Thread by @stillnaima

Happy Sunday, fam! I’m still in twitter exile from @naima, and I don’t know for how long.
Alot of you know, but twitter got me on a DCMA takedown - HOWEVER - they haven’t actually sent me the takedown notice so I can appeal it. Folks are helping, so keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, worship continues! Because they can’t hold me down! (I mean they can... but I’ma fight).

I say all that to say... THERE WILL BE A #MUSICSERMON today!
Actually, a remix/update on one of our earliest sermons.
And you guys will be happy to know the sermons are not lost. I started backing them up a while ago just in case.

I’m also really, really touched at how many of ya’ll have been reaching out and found me here quickly.
So spread the word for those that don’t know, we’re over here at @stillnaima while the fight for @naima continues, and #MusicSermon is still going!

I’m getting organized and gonna try to open the doors of the church for tonight’s #MusicSermon around 8, but I also need to eat so it might be a tad later. Please prepare your hearts, minds and ears. ⛪️

*Steps into pulpit*
*Opens text*
*Adjusts mic*

Happy Sunday, Saints (and Aint's). Welcome to our first #MusicSermon service in what we hope is just a temporary church home.
(Amen? Amen).

If talked @ why I'm not @naima in the tweets above.

This week we're revisiting one of our early sermons, but with some updates & additions.
There's been a lot of examination of '90s R&B and the current R&B the last couple of years, but there's an essential element of previous music eras I want to pay tribute: The male R&B Group

Before we get into it, though, most of ya'll are long time #MusicSermon congregants, but we have some new members, so tonight is a good time for refresher Church Announcements.

1. The thread's not over until you see the benediction. They take a while. Please don't send me "Don't forget about" youtube links while I'm mid-thread. You wouldn't stand up and yell to the pastor not to forget a point (I hope).

2. I try very hard to be thorough, but one of your faves might be missing. No, it's not an accident. Please don't @ me that you can't believe I forgot it. I didn't forget it. I have to make decisions to leave some stuff out or else I'm here all night (that happened once)

3. Once I get going, typos are inevitable, and I unfortunately can't correct them without breaking the thread. I solicit your grace and understanding there.
4. There'll be a playlist tomorrow!

Ok, let's get it poppin'.
The last few years we've witnessed a bit of a late '80s and '90s nostalgia, but one of the reasons #MusicSermon became a thing is because only select acts from those decades seem to get all the love.
Like, obviously, New Edition.
(I love this video)

And BBD, Jodeci, the Tonys and Boyz II Men still get their flowers.
But there were a LOT more male R&B groups. Like 30 more. The '90s was the PEAK male vocal group decade. Granted, some of them only had one hit, but but then in the early '00s they died out.
And I miss them.

Up until the early '00s, the vocal group was a key part of soul and R&B music, and for at *least* four good decades, you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a male vocal group. In the '90s that was even more so. So many, there were damn near subgenres. I given them names.

Oh, sorry, first let's acknowledge the groups that carried over from the '80s, because they set the stage.

Guy is very very important here.

Shout out to uptown parties, Dapper Dan MCM jackets, and the Gucci Girls.

Guy's run was over in by '93, but they're one of the first acts I think about when I think of '90s R&B. (In part because I still play some of these joints like they came out yesterday).

Also technically '80s but we need to talk about them: LeVert. Descendants of male vocal group royalty themselves.
Please look at how they are JAMMING in the Apollo.

I can't believe Gerald *and* Sean are gone.

If neither this clip nor the one before this inspired at *least* a mild bop, let me know so I can block you.

My plan was to post two clips and move on, but I gotta let Gerald get this one off right quick...🧸

Big Bub and Today are an early new jack swing group that STAY forgotten about, but they had JAMS.
Also, we danced hard AF in the '90s.

I talked about Today in a thread about overlooked groups from the late '80s. They were part of Jheryl Busby's "new" Motown, along with The Boys and The Good Girls. I think they only had two albums before Big Bub went solo.

One of their hits was on the House Party soundtrack.

OK, so our '90s groups (and some of these technically started in '88, '89 too).
Whatever flavor and style music you wanted, you could find it.

First, the Grown & Sexy (or, Contemporary R&B).
If you were a teenager in the early '90s, you AND your parents had this music.

Babyface's older brothers - AKA After 7 - are still faves. This song is STILL excellence.
If you couldn't figure out why Jazmine Sullivan's "Let it Burn" sticks with you, this is why.

