Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie Devoe are back!...with their new album BBD

 On their arrival on the music scene in 1990, this trio of former New Edition members, Ricky Bell (b. 18 September 1967, Boston, Massachusetts, USA), Michael Bivins (b. 10 August 1968, Boston, Massachusetts, USA) and Ronnie DeVoe (b. 17 November 1967, Boston, Massachusetts, USA), heralded a new development in American urban music, infusing their hip-hop-inflected rhymes with a more stylish and less brutal timbre. The hybrid became known as Ghetto Swing. Their debut singles, "Poison" and "Do Me!", both made US number 3, and the album that followed was similarly successful, earning over three million sales. In 1991, at the initiation of Motown Records president Joe Busby, Bivins was asked to become A&R executive for his own record company - Biv Entertainment - to be licensed through Motown. Signings included Another Bad Creation and Boyz II Men, both of whom found almost immediate success. Bell and DeVoe would oversee a similar set-up through PolyGram Records, established in 1992. The second Bell Biv DeVoe album included a New Edition reunion on "Word To The Mutha!". Bivins has produced for MC Brains in addition to the aforementioned Another Bad Creation and Boyz II Men, and put together the East Coast Family hip-hop project. After the release of Hootie Mack, and the attendant "Gangsta" single in 1993, the trio launched their own range of clothes through Starter merchandising. All three members participated in 1996's full-blown New Edition reunion. Then in 2001, after an eight-year hiatus, New Edition have released a comeback album titled BBD, with a more hardcore approach. Here's a review...

Bell Biv DeVoe's first album of new material in eight years, BBD, attempts to reclaim the popular success of the trio's first album. It's sexier than anything BBD had done before, every song being not about love but instead sex ?straight-up freaky sex with no apologies and little passion. In addition, the former New Edition singers also do a lot of flossing here, rapping about champagne, cars, and money. This is a very brash and unapologetic album, an album that turns seduction into sport. These three guys, of course, popularized this style of urban music a decade earlier, a time when songs like "Do Me!" seemed quite steamy. Well, time certainly hasn't cooled them a bit. BBD is just as frank about its intentions as it ever was, if not more so. What has changed, however, is the production style. BBD goes with a long list of producers, among them Rockwilder, the big-money rap producer who crafts "Da Hot S*** (Aight)," this album's standout moment. But its Rockwilder's only production, and the other producers aren't quite as noteworthy. This is a minor issue, though, in the end. Ricky, Michael, and Ronnie dominate this album, and they're as determined as they've ever been. If anything, their determination pushes them too far, to the point where they force the songs. Yet after nearly a decade of inactivity, the hunger is understandable, and fans of the trio should certainly rejoice its return. Among an industry of teenage sensations who come and go with each passing year, these three guys refuse to quit. Thankfully, with every successive comeback they adapt their style to the moment and never sound like the aging adults they've become. BBD has somehow managed to sound enternally young and consistently contemporary, two often overlooked accomplishments that are more impressive than mere chart success.

Sound Files (MP3)
Poison - from the album Poison
Do Me - from the album Poison
Gangsta

DISCOGRAPHY

Poison
Released: 1990
Label: MCA
Hootie Mack
Released: 1993
Label: MCA
BBD
Released: 2001
Label: Universal

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