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| Jodeci in 1991 |
The brothers came from a gospel music background and had collaborated earlier in childhood on a number of church choir recordings before Jojo and DeVante Swing ran into each other again courtesy of their girlfriends and agreed for the latter to produce a demo track that Jojo was working on. The results of the collaboration encouraged both artistes to leave their hometown and chase their dreams to New York City with K-Ci and Dalvin tagging along. fortune smiled on the guys when the late Heavy D heard their demo and talked Uptown Records CEO Andre Harrell into signing them.
They were given their first taste of exposure when they featured on a track by Uptown rapper, Father MC called Treat em like they want to be treated. Back then in 1990, your average R & B group was a suit wearing ensemble but Andre Harrell handed Jodeci to a hot and upcoming A & R executive called Sean "Puffy" Combs who threw out their colorful suits and made them dress like gangster rappers.
In May 1991, Forever my lady produced by Al B Sure, DeVante and Mr. Dalvin hit the streets to a yearning audience that embraced the street-smart group, bought 3 million copies of the album and sent it to No. 1 in the US R & B charts. Tracks like Come and talk to me and Stay turned the boys into sex symbols as had never been seen before in an R & B band. The band followed up with Diary of a Mad Band in 1993 which is considered their most creative and generally best album with tracks like Cry for you, My heart belongs to you and What about us. Their last album The Show, the After Party, the Hotel was released reached No. 1 in the U.S charts, spawned several No. 1 singles and went double platinum.
The weight of success began to take its toll on the band after Diary of a Mad Band. The band seemed to on top of the world with sold-out tours and great record sales. K-Ci was dating Mary J. Blige who was also a Puffy protege, Devante Swing was an in-demand producer in the same bracket as Dr. Dre and Teddy Riley. However their success brought women, wine, cash and drugs which is a tried and tested combo for wasting talented artistes. The bottom dropped out when their bad boys status attracted the attention of Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight who engaged the band in work on his movies "Above the rim" and "Murder was the Case". They also featured on Tupac's smash single, How do you want it off the multi platinum album All Eyez on Me.
When it seemed they were on top of the world the band collapsed on itself and didnt release any more albums. The Hailey brothers broke away from the group to form "K-Ci and Jojo" to moderate success with their more subtle mature music as evidenced in their huge 1998 single All my life.
Jodeci was directly and indirectly responsible for grooming artistes who would rule the music scene for the next twenty years. Jodeci proteges include Timothy Mosley who was mentored in the art of music production by Devante Swing and even given the nickname "Timbaland". Devante also mentored Missy Elliott, Tweet and Mr. Magoo but sadly failed to tap the Billion Dollar goldmine they represented. Not to mention groups they inspired like Dru Hill and H-Town whose lead singers sounded uncannily like K-Ci and Jojo respectively.
Jodeci fans like this writer was however pleased to bits to see the boys reunited at the 2014 Soul Train Awards where they gave a glimpse of what the industry has been missing for almost twenty years. They looked older and a bit worn out but the raw passionate talent was still there. For heartbroken fans worry not. The guys are in the studio with Timbaland in full effect, working on a new album scheduled to be released sometime in 2015. They recently released a new single titled "Nobody wins".
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| Jodeci at the 2014 Soul Train Awards |
Despite their trials, Jodeci has always been full of surprises. Let's see if they can show the industry why they are adjudged the greatest R & B band of the 90s (sorry Boyz 2 Men) and one of the greatest of all time.
