The Beginning:
Nathan Bartholomew Morris, who used to be known as Alex Vanderpool (his nickname in the early Boyz II Men days), is without a doubt the businessman of the group. Nate was born in South Philadelphia on June 18, 1971. His parents are Gail Harris and Alphonso Morris Sr. He has two sisters and one brother, Tammy, Gail, and Alphonso. Early in Nate's childhood, his mother and father divorced, so like the other three members of the group, his mother was the person he looked up to. Once this happened, Nate did not have a very happy childhood. They rarely had gas, electricity, water, and phone in their house, which made kids Nate went to school with tease and beat up Nate since he did not have some things that they did. Nate tried not to sleep much, he'd rather have sat on the steps outside of his house before going inside. Nate's father was coming to the house some times, so that would make Nate stay at church basically every day. As a kid, Nate definitely didn't like hanging out at church, he'd rather be outside doing stuff that kids his age did. But, he thinks back about now, and knows that it was a good choice. Nate was also a very sporty guy in his childhood, always playing basketball and baseball. He would love to forget one incident that happened when he hit a baseball so far that it landed on someone's roof, and he would later fall through the roof and cause damage to a table inside. As you can tell, Nate's childhood wasn't full of great times. But, nonetheless, Nate was a good kid who sometimes considered himself a bit nerdy. Nate was now in high school and his biggest dream was to be a singer. Boyz II Men almost didn't happen because Nate wasn't planning on going to The Creative and Performing Arts High School, he wanted to go to a regular high school, Overbook High School to play football. A role model of his, a wife of one of his teachers, told him that he should go to The Creative and Performing Arts High School, so he accepted even though he wasn't too happy about it. With only 200 guys and 400 girls at his new school, the transition for Nate was not easy. Once Nate adapted to the school, he decided to start a group. When he formed this group, people were coming in and out from graduating or just loosing interest. But, there were actually four other members with him, not just three. Wanya was actually the first to join, and Shawn was also in the early few of members. Mike joined by being in the bathroom while the other four were singing, so he kept bugging them until they let him join the group. The fifth member was Marc Nelson, Nate's best friend who helped him form Boyz II Men. The five would then of course meet Michael Bivins in 1989 and later get a record label. But, the five were still not a group, they never really had anything in common but singing. This caused Shawn and Marc to argue constantly. While all of that happened, since Mike had "snuck into the group" Nate really hadn't liked him yet. Because of Marc thinking he was the center of the universe, Nate and Wanya's relationship began to sour. The group was not functioning well, so Marc thought he would do better with a solo career, he sure was wrong, wasn't he?!? Shortly after he left, the four were finally signed to Biv's Entertainment label. Because of his departure, the group was ready to call it quits and go their separate ways. Thinking back on the entire Marc experience, it's better that he left before the boyz got successful. If he left at the peak of their success, Boyz II Men would appear unstable. Because of the later success of Boyz II Men, Marc and Nate's friendship is the greatest now.
"...we're not just a passing fancy."
Nate now says that the success of Boyz II Men is definetly going to change a person, for better or for worse. Sadly, most of the time it is for worse. His world has now changed for the better. Being the "father" of the most successful R&B group of all-time, Nate is constantly making sure that Boyz II Men is always perfect as can be. From getting mad at Motown for releasing The Remix Collection to also getting mad at Motown for releasing "too mature" photos of the group in 1994. From about 1991-1996 Nate was known as Alex Vanderpool, a nickname given to him by Michael Bivins. Alex Vanderpool was a nerdy guy on the soap opera All My Children, my favorite soap opera. Nate fit the description best and sorta looked like him. In 1994, before II came out, one of the most legitimate quotes he had ever made was this quote: "Although our first album has sold over 7.5 million copies (it's now over 10 million copies), I still feel that some people aren't taking our talent seriously. I also know that a lot of new groups fall into that trap where the public doesn't really think that they will be around for a second album. That's why it's so important to us to keep doing the same thing, so that people understand that we're not just a passing fancy." Whoever thought they were just another passing boy group were very wrong when II ended up selling over 16 million copies worldwide, a feat that no other R&B group has yet to accomplish, (no, none of those other boy groups count, they are simply pop boys, not R&B boys). Even though Evolution was not as big as a success as the two previous albums were, Nate and the rest of the boyz took it all very well. Nate said that their career would not always be sky rocketing. When you think about that, they were spoiled with the success of Cooleyhighharmony and II, not many groups have two albums that sold over 25 million copies combined worldwide.
But, Nate's Boyz II Men's life was not always the best. On May 24, 1992, Khalil Roundtree, Boyz II Men's bodyguard on the Hammer Too Legit to Quit Tour, was murdered in Chicago. Nate and Khalil seemed very close, he and Shawn even wrote a song for him on II, "Khalil (Interlude)". Nate found out about the death of Khalil when he woke up in his hotel room in Chicago. He turned on the television and a newscaster was saying that "two members of Boyz II Men were shot last night, one of them was killed." Nate saw Qadree (Boyz II Men's manager now), alive on a stretcher and knew that Khalil had to be the one that was killed.
Nate has helped the success of Boyz II Men by writing or co-writing some of their biggest hits: "Motownphilly," "Please Don't Go," "Uhh Ahh," "One Sweet Day," and more. He also wrote their artist, Uncle Sam, his biggest hit ever, "I Don't Ever Want to See You Again." The song ended up at #26 on Billboard's 1998 Year End Chart. Because of that, he was named Billboard's 6th best Pop Writer, and 2nd best R&B writer. In the summer of 1996, Nate even went solo on the Kazzam Soundtrack. The song he did was called "Wishes," and it was co-written by him and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The song didn't do to well, but it is still a very good song.
Nate was also the co-founder of Groove with Brad Beckerman, the son of the man who started Starter. Nate also has his own hair salon in Philly called International Stylings, so this man just loves style!
Nate's life has been full of up's and down's, even though it's now mostly up. He is a very unique person from his spectacles to his seriousness around fans. Nate has made his dreams come true with Boyz II Men, he came from a very bad home life and into a great life in his adulthood. He definetly "got there."
Quick Facts About Nate:
Full Name: Nathan Bartholomew Morris
Birthday: June 18, 1971
Favorite Color: Royal Blue
Old Nickname: Alex Vanderpool
Pets: Three Dalmations (Alex, Pistachio, and Sunshine)
Voice: Tenor/some bass
Weird Fact: He rides a motorcycle and once broke his cell phone while riding on it
Some information has been taken from The Boyz II Men Success Story, Defying the Odds. Some sources could be wrong, so please excuse me if there are any major mistakes. Also, if you have a Boyz II Men web site, don't even think about taking this biography from my page and putting it on yours. I made this on my own and I personally hate it when I see my hard work on someone else's web page. Thank you.