The last time Boyz II Men played Honolulu they were sandwiched in
a triple-bill between TLC and Hammer. That was three years
and millions of records ago. When Motown Records' hottest
quartet returns to Blaisdell Arena in two weeks they'll be
unquestioned major-leauge headliners-and bigger than either
of the acts they shared the stage with in '92. With most
seats going for $50, the Boyz' management is asking-and
getting-more per head than Van Halen, Kenny G, or the
combined six bands a Big Mele 3.
Are they worth it? And, if not the Boyz, then who? It's
been barely four years since the quartet - Michael McCary,
Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, and Shawn Stockman-first
cracked the pop charts with "Motownphilly," a musical
account of their discovery by Michael Bivins (of New
Edition and Bell Biv Devoe). From that point on it's been
nothing but staright up.
In 1992, their platinum-selling single, "End of the Road,"
broke Elvis Presley's long-standing record for most weeks
at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was almost exaclty
one year ago that their 8th pop-chart single, "I'll Make
Love to You" debuted at No. 31; it became a 14-week run at
#1 two weeks later and currently holds the all-time
record for most weeks at the top of the Hot 100.
As of the end of last year, six of their nine singles have
hit #3 or higher - three have spent a combined total of 33
weeks at No. 1.
Perhaps it's understandable that after four and a half
years of fame the Boyz now do press confrence-style
interviews via confrence call.
"The intensity is focused on us now," Stockman said,
regarding the Boyz' evolution from revue act to concert
headliners don't feel any different (now), we (still) just
like to perform. Once in a while we'll perform on a small
stage just to keep things we've learned fresh in our
heads."
Stockman was sharing interview duty with Wanya Morris. The twosome politely shagged a series of routine questions from a platoon of callers about how the quartet got together. (They met as students in Philadlephia's High School of Creative and Performing Arts), musical influences ("collectively, Take 6, and New Edition," although many see the Boyz as modern-day heirs of the Temptations), whether they prefer ballads or up-tempo songs ("Ballads, because we get to express the way we feel"), and whether they ever get tierd of being together. ("No, we have our arguements but we still like to hang out").
"The love of music was there before we had a record deal and it will always be in our hearts," Stockman said.
Both men enjoy the creative process of recording as well as singing. ("It's a great experience to write with producers like (Jimmy) Jam and (Terry) Lewis and Babyface"). Both are looking forward to some time off before starting work on their next album.
And what about all those new groups that sound like clones of Boyz II Men?
"It's flattering, I guess. If the way they express themselves is somewhat similar to the way we do it, we wish them the best of success. We're not greedy," Stockman said.
Morris put the group's persona bottom-line in perspective: "The main thing that we like to do is give God the glory for the music and the words that we sing because they're all positive and they're all about love, and God is the author of love."