Another Bad Creation — Iesha

JUL 01 1991 · 12:00

Another Bad Creation — Iesha (1991) Director: Lionel C. Martin Era: New Jack Swing Era (1990–1991) - Peak commercial period of Teddy Riley-influenced urban pop, preteen acts cross-marketed to MTV and BET audiences via Motown/Biv 10 infrastructure. High. 'Iesha' is a primary document of the New Jack Swing era's youth-market expansion and one of the earliest commercially successful preteen hip-hop videos. Directed by Lionel C. Martin — a foundational and historically underrecognized figure in Black music video production — the video's realist aesthetic, fast editing, and neighborhood authenticity represent a significant counter-current to the glossier pop-video conventions of the period. Essential for curricula on early-90s Black youth culture, urban music video history, and the Motown/Biv 10 roster. Context: Released in late 1990 and charting into 1991, 'Iesha' arrived at the height of the New Jack Swing era, when producers like Teddy Riley and Dallas Austin were fusing hip-hop rhythms with R&B melody to dominate urban radio. Another Bad Creation were a preteen Atlanta rap group discovered by Michael Bivins of Bell Biv DeVoe and signed to his Biv 10 Records imprint under Motown, positioning them as a junior counterpart to the era's dominant boy-group acts. The video's playground setting, go-cart sequences, and youth-coded narrative — a crush story built around Nintendo and cereal — made the group aspirational peers rather than distant pop stars, a strategy that proved commercially potent. The group's success helped legitimize preteen hip-hop as a viable commercial category and directly prefigured acts like Kris Kross. Director notes: Confirmed by IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8693918/) as director of the 1991 music video for 'Iesha' by Another Bad Creation. The video was produced for Motown Records / Biv 10 Records in support of the album Coolin' at the Playground Ya Know! Per IMDb, the video begins with an older woman watching cartoons on television, and features Another Bad Creation rapping while driving go-carts and dancing on a playground. Martin's documented directorial approach — low budgets, authentic urban locations, performance-forward storytelling — is consistent with the video's realist aesthetic and fast-cut playground setting. Martin's production company, Filmmakers With Attitude (FWA), was active during this period and served as a launching pad for emerging urban visual talent.