Boyz II Men are large. Worldwide sales of over 30 million, four
Grammy's, five number one singles. Twice broke their own
record for having number one on lockdown. Sang for the
Pope. Closed the Olympics. Got more awards and Top Ten
singles than Allen Iverson got bricks. No one should throw
around the term "franchise" loosely, but given a certain
hamburger conglomerate's recent swoon, perhaps Ronald would
do well to trade in the fright wig and red roachstompers
for a tight fade and a pair of Timbs.
Being Menboyz size comes with its requisite share of perks.
They can pretty much do and go anywhere they
want-including chill in plush suites of five star hotels
like New York's Parker Meridian without any drama from the
concierge. So you would think wit this much juice, that
heads'd be gassed like Goodyear, right?
Like, not hardly.
The Menboyz are recovering from a late night industry
birthday party for Wanya Morris, who's taking a couple of
days off to celebrate. Meanwhile, his co-hosts-Shawn
Stockman, Michael McCary, and Nate Morris-are holding
things down and looking, well, actually life-size. "We're
tierd, man," Mike smiles weakly. "We didn't get in
until...what time?"
"Three o' clock in the morning," says Shawn, sinking into
one of the couches.
Okay, so sometimes you need a break from being large.
Right now, they're in "Most Chill Mode:" sweats, shorts and
sneaks. There's no flossin' in tis cipher-the Menboyz are
low-key, pleasant and personable. In fact, the only minor
concession to their Big Willie status is the San Francisco
49ers Super Bowl ring on Nate's finger. But other than
that, there doesn't seem to be that dramatic a change
between Boyz II Men now and four hungry youngsters who rushed up
on New Edition Svengali Michael Bivins trying to get put
on, is there?
Again, not hardly.
"We've been through a lot of changes," sighs Nate. "As
people, as entertainers, as artists, just the overall genre
of the form itself has gone through changes. Everyday you
learn something new and different. We've changed to where
our lives are-not solely, but largely-in our hands
now."
Growing Up Can Be a Pain
Black folks and irony. The two are insoluble. And they
make for the most interesting metaphors.
For example, the New Edition song from which the Boyz get
their name is a plaintive reflecction on a life in the
public eye, making the akward transition from naive,
wide-eyed teens to wizened, responsible adults, and
recognizing the many complex pressures that adulthood
brings. Now, almost six years after
Cooleyhighharmony - almost ten years after the song "Boys
to Men" first hit shelves - Boyz II Men find themselves having to
make the same life adjustments.
"When we first started, we were all excited about doing
this," explains Nate. "And we're still happy about what we
do. We still enjoy it. But, in some senses, the motives
have changed. Because you're an adult now, you have to
take care of your family, your house and this and that.
Things like that have changed, as far as how we approach
this business.
"And who we are has changed," he adds. "We've grown from 17, 18-year old guys to 24, 25, and 26-year old men. It's important to change. If we stayed the same, we would have never grown."
Growing means having the industry's top producers-Babyface, Puff Daddy and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lweis-return your phone calls. Growing means opening your own studio facility to do all your stuff in-house.
This places the Menboyz light years from their preppie regalia days when they were groomed as the safe alternative to the bump-and-grind melieu of Jodeci, Silk, etc. They were poster kids for clean living, bubble gum pop, and family values. "We happened to come up with te opposite of what was going on," Shawn says. "We had on the khakis and the cardigan sweaters when everyone had on saggy jeans and boots. That stuck out in people's minds, because it was so against the grain. We were catergoized as being 'the Good Guys.'"
"What happened back then was definetly us," he stresses. "That was no image or gimmick. But, everyone changes. Every living thing grows and matures and, as a result, goes into another phase of their lives. We're definetly not the guys we were in the Cooleyhighharmony days. We can't be. There have been too many things that have happened to us and too many experiences we've been through to be that way. If we were still the same way, we'd be lost in the sauce."
Nate nods in agreement. "It's important to change. That's the meaning of the new album. It's a part of the growth process and the natural progression of Boyz II Men."
The Theory of Evolution
Talk of the new album, Evolution, brings about animated conversation particullary with Shawn, who provides visual aides, bounding up from his seat and back down, mimicking song beats, punctuating his speech with sighs of awe at the fruits of their year-long endeavors.
