SPIN: Boyz II Men vs. Jodeci vs. H-Town vs. Silk

[rapbeats]

we all know boy 2 were by far the best SINGERS. and had some great albums.

but if we gone keep it 260 in here. lets be clear, there is no better group then JODECI. you had the dynamic singers in the brothers JoJo and K-CI. while the great production of their own in the background, setting the mood.

they made their own lane with that production and sound. no one has done it better. the closest to that sound would be R-kelly. some kind of R&B hiphop fused sound. as good as boyz was, you were not blasting that out of your speakers on a saturday afternoon rolling past chicks. you wasnt. but we were all bangin that jodeci like it was the chronic album.

 

[Dettol]

boyz ii men definitely had more resources, i mean every song sounded like a babyface ballad pretty much. Jodeci had devante swing who was just amazing in the production of their songs. I think eventually boyz ii men just did too much ballads and faded away with their image, the same time the whole bad boys gangsta thing was poppin up

I agree. I think people got tired of them because the music became repetitive and started to sound all the same. They needed to at least switch it up and reinvent themselves to keep up with the times and how music was changing, but they just couldnt.

By the time the third Boyz II men album dropped, K-Ci and JoJo, as a duo, was outselling them and updated their sound vs the Jodeci sound.

 

[spliz]

say what ?
Boyz II Men -Never Go Away- - YouTube

Thanks for making my point...u think any of them nikkas could hold a candle to K Ci or Jojo individually?...I'm not even sayin they can't sing..I'm saying they sound BETTER together than individually...

 

[rapbeats]

Jodeci
Boyz II Men
H Town
Silk

htown had like 3 songs.

SILK is above the town. sorry.

 

[spliz]

we all know boy 2 were by far the best SINGERS. and had some great albums.

but if we gone keep it 260 in here. lets be clear, there is no better group then JODECI. you had the dynamic singers in the brothers JoJo and K-CI. while the great production of their own in the background, setting the mood.

they made their own lane with that production and sound. no one has done it better. the closest to that sound would be R-kelly. some kind of R&B hiphop fused sound. as good as boyz was, you were not blasting that out of your speakers on a saturday afternoon rolling past chicks. you wasnt. but we were all bangin that jodeci like it was the chronic album.

Nobody in Boys II Men can outsing K Ci and JoJo individually...as a collective group them meshed well..but the def didnt have the best singers..

 

[chineebai]

i've seen boyz ii men in concert and its really just wanya singing with 3 other dudes lol.

 

[Seven1986]

I know Boys II Men overall was the more popular group but I always prefer to listen to Jodeci.

Now if your talking about the best individual singer in all of those groups than I would go with Dino. (RIP)

 

[Dettol]

htown had like 3 songs.

SILK is above the town. sorry.

^Gotta agree with this. Silk was much more consistent has much better albums. As Not to mention, better singers. H-Town had Dino, but then other two dudes didnt contribute much. When they did contribute, I was not impressed at all. H-town literally had their moment from 1993-1994...anything else after that was a struggle music.

As stated before by "smokeurobinson", by 1999, Silk was supposed to be old washed up status when music changed and groups like Next, Dru Hill, 112, JE, Kci and Jojo, Mint Condition, Lucy Pearl, etc were running the airwaves in terms of male R&B groups. Silk, who didnt release an album since 1995, came out outta nowhere in 1999 with a VERY good album Tonight, which able to sell, have hits, while at the same time being really good quality R&B music.

 

[Wacky D]

@DANJ!

I feel u..either way I feel Jodeci was more talented than the other 2...they did a lot of their own shyt in house..and if u would've threw Toni Tony Tone into it than it would've been a landslide imo...

h-town kept a lot of they stuff in-house too tho.

not sure about silk. one thing I do know is that lil g can play the hell out of the piano.

yea, tony & them is more of a band tho. @Dettol should make that tony toni tone vs mint condition thread since those are prolly his 2 favorite groups. and maybe throw in a couple other groups like lo key or somebody like that to make the cypher complete.

then we should put the winners from these poll threads all in a pot and make a championship round thread. that would be dope.

I think you're missing the point my dude. Jodeci didn't have that machine behind them like Boyz II Men did. Jodeci was on uptown records, and that's it. They didn't have much access to extras like Boyz II Men did. Uptown consisted of Al b Sure, Father MC, Christopher Williams, Mary, a very young Puff & Andre Harell. Many of these people were either rookies or only had a few years experience in the game.

