Ok so what does the bio say? Cooleyhighharmony sold seven
million copies worldwide. And let's see - two Grammys.
Three American Music Awards. Two Soul Train Awards. Two
NAACP Image Awards. One World Music
Award. "End of the Road" held the number one position on
the pop chats for 13 weeks helping Wanya Morris, Shawn
Stockman, Nathan Morris, and Michael McCary of Boyz II Men beat
the record for that old hound dog Elvis. The Christmas
joint, Christmas Interpretations, went platinum after the
release of only one single-and you know Christmas albums
are kinda chancy since you don't normally play Christmas songs
before Thanksgiving or after New Year's. Let it snow. Let
it snow. Let it snow!
"Even in the process of recording the album, people were
walking up to us on the street and saying, "Yo, man, we're
waiting for the album. Why's it taking so long? And y'all
better come up with something fly. Something dope.' We
were, like, ahhh...," says Shawn, indicating that they were
perhaps caught off guard by the somewhat back handed
compliments. "There was a lot of pressure coming from all
areas. We try to maintain and keep focused. We couldn't
lose our heads and then come out with some crazy stuff
after all is said and done, and we look back at it and say,
'Oh my goodness. What were we thinking?' We're very
pleased with this album. We worked very hard on it. We
put 100 percent in each single and we just hope that people
get into it, man, because we tried our best."
Boyz II Men wrote seven out of the 12 songs on II, and the album
has some of the indusrty's most desired heavyweight
producers - Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Babyface, Brian
McKnight, L.A. Reid, Dallas Austin, and two producers who
work for Austin's DARP production company, named Tim
Kelley, and Bob Robinson.
"It was definetly a shock," says Nate about Boyz II Men's phenomenal
success, especially with their debut album. "It was
defiently unexpected because our goal was just to come out
with a record and hope people like it. We didn't even
think about record sales, none of that, and it just took
off."
The difficult thing is such mega success can bring on a
mega-anxiety attack when it comes to recording a second
album and avoiding what those in the indusrty call the
"sophmore jinx."
"We felt a lot of pressure," admits Wanya Morris, "being as
this time we were more on the inside. Last time we went in
and sang and left the studio, and Dallas Austin did the
inside stuff. Now, thi time, we had to be in there pushing
the faders. We had to be there telling brothers, you're
flat, you're sharp, you've got to play on key. We had to
be on the inside more now and it was like even more
pressure because of the fan base. The first album came
out, we didn't know where our fan base was, and we had no
idea. We didn't think about radio. We didn't think about
the media. We didn't think about anything but making good
music and that's basically what we did this time. We went
into the studio and said we're just going to make good
music and try not to let the pressure get to us."
So, they did their best, they say. Was their best good enough? The first single, "I'll Make Love to You," produced by Babyface, put Boyz II Men at the number one position once again. And they're still holding on to their heads.
Fortunatley, staying focused and not losing their heads, was a lesson Boyz II Men learned early, and being in the business has taught them "a great deal," Shawn continues. "It has taught us to be patient because it takes a lot of patience to be in the music business. You've got to have patience. A lot of things aren't going to come when the artist wants them to, a lot of times, or a lot of times they're not going to go the way the artist wants them to go. So you develop a lot of patience and self-discipline also because of the fact that you have to want to do what we're doing, because if you don't, it's going to show. You're not going to have an impact on a lot of people because you may be miserable doing something and it's easy to show that.
We've become better people because of the music inustry because we learned so much from not only the good things and the positive things, but some of the bad points that might have happened in a two-and-a-half, short-term career. So far it's helped us mature a lot-a lot faster, and grow a lot faster. I think we learned a little more than the average 20-23 year old."