A collaboration with revered Public Enemy production crew the Bomb Squad, Poison embodied the style and sound of hip-hop in a more convincing way than any R&B album before it.
You’ve heard “ Poison” too many times, probably at a wedding or a school dance or some perennially bad episode of “Carpool Karaoke.” But Bell Biv DeVoe is more than just a song, and their debut album represents a critical leap in the evolution of R&B. Ricky Bell spoke up: “You have to listen to the music to understand what we’re talking about.” The show’s host wasn’t sure what to make of it: “And like.what does that mean?” They talked about it in every interview, including that day on BET. BBD even had a neat little mission statement to explain their vision: “Our music is mentally hip-hop, smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop feel appeal to it.” They stamped the slogan on their album cover and flashed it on screen during their videos. Poison was a conceptually groundbreaking pop album that reinvented the relationship between R&B and hip-hop for the ’90s. It was definitely Bell Biv DeVoe’s moment. By the end of the year, Billboard would declare BBD the biggest new pop group of 1990. Their album, also called Poison, had just dropped, and it was on its way to selling 4 million copies. This was 1990, and the trio’s debut single “Poison” was on the verge of breaking into the Top 10. “Mike keeps stressing BBD-it’s not a BBD moment,” he said. Enjoy.Tresvant decided to interrupt and set it straight. Although “When Will I See You Smile Again?” is still a favorite of mine that I still play with some regularity to this day, “Poison” still knocks as hard as it did when it first dropped in 1990. Though they may still be known by some their endless finger-pointing and inside-out clothing–as a response to Kris Kross‘ backwards style–they still hold a place in history for making a short-lived yet indelible mark in our history.
front as of late despite whispers of them recording new tracks and me freaking out when I randomly spotted Ricky Bell at a party two years ago. could even survive past the explosion that “Poison” was, we quickly learned that our doubts were unfounded when Poison gave us the “mentally hip-hop, smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop feel appeal to it” that was promised on the album cover.Īll has been pretty quiet on the B.B.D. But for those willing to dig deeper and leave the adolescent antics alone along with those big butts and tantalizing smiles, found several well-crafted slow jams that migrated from our matte black, extended-play, Maxell cassette tapes onto CD mixes and onto MP3s such as “When Will I See You Smile Again?” and “I Do Need You.” In other words, as doubtful as many of us were that B.B.D. (I Thought It Was Me)?,” “Dope!” and “Do Me!” all provided more than enough punctation marks and reasons to dance a bit more raunchy at school dances than we needed. Once everyone got over “Poison” and quite honestly, I don’t think most of us ever will, there really were several standouts from the album of the same name. Not only was it a certified jam, but this represented an extension of what we were missing post- “On Our Own” Bobby Brown: raw, oversexualized, hip hop beats with an R&B edge and just the type of thing to make my parents uncomfortable. “Poison” turned that whole notion on its ear. This is not to say that I never thought that Michael or Ronnie weren’t great at their dance steps, nor contributed in any way to any production or arrangements of any New Edition songs, but when you’re a fresh-faced teen eager for heartthrob meat, if you’re not that hot in the looks department, you better be able to sing.
0 kommentar(er)
