WHO: Jodeci.
HITS WE LOVE: “Forever My Lady,” “Stay,” “Come and Talk To Me,” “Cry For You.”
HOMETOWN: Hampton, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina.
WHAT THEY’RE UP TO NOW: Brothers Cedric “K-Ci” Hailey and Joel “JoJo” Hailey will star in an upcoming TV One reality show set to debut on Sept. 20th, chronicling their efforts to get clean and sober. We sincerely hope that their former groupmates, brothers Dalvin and Donald “DeVante Swing” DeGrate, make an appearance.
THE STORY: Two sets of brothers steeped in gospel tradition decide to make their way to NYC where they have heard there’s a hot new label, Uptown Records. They take the 10-hour drive, where they meet up with Sean – then-“Puff Daddy” – Combs, and the rest is ’90s R&B history.
Once the biggest group in black music, K-Ci, Jo-Jo, DeVante and Dalvin would add their hip-hop swagger and aesthetic to R&B while cranking out soulful hits like “Forever My Lady,” “Stay,” “Feenin’,” “Come and Talk to Me” and a soulful remake of the Stevie Wonder classic, “Lately.” They were known as much for their relationships and hijinks as much as their music – Dalvin once dated T-Boz of TLC, while K-Ci and Mary J. Blige’s tempestuous relationship has been well-documented. There were also rumors of drug and alcohol abuse, which apparently were true.
Still, the group was one of the stalwarts of the Uptown label, along with Blige, Heavy D and the Boyz, Al B. Sure and Father MC. Their success would catapult a young Diddy into his own stardom and his eventual move to start his own label, Bad Boy Records.
Jodeci is one of the representatives of a musical changing of the guard from the more classic stylings of traditional R&B to a more hard-edged hip-hop sound. Producer and songwriter Devante was the group’s creative leader, who married those sounds in an entirely fresh way in his work with the group. He would further impact the industry by identifying the talents of Missy, Timbaland and Ginuwine, who he worked with in a virtual musical boot camp before they went on to their own stellar careers.
Jodeci’s imaging, sound and impact on R&B music makes them one of the most significant groups of the era. Sadly, the group eventually became a victim of its own success. K-Ci and Jo-Jo were able to sustain a career as a duo for a while after Jodeci disbanded, but ultimately they too, were hampered by their inability to stay clean. DeVante has been promising more music for some time, but has yet to release anything significant since his work with Jodeci.
The group has not recorded together since 1995’s “The Show, The Afterparty, The Hotel,” their third and final album.