Speaking of older brothers, Brian McKnight's older brother and Take 6 were part of a '90s moment where gospel artists were crossing over to R&B with uplifting, "inspirational" music (BeBe & CeCe, Sounds of Blackness).

Also in this category are the last bands standing. By the '90s, music production had evolved so much, black bands - a staple of the '70s - were basically obsolete. Two were still relevant.

1, Mint Condition...

Another thing about the early '90s: radio formats weren't divided yet b/t UAC & Urban Main. Hip-hop (that wasn't pop-friendly) didn't start getting real airplay until basically the mid-'90s, so the R&B fan base wasn't as heavily divided. Like I said, you AND your mama were fans.

The second band is, of course, Tony! Toni! Tonè!
I usually start with material from The Revival for them, but let's go all the way back.

This used to be my sh*t.

You don't really think of the Tonys and new jack swing, but "Feels Good" is a new jack classic.

LOL... they was tired of all that damn dancing 🤣

I have to say this everytime I talk about the Tonys: I selfishly hate that Ray says they'll probably never reunite in the original iteration, because Dwayne sings lead on two of my favorite songs.

I wrote a whole thing about the greatest of Tony! Toni! Tonè and Raphael, by the way.

vibe.com/2018/12/music-…

I call this next group The Interchangeable Harmonizers. They had a hit, and you remember the hit, but you don't remember THEM. Or a second single.

If you can tell me the name of this group, I'll cash app you $100*

*I'm not going to cash app you $100

The group was II D Extreme,
And speaking AGAIN of brothers, Johnny Gill's brother was a member.

Also, there were a lot of random bathtubs in '90s videos.

This song was my jooooiiinnnt, and the first time I went to look it up I couldn't remember their names for nothin'. I also couldn't name the album title or another single if you offered me money.

These harmonies though...man...

We having arguments about who can SING well enough to be considered a king of R&B in 2019, but 25-30 years ago it was just random SANGERS out here at every turn. One hit and out.
WHAT HAPPENED?

I call this crew interchangeable instead of just one-hit wonders because some of them were very similar...

Like Lo-Key...

...could kinda easily get mixed up with Portrait.

Next, the Clean Cut R&B groups. Nice young men. Your parents weren't worried if you had their posters all over walls and wanted to go to their concert.

Troop is a star group in this category. And also talent show material hall of famers.
I still LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this song.

Troop is really the perfect group to represent the new jack swing era (yes, I've said this before). The hair cuts, the clothes, and the DANCING.

Even with a midtempo, they were gonna give you ALLL the choreography. All of it. The kind where you can't count it, you gotta boom kack it.

Dawg, they got ON THE FLOOR in WHITE RAYON.

I don't want to imagine a life where I wasn't blessed to experience cute ass boys standing in a circle singing - or *trying* to sing - "If I Ever Fall in Love" in high school.

We should have had more of Shai.
They had this "I Don't Want to Be Alone" remix with a Steve Miller Band sample and Jay on it in '96?!? I can't find that joint ANYWHERE. I think it must have been a Clue or Flex mix. It was a BOP.

Poor RIFF. They kinda wanted to be Shai, didn't they? I'm only putting them here instead of with the Interchangeables because they have a back-story.

So, the guys in RIFF are the voices behind the East Side school song from Lean on Me. One or more of the members was a student at Mr. Clark's school and actually did finesse the school song to get out to trouble. The story + the group made it into the movie.

One of my favorites in the Clean Cut category, Hi Five. Yes again for mid-tempo choreography.
Tony's ad-libs at the end of the song are one of my favorite things in R&B, period. Like, sometimes I just run that part back.

What songs to teenage boys and young men even call and sing to their boos on the phone now? Do they still do that?

Just to further illustrate how MANY of these groups there were, even Hammer had a group of church-suited young men. Special Generation.

This was me and some boy I only talked to for like a month's song (funny that I remember that).
I think Special Generation just had the one album, like so many.

Silk was right on the line between clean cut and our next category, so I'm gonna post them once in each.

The number of times I'm gonna say "This is my sh*t" before the sermon is over... I just... I apologize in advance, man.

Before we move on the next segment of groups, we must honor the MVPs of Clean Cut male R&B vocals.
Nate, Mike, Shawn and Wanye.

A Nayhooo classic. A love song. A beggn' ass R&B song. A jam. A favorite.

