of individuality so strong that it functioned as a brand. In a pop landscape crowded with conventionally polished R&B vocals, Michel'le's distinctiveness was itself a form of artistic identity.
The playfulness in her delivery on "Nicety" transforms what might otherwise be a fairly conventional R&B come-on into something more personal and idiosyncratic. There is humor in the performance, a lightness that suggests the narrator is enjoying herself and not taking the proceedings too seriously even while expressing genuine feeling. This balance between sincerity and wit was a hallmark of the best new jack swing material and is a quality that gives "Nicety" lasting appeal.
Context within New Jack Swing
The song sits squarely within the new jack swing movement that Teddy Riley had pioneered in the late 1980s and that Dr. Dre adapted for the Ruthless stable. New jack swing's essential gesture was the marriage of hip-hop's rhythmic programming to the melodic sensibility of traditional soul and R&B, creating a hybrid form that was simultaneously harder-edged and more commercially accessible than either parent genre alone. "Nicety" exemplifies how that synthesis could serve female artists as well as male ones, providing a contemporary sonic setting that did not require Michel'le to conform to the conventions of either pure pop or pure hip-hop.
The legacy of "Nicety" is inseparable from the larger story of Michel'le's career, which was complicated by personal circumstances involving her relationships with Dr. Dre and Suge Knight that became public knowledge only years later. Against that backdrop, the song's uncomplicated celebration of romantic joy carries additional resonance, representing a moment in Michel'le's artistic life when the music itself could be the primary story. The track endures as a testament to her considerable vocal gifts and to the remarkable creative ferment of the Ruthless Records circle at the dawn of the 1990s.
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