You can’t have throwback Thursday without K-Ci,JoJo,DeVante Swing and Mr.Dalvin also known as Jodeci.Jodeci was a dark shade wearing, love song making, top chart climbing phenomenal group. When you heard the men sing, you instantly go in a particular mood, depending on your hormones. In the early 90s Jodeci brought us hits like Come and Talk to Me, Forever My Lady, Feenin, Love U 4 Life. Jodeci changed the style and image of the traditional boy band.
The Group consisted of two sets of brothers, Cedric & Joel Hailey (K-ci/JoJo) and Donald & Dalvin DeGrate (Devante Swing & Mr. Dalvin). K-Ci and JoJo moved to Charlotte North Carolina from Hampton, Virginia. The DeGrate brothers already lived in North Carolina with their mother and father. Both pairs of brothers grew up in the Pentecostal church. The set of brothers sang on “Charlotte’s Furious Black Family Gospel Songs compilation.” The Hailey’s would hear the DeGrates on the radio and vice versa, but would not meet until their girlfriends introduced them to one another.
They started hanging out, they talked about forming a group and came up with Jodeci. DeVante wrote a song and recorded JoJo’s vocals on it. The two thought about shopping their demo to the New York market, when they finally hit they pavement, Uptown Records was the destination.Luckily for Jodeci Heavy D made a slight crack in the door for the band to slip through. Once Heavy D convinced Andre Harrell to listen, Andre was amazed at what he heard and had to sign them. Andre sent Jodeci in the direction of Sean “Puffy” Combs to revamp their image. Puffy wasted no time and turned this band into legendary artist. In 1991 Jodeci recorded the album Forever My Lady. This album would produce three #1 hits, Come & Talk to Me, Forever My Lady and Stay. The album climbed to the # 18 spot on the Billboard 200 and # 1 on the R&B Album. By 1993 the group was facing some hard times, but still managed to make Diary of a Mad Band. This album soared to the #3 spot on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the R&B album with hits like “Cry for You” and “Feenin.” As their fame started to rise the group continued to face difficult challenges. Once again Jodeci produced another platinum selling album called The Show,The Afterparty, The Hotel. This album held the #2 spot on the Billboard Charts. Songs like Love U 4 Life, Get On and Freakin You made this album #1 on the R&B Charts. Unfortunately being in the spot light brought wedge in between the and the brothers went their separate ways.
On October 11, 2012 Jodeci was inducted to the Music Hall of Fame in Charlotte North Carolina. There was a little buzz about Jodeci reuniting and Timberland confirmed it. Check out the video below. Jodeci’ fans will appreciate having another classic record especially if Timberland is behind it.
By: Yolanda English