Boyz II Men on the other hand had a HUGE machine behind them. They were signed to Motown Records, one of the most successful, influential record labels in the history of music period. If they needed Smokey Robinson, or even Stevie to write for them, they had that access. Also Boyz II Men were put on by Bell Biv Devoe/New Edition who were already like 10 years in the game with a lot of music experience, knowledge and most importantly, connects in the business. New Edition and Bobby Brown put out albums in 1988, that had huge pop cross over r&b records that were produced by at that time the hottest people in not just urban music, but music period. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who produced Janet's Control in 1986 (sold 6 milly, five top 5 pop hits), and Rhythm Nation in 1989 (the biggest selling album in the United States in 1990, and had seven top 5 pop hits include four #1 ...no album to date has seven top 5 pop hits as far as i can remember). Also Bobby's Don't Be Cruel album in 1989 (or 1988) was the biggest selling album (not in r&b, but it ALL of music) in the US was mostly produced by Babyface (and Teddy Riley). And of course Babyface had multiple hits with many artists (New Edition, Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill, Karyn White, After 7, etc and the list goes on). These guys were already legendary status and anything that touched was so hot you would burn your fingers. Sought out after by pop acts too, they had multiple awards, accolades, hits, plaques, you name it. That machine to what Jodeci was behind is like comparing a watermelon to a grape, yet Jodeci was still able to be successful in R&B and in the pop world to a lesser extent.

Uptown was hot, but it didn't have what Laface had in terms of making that pop sh1t to collect that big paycheck with endless zeros. That's why the label folded early and mary even left cause she knew,...Puff eventualyl let and started bad boy..... because they wasn't making no money like other labels were... While Laface was still going on and in later years signed Toni Braxton, TLC, Usher etc. and Motown (Boyz II Mens label at the time) always reinvented themselves eventually signing Erykah Badu, & I think Brian McKnight was there too. I remember when Boyz II Men was doing the 3rd album these n1ggas had a damn press conference. really? a press conference? smh... and it flopped compared to their II album. Boyz II Men was huge, and even sang at the Olympics in ATL, Grammys etc sang for Michael Jordan when he was retiring, broke billboard records like 3 times etc. all this of course helps them be "bigger", but they owe a large part of that success to their producers and writers, new edition etc. that put them at the top. I doubt they could of done any of that using the same machine jodeci had.

You can't compare a small label like Uptown To Motown bruh, or even LaFace Boyz II Men just had a huge machine and connects in the biz.

(Excuse any typing errors, Im typing on a smartphone. lol.)

my man, youre not telling me anything that I don't already know.....well I didn't know where erykah badu was signed to, but aside from that....

you missed my whole point.

the bottom line is, boyz II men may have had a bigger machine than jodeci, but jodeci at least had a machine. silk didn't really have a machine at all, and h-town for dam sure didn't have any type of machine around him.

in other words, the same argument people are making for jodeci being less of a household name than boyz II men, can be made for h-town and silk as to why they weren't as successful as jodeci.

that's what im saying. you get me now?

and why yall in here trying to make it seem like uptown was some upstart label run by a bunch of rookies? yall doing too much. lol.

 

[Wacky D]

htown had like 3 songs.

SILK is above the town. sorry.

3 songs?

now that's just ridiculous.

^Gotta agree with this. Silk was much more consistent has much better albums. As Not to mention, better singers. H-Town had Dino, but then other two dudes didnt contribute much. When they did contribute, I was not impressed at all. H-town literally had their moment from 1993-1994...anything else after that was a struggle music.

As stated before by "smokeurobinson", by 1999, Silk was supposed to be old washed up status when music changed and groups like Next, Dru Hill, 112, JE, Kci and Jojo, Mint Condition, Lucy Pearl, etc were running the airwaves in terms of male R&B groups. Silk, who didnt release an album since 1995, came out outta nowhere in 1999 with a VERY good album Tonight, which able to sell, have hits, while at the same time being really good quality R&B music.

dog, h-town only did one more album after '94. "ladies edition" and that chit was getting mad love. what is this struggle music that you speak of? it doesn't exist.

silk only had 2 albums under their belt when they made that comeback in '99. I cant even name the joint they dropped in '94, but I still give them the benefit of the doubt. so they basically had 5 years to make a 3rd album. that's not some legendary achievement.