SOME of ya'll be clowning Boyz II Men now, but you KNOW this was your jam. You KNOOOOOOW you still sing along to the breakdown. Front it you want to.

I also just RIGHT NOW AT THIS MOMENT realized that's a young Questlove playing drums in this video.

And if Boyz II Men are the MVPs for Clean Cut R&B, Jodeci are the poster boys for our next category: Mannish R&B Groups.

NONE OF THESE LITTLE SINGERS CAN DO THIS ANYMORE.

Like, KCi and JoJo were so good, they made it sound like all four of them could sing.

Ya'll...I promise there's a method to this thread. Please be patient.

(We got new members. LOL)

I saw an interview with Boyz II Men once where they called Jodeci their evil twins, and that was just the most perfect comparison between the two groups I think I ever heard.

So the groups in Mannish R&B looked like they just came off the block to swing sweetly to you. 8 count choreography was replaced with pelvic thrusts. It was all grown everything.

We had ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS with THIS SONG!
And lord, remember that whole thing in the '90s with intros, outros and interludes with all kinds or oral sex noises?
I'm glad we let that go, at least.

Sigh...
Too many people in this thread are gone.

I said Jodeci is the poster group for this segment of R&B, but BBD founded it.

Lonnnnnnnnng before Tank, Elgin and Tyrese had the idea to join forces; Gerald, Johnny and Keith and your mamas and aunties all worked up. Hell this was a jawn even for younger heads.

I know a Supergroup is a technicality, but two of them were from their own groups, so...

Speaking of Gerald, and again just to illustrate HOW MANY DAMN GROUPS there were, his background vocals are the only reason I didn't put the Rude Boys in Interchangeables.

Before we move on to our final segment, I should have posted this earlier for Troop and LeVert.

So the latter half of the '90s brought us into the shiny suit era. Everything was very slick.
But if you've followed me for a while, you know I hate this MS Paint-ass video. 🎨
And this might be one of my least favorite Babyface productions. But it might just be the video.

Jagged Edge seemed like they might get arrested at any minute (and, well....), but I think we hold "Let's Get Married" too harshly against them, because "Gotta Be" is kinda amazing.

JE really elevated the "Just because I run the block don't mean I can't be in love, girl" R&B form.
Them twins could write, though. IDC.

And I think we all forgave the absolute non-romantic-ness (yes, I just made that word up) of "Let's Get Married" when the remix dropped..because we had to dance. Shout out to #MusicSermon dance co-captian, JD.
Oh, and hey, Carl.

And while we're in Shiny Suit R&B, shout out to Teddy Riley for KEEPING a group during the '90s. He flipped groups like every 3 years.

Fun fact: Teddy and Dave Hollister reconciled, but they can't perform as Blackstreet because Chauncey Black owns the name. Group dynamics get messy.

Dru Hill is like the last great overly dramatic singing group. I love them for it.

1994 to like 1998 had the best remixes ever, IDC IDC IDC.

I be singing the bridge on this at the top of my lungs. I just did it right now when I posted the clip.

One day I'm going to talk about how underrated Kay Gee is as a producer. He very quietly had *such* a crazy run.

RL apparently wasn't happy with "Why you always lying'," but that joint had "Too Close" back on the radio for a hot second a couple of years ago.

And finally, the crown princes of Shiny Suit R&B, 112.

I often say this, but you can put 112's first album on today and just let it rock. Actually you can a lot of the acts in this thread on and it holds up.

Them, JE, Next, and Dru were really the last of the Male R&B groups...

See next before you say "But..."

There was the black boy band/106th and Park moment in the mid-00s with B2K and Mindless Behavior and I guess you could include Pretty Ricky in that, and there was Day 26 in 08 but the last male R&B groups to have #1 R&B singles were 112 and Jagged Edge in 2001.

Whew... I'm tired, and we still left MAD GROUPS OUT.

So what happened to the male vocal group, you ask? I few things, and I wrote about it for #MusicSermon's second service at @VibeMagazine. I'll add it to the thread when it drops in the morning.

In the meantime...

If all hearts and minds are FULL ✋🏾

May the joy and beauty of music keep you.
May music wash over you, and be healing unto you.
May the warmth of music envelope you, and bring you peace.

And all the people said...

Playlist will also come tomorrow.
As the ushers come, if you are moved to give to your displaced pastor 😉, or just want to show love, you can still do so at cash.me/$musicsermon. I appreciate you 🖤