BELL BIV DEVOE
Not long after his departure from Boston, MA R&B group New Edition, singer Bobby Brown hit multi-platinum solo success with the release of 1988's Don't Be Cruel. It was this success that inspired the group to splinter off and go their separate ways towards their own solo projects. By 1990 New Edition was on hiatus, and members Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe formed a new trio at the suggestion of producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The resulting project was called Bell Biv DeVoe, (A combination of all the members' surnames) and would become a mainstay of music during much of the early 90s.
The group quickly set themselves apart from their forebears of New Edition by their sound and attitude. Just prior to their hiatus, New Edition's sound was romantic, adult, and contemporary, from where the group had formerly been a largely bubblegum pop-oriented version of R&B music. Bell Biv DeVoe applied a harder edge to that same sound, utilizing funkier beats, raunchier lyrics, and took massive inspiration from hip-hop music. As the group continued onward, further inspiration came from modern R&B and gangsta rap music, but by that point the trio had outlasted their mainstream appeal. Despite this, the group still performs to this day both with various incarnations of New Edition and as Bell Biv DeVoe themselves. (Most recently performing alongside numerous other Boston artists at the One Fund Boston Benefit Concert in 2013.)
Bell Biv DeVoe's major highlight came in their 1990 debut album: Poison, which was produced by Public Enemy producers Eric Sadler, and Hank and Keith Shocklee. Poison received massive commercial and critical success upon its release for its shift in direction from New Edition, and its harder, tougher, edgier, and simultaneously sexier tracks. The album made quadruple-platinum sales, reached the Top 10 in the Billboard Albums chart for sales, and produced Hot 100 singles like "When Will I See You Smile Again?", "B.B.D. (I Thought It Was Me)?", "Do Me!", and their signature title track "Poison."
More than anything, Poison is considered a paramount release in the sub-genre of New Jack Swing music, and ultimately helped bring the style to the mainstream, where it would meet with huge success during much of the 90s, and inspired contemporaries like Boyz II Men, Dru Hill, and Pretty Ricky, among others. With this legacy in mind, Get On Down has reissued the 90s R&B classic on re-mastered vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1990.
Now shipping from Traffic Entertainment Group!
PRESS FOR POISON
"With so many faceless, sound-alike albums having come out of the "new jack swing" hybrid in the late '80s and early to mid-'90s, it's important to give credit to the form's more creative and imaginative figures…While other "new jacks" were content to simply emulate Guy, the distinctive BBD deserves applause for daring to stake out its own territory."
"If there’s one thing that this platinum, Dr. Freeze-produced record taught us, it’s this: Never trust a big butt and smile!"
– VH1, #1 on "40 Greatest R&B Songs Of The '90s"
"Poison" is one of those songs that has transcended the very genre that it perfected. That's the reason why it's still playing in the clubs. That's the reason that it's still on your iTunes playlist."
– Complex, "The 25 Best New Jack Swing Songs"
"…Poison, for better or for worse, is easily one of the five most important R&B albums made in the past 20 years. It took two genres that were fairly autonomous and blurred the lines to the point where you couldn’t really tell what was what anymore."
– PopDose
"…after 20 years and four copies of Poison in four different formats, I'm liable to hear Bell Biv DeVoe in just about anything. Then again, "Poison" has never really gone away — even your mom knows how to "smack it up, flip it, rub it down!" — and a sentiment like "Do Me!" never really goes out of style, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the rest of the world finally caught up."