"All the songs we did are so different," he enthuses. "In character and personality. Even down to the beat..." Trance-like, Shawn sits in a drummer's position, tapping out the rhythm with thigh, foot and lip percussion. Breaking outhis zen-like Steve Gadd state, he breathlessly
continues his reverie.
"The vibes are so different," he says. "You have real soulful stuff, then more a dramtic, 'windy-type' of feel. Then there's a medieval type of feel. And then no music at all, just a cappella. But then there's a real serious orchesra-type song. You have all of the flavors, man. They're just so distinct. I may like one song for one week and then like another song for another week for a different reason."
Ever so often, a convergence of events circumstances and personalities will signal, if one is vigilant, that something big is about to happen. Sitting wit the group, it's easy to get caught up in their zeal and enthusiasim.
A who's who of contemporary R&B producers-Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Dallas Austin, Tony Rich-have at one time or another checked into La Casa De Menboyz and mined stacks of gold and platinum plaques. 'Face, Jam & Lewis have made return trips, but this time they utilize the services of swingman Keith Crouch and production supernova Sean "Puffy" Combs. At first glance, Evolution, at least from a "nothing succeeds like success" standpoint, looks like the biggesst thing that'll be happening to black music to close out the nine-luck.
Of course, it wouldn't be evolution without elevation. And in order to elevate, you have to put in work. So the Boyz spent the better part of their time off wood shedding. "We've had the chance to really practice," says Shawn. Enhance, try new and diverse things with our voices. We've been exposed to a lot of talented singers and they've exposed us to new styles. Our approaches are different, more confident, more daring.
"As well as the subject matter," he continues. The group is on an "African Head Charge" now, talking about the record in amplified tones, and rattling off with exuberant pride. "The content is slightly different. We have our love songs. We always love to write about love, but we also touch on other issues."
"4 Seasons of Loneliness," a Jam/Lewis contribution, touches on the different phases one goes through in life and love. "Girl in the Life Magazine" is a Babyface-penned fairy tale about a fan in love with a superstar who links the object of his affection in real life. And "A Song For Mama" is 'Face's poignant tribute to the first true love of every man's life. But perhaps the most intriguing nugget on the album is an a cappella cover of the New Edition classic, "Can You Stand the Rain."
"This song was our anthem," says Nate. "When we first got together, that was our best song. We sang it at all the talent shows. It also got our record deal. When we sang for Mike (Bivins), we sang 'Can You Stand the Rain.'
That's what got us in the door. It was homage in a way, and recording a song we've always loved. And we sang it a cappella. So the way you hear it is the way we did it. It's a part of our history in Boyz II Men and a part of our evoluton."
But another important part of any growth process is shoring up your weaknesses. Ballads have been the Boyz bread and butter since they first came out the box, but their dance tracks have been greeted rather tepidly. This time out, they bring out the big guns in Crouch and Combs, who added jams like "To the Limit," "Can't Let Her Go," and "Baby C'Mon."
"We tend to write a lot of ballads," Nate says with a hint of bemused understatement. "The up tempo side on this album shows a humongus difference. This time our up tempo side is just as strong as our ballad side. We're big New Edition fans. They always had all these steps and would be jumping around. We didn't really have the up tempo songs to do that kind of show."
"We wanted to add some more up tempos on this album," he adds, "so we can give people a full-range show and still do the 'End of the Roads,' the 'I'll Make Love to Yous,' and the 'Water Runs Dry,' plus the new ballads. We were thinking of an overall picture to put out an album that would lead us to the stage show as well."
These days everything Combs and Crouch touch virtually gurantees units will move. Not that Boyz II Men really need help in that department. "When we decided to reach out for Puffy and Keith," says Nate, "that's when it really started coming together as an album. It was well rounded. That's what made it different from the last albums."
But as the group elevates, so does te bar to the standards they set. And while one genuinely feels their euphoria, what goes largely unspoken is the one other thing seperating this album from the previous ones: the stakes.
Under Pressure
In RBT (Record Business Time), a year-and-a-half can either be a brief reprise or an eternity. Empires build, empires crumble. People are all up in you one day and not feelin' you the next. Audineces are mad fickle like that.
