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Producer Series: Tim & Bob

Thirty-one tracks from a production duo who wrote "Thong Song" and "So Into You" and somehow made both sound inevitable.

Tim & Bob, the quiet 1990s workhorses

Tim Kelley and Bob Robinson spent the 1990s and early 2000s as one of the most reliable production teams in R&B without ever becoming public figures. Their records are recognisable by their construction rather than by a signature sound: warm keyboards, a bassline with genuine melodic movement, and an arrangement that leaves the singer plenty of room.

What is striking about their catalogue is the breadth of voices they served. Boyz II Men, Tamia, Brian McKnight, Case, The Isley Brothers, Monica, 112, Dave Hollister — and Sisqó. Very few producers could handle both a five-part harmony group and a novelty smash without one undermining the other.

What to listen for

Tamia's "So Into You" is the masterpiece. It has been covered and interpolated repeatedly — Fabolous built a hit on it, and Tamia herself recut it — and the original remains one of the most perfectly weighted R&B records of the decade. Listen to how much space is left around her voice.

Boyz II Men's "Vibin'" is the other pillar, and a much funkier record than the group's ballad reputation suggests.

Sisqó's "Thong Song" is on this list for good reason. It is a genuinely well-made record — that string arrangement is doing real work, the vocal arrangement is a Dru Hill man showing off, and it was inescapable for a year. Novelty is not the same as badly made.

Case's "Missing You" and Dave Hollister's "We've Come Too Far" and "Take Care Of Home" are the deep grown-folks cuts. Jon B.'s "They Don't Know" is the crossover.

Deborah Cox's "Just Be Good to Me" reworks the S.O.S. Band, and The Isley Brothers' "I Want That" shows them working with genuine royalty. Joe and Nas's "Get To Know Me" is the rap-R&B one.

Go deeper

Tamia's self-titled debut and Dave Hollister's Ghetto Hymns are the albums where their work is most concentrated.

For the wider late-1990s R&B production landscape, the names to know alongside them are Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Timbaland and She'kspere. Between them they built the sound of an entire decade of radio.

And Kevon Edmonds — who appears here with "When I'm With You" — is Babyface's brother and was in After 7. The family tree of 1990s R&B is smaller than it looks.

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