 

[Wacky D]

and we aint gonna get into the fact that h-town blew up when they was still some lil niccas. they was prolly younger than hi-five. niccas don't even know man.

niccas got sabotaged. dudes on tv rockin chains & shackles. but yo, check out Donnie simpson saying that their label was wack b4 they got there on the slick:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqx-Wkdb8Bk[/ame]

they was some real lil niccas here:

some lil niccas:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxO__UZr1FU[/ame]

 

[Dettol]

@DANJ!



h-town kept a lot of they stuff in-house too tho.

not sure about silk. one thing I do know is that lil g can play the hell out of the piano.

yea, tony & them is more of a band tho. @Dettol should make that tony toni tone vs mint condition thread since those are prolly his 2 favorite groups. and maybe throw in a couple other groups like lo key or somebody like that to make the cypher complete.

then we should put the winners from these poll threads all in a pot and make a championship round thread. that would be dope.



my man, youre not telling me anything that I don't already know.....well I didn't know where erykah badu was signed to, but aside from that....

you missed my whole point.

the bottom line is, boyz II men may have had a bigger machine than jodeci, but jodeci at least had a machine. silk didn't really have a machine at all, and h-town for dam sure didn't have any type of machine around him.

in other words, the same argument people are making for jodeci being less of a household name than boyz II men, can be made for h-town and silk as to why they weren't as successful as jodeci.

that's what im saying. you get me now?

and why yall in here trying to make it seem like uptown was some upstart label run by a bunch of rookies? yall doing too much. lol.

we aint saying uptown was a rookie label but a majority of the acts and people running it were rookies compared to much bigger labels like motown, laface.
and though jodeci did have a machine behind them, (not sure about h-town, and i think silk had some help from keith sweat), jodeci still mostly did the work themselves in terms of their music production and writing. that what sets them apart from boyz ii men, h-town and silk as far as musicianship goes. that's all we saying my dude.

side note: tony toni tone vs mint condition is a good comparison. though i would side with mint. but you can't go wrong with either.

 

[Dettol]

3 songs?

now that's just ridiculous.





dog, h-town only did one more album after '94. "ladies edition" and that chit was getting mad love. what is this struggle music that you speak of? it doesn't exist.

silk only had 2 albums under their belt when they made that comeback in '99. I cant even name the joint they dropped in '94, but I still give them the benefit of the doubt. so they basically had 5 years to make a 3rd album. that's not some legendary achievement.

Yeah that shyt with the terrible brown album cover. that's the album that had "they like it slow" right? struggle music. the song made some noise but they fell off the map at the point and were completely done.

they tried to change up their image (for the better) with the ladies content but it was a dud.

silk album in 1995 had that joint where they singing with the microphones and practicing dance moves (similar to scenes in tlcs creep practicing dance moves)...the one that goes " theres....no...living with you...got me hooked..... on.....everything you do". and also the "go deep" track which also a banger. no huge successful singles, just moderate ones, and the album still went gold.

this one:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Silk/dp/B000002HKA/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1369945140&sr=8-15&keywords=silk]Amazon.com: Silk: Music[/ame]

each of the 3 albums silk did in 90s was quality. personally, i cant say the same or h-town. H-town's best album to me was the beggin' after dark one from 1994.

not sayign silk made legendary achievement, but if you take long break between albums, its not that easy to make a comeback especially if your not a big artists. what im saying is these guys came out outta nowhere and dropped a platinum, quality album, with hits. not many r&b artists (especially a group) can go away for 5 years and comeback strong. especially in the 90s when competition was heavy.

 

[DANJ!]

Dope thread...

Now IMO, BIIM and Jodeci are pretty much the top two, then there's everybody else. H-Town had a nice few hits, Silk had a nice few, Hi-Five had a nice few, so did a number of other groups in the 90s. But as far as consistently putting out songs that were killin' it, it's all about BIIM and Jodeci. Tony Toni Tone had a nice run too, I'd probably put them third place.

Unfortunately that's the downside to R&B groups in the 90s- none of them muhfukkas could seem to stay together. It's like the group would get maybe 3 albums off and hit people with a gang of hits, but then they'd just split outta nowhere and that'd be that. They don't start fukkin with eachother again til they get old and it's time to do some shows 'nshyt... I think the decade woulda been even greater if most of these nikkas (and the female groups too) coulda made it more than 5 years without falling out or fallin' off.

 

[rapbeats]

3 songs?

now that's just ridiculous.

....

oh is it?

knocking boots
Lick u Up
Keepin My Composure

1, 2, 3.

anything else was a personnel preference. those 3 songs WERE ON FIRE and i was on the west coast banging that H-town getting chicks up on them. I was one of 3 people that even had their first 2 albums. had them on the slow tapes. chicks would ask "who is that?" i would have to literally A&R and sell those fools to chicks. people were not up on H like they should've been.

but lets keep it funky. the later albums started to sound like bootleg versions of the goat group JODECI.