But this is Boyz II Men we're talking about, who are the more famous than Amos. Still afer laying in the cut for so long and having such a stellar precedent, can they handle the drama of having to top themselves again?
Mike, the soft-spoken bass man, offers, "There's always been pressure to win. The only time we didn't have any real pressure was our first album. That's something we prepared a lifetime for. We had nothing to lose. Once that album became successful, everything else followed.
The public has expectations of you. They excpect you to come out an do all these tremendous things."
He pauses reflectively and adds, "We don't have any say in that. That's up to God. If he wants us to have that stuff, he'll give it to us. If he doesn't, we'll go back and make another album."
Nate breaks things down to brass tracks. "We try and go into the studio with the frame of mind to create good songs." he says. "And maybe somebody'll like it. We don't go in saying, 'Well, we have to sell five million records, or ten million.'
"The one thing we learned about this music industry," he continues, "from record companies to radio, to artists, to people on the street-everybody has an opinion. Nobody knows the key to a hit record. It's just something that happens. Nobdy wakes up in the morning and picks all the hit records in the world. We all go on instinct and our natural feelings."
Fortunately, a major part of success is self-confidence. "No matter what the end result may be," Shawn asserts, "as long as we were pleased with what we came up with and we gave our 50 percent in this product, there are no regrets. And that's the most important thing to us."
Marketing Globally
Motown is geared up to drive the Boyz II Men machine. "They pretty much sell themselves," says Virgil Simms, Motown Senior VP of Marketing. "However, we're going to do an early teaser phase. We have this computerized-digital commercial to hit VH1, BET, MTV, and some other outlets, to let people know that Evolution is coming. We're doing a series of billboards in the major cities to start the Evolution campaign. Just stating the guys are back. Like they never went away."
However, unlike previous years where the group focused on the States, they'll be kicking off their tour internationally, with stops in Europe, Asia, and Africa. "They felt they didn't have as much of an opportunity to each the world market," says Simms. "This time out, they wanted to make sure they spent a good deal traveling overseas." The international tour will be tied into a launch with a contest with The Video Jukebox Network out of Miami. SIMMS adds, "It's Boyz II Men invading Japan. They go to Tokyo in December to perform and we're flying two winners from America to see them."
Hard to imagine a squre foot on the planet Boyz II Men haven't reached, but that's the way it is with empires. You have to keep finding new ways of adding them, whether that means expanding your reach or shoring up your house.
The Politics of Crossover
"We're going everywhere," says Simms. "We're also going to go to the Latino market. We're not gonna miss a beat. No stone will be unturned in this situation."
The tricky part of this: black music makes the music world go 'round, and black youths make the black music go 'round. And black youths demand their icons 'keep it real.' Invariably, young'uns-primarily males-tend to look askance at urban acts blowing up on the pop charts.
"Boyz II Men is not just an urban market group," says Simms. "They're a mainstream group. Fourteen million people aren't just urban people and you don't have a single on the charts for 14 weeks at number one without more than an urban base. With Boyz II Men, it's like Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, and Mariah Carey. They go straight across the board."
Oddly enough, the Menboyz themselves have an opposite perspective on the crossover conundrum. These days, the mountain is coming to Mohammed rather than the other way around. "Black music has become very prominent," says Nate. "There was a time the R&B stations and pop stations only played R&B and pop respectively. But black music has become mainstream."
Part of the business of being Boyz II Men is knowing the marketplace. One might be fooled by their charm and easy manner, but these brothers are savvy. "You see white kids who want to be like Martin," says Nate. "Everybody wants to be like Biggie, everybody wants to be like these singing groups. That's all from black roots. You'll notice pop stations filtered over and started playing black music. Black music is mainstream right now."
"Especially when you look at the charts," Mike observes. "you'll see black music and every single race reflected on the charts."
"It's so hard to differentiate right now," says Shawn. "Back in the day, it was easy to look at the R&B and pop charts and see the difference. But now, they're all together. Black artists are debuting their albums at number one on the pop charts. You'd never think Scarface would have a Top Ten pop sngle. Everything is just so diverse."
As a result, Boyz II Men are larger-than-life. And with Evolution, getting larger by the day.