UP - Shawn and Nathan are here, the other guys are out playing
basketball. Shawn and Nathan, how ya doin'?
SS - How ya doin', man?
UP - Before we speak to you, we've got a little present here from the Hot 30
countdown, this is my posse called Boyz II Ugly.
SS + NM - (laughing) ok.
UP - We've written a little tune that's actually up for best R+B single at
the 1998 Grammy awards, so I hope you like this.
SS - ok.
UP - You're looking a bit like you believe me there!
SS + NM + UP - (all laughing)
NM - I did for a second.
BIIU - *singing* Ugly Phil welcomes Boyz II Men, We're glad to have you here
again. Now sit down there and take your place, and don't be disturbed by
Ugly Phil's face. He'll talk in rhymes, He'll say "nasty times", He'll ask
which one's sleeping with LeAnn Rimes. He'll talk about feelings, You'll get
really silly.
UP - Thanks a lot, Boyz II Ugly, thank you guys.
NM - LeAnn Rimes?
SS - Who wrote the lyrics? thanks guys, thank you.
NM - LeAnn Rimes, that's sick, man.
UP - Now let's get down to the serious stuff. Now listen, when you came to
regroup and do "Evolution", I believe you sat down in the conference room,
you know, sort of poured your heart out and where you wanted to go with this
next album. Yeah, what happened? What was that all about?
SS - Um, well, basically, y'know, before we got started...I mean, it's almost
like a football player going into Spring training. He can't just go out
there and just...play football. Y'know, he has to get his body back into,
y'know, condition, and back into the mindframe and everything of going out
and playing football again. I guess that's what.....
UP - How long were you away from each other for?
SS - I mean, we were away from recording, as far as, like, Boyz II Men
collectively for about a good year-and-a-half, two years. So it's been a
while, and we just wanted to, just basically, see where everybody's heads
were at, as far as like, where we wanted to go; the direction we wanted to
take.
UP - Yeah, 'cause Wanya wanted to join like, Guns'n'Roses, apperently, y'know.
NM - (laughs)
UP - You don't wanna be doing that, that's not gonna be happening.
SS - We did't want to go too left, and we didn't want to go too, too,
whatever. We wanted to make sure that at least the four of us and the record
label and everybody, were on one accord.
UP - Cool. So tell me, I was gonna say, tell me about Stonecreek. You went
out and built your own studio, yeah?
SS - Well, we didn't build it, we renovated it, basically took over the
management. It was actually a studio before we came along, but basically the
guys who owned it beforehand, basically wanted to give it up. So we, y'know,
took the opportunity, and it's ours now.
UP - Are you going to record any other bands, maybe put out your own label,
stuff like that?
NM - Actually, we have our own label. The label's called Stonecreek, also.
Our label goes through Sony Music, it doesn't go through Polygram. Actually,
the time we had off for the last year-and-a-half we were in the studio
working on not only our album, but our first artist. His name is Uncle Sam
and He's an R+B/Soul singer from Detroit, Michigan. His album will be
released on Tuesday.
UP - And did he just send you a tape?
NM - Actually, we met him through a friend of ours. He sang a song for us
over the telephone and then he sent us a tape and we took it from there.
UP - Do a lot of guys come up to you? 'Cause I remember I went to a show in
New York and I think Ray J was there, and Wanya was there, and Brandy, and a
couple of other guys. You guys get many people coming up to you at these
sort of parties and saying "hey, I'd like to sing with you guys"?
NM - Well, sing for us.
SS - Yeah, we get a few of those. Y'know, we listen to 'em when we have the
time, if not, we give them the address to the label, and then, Y'know, they
send their material.
UP - Cool, and maybe if you hear a good song, you'd say "Y'know..."
SS - Without a doubt.
UP - There you go, that's right. Don't worry about it, we'll give you 15%
SS + NM + UP - (all laughing)
UP - Hey, the album's debuted at #1 nationally, "Evolution" on the Billboard
charts. We'll talk more with Boyz II Men when we come back in a moment. But
right now, it's the new single "4 Seasons of Loneliness".
UP - It's Nathan and Shawn, and me, Ugly boy Phil. We were talking off air a
moment ago about how Babyface has had a big year, but another guy who had a
massive year as well is Sean Combs. Puffy, yeah?
SS - It's interesting because when we were recording this album, I think one
of the most difficult parts of recording it was, basically kind of making
the schedules, kinda co-incide. I mean with Face and his, Puffy and his, Jam
and Lewis and their's. Everyone had a really busy year.
NM - (whispers something like) so off chord
SS - We had to fit our schedules in some way, shape or form. Fortunately, we
did.
UP - Y'know Babyface and Puffy, have they changed much, have they grown with
you guys?
SS - Well, I think it was more or less a thing where they've prettty much
kept....ah, once you're in the business like they are, you have a pulse on
the industry. It's not hard for you to change, because of the fact that you're
so into it that you're kinda sensitive to the change of the music industry.
Basically, what they've done, is taken what they already have and just kinda
augmented it a little bit, switched it around, things of that nature. And
y'know, those are guys that are truly y'know, talents and intelligent men,
who know what the people want and what people want to hear.
UP - People are really getting into the R+B sound, too. Last year, I tell you,
you look at what happened to Tupac and what happened to Biggie, that music is
moving away from that violence and that gangsta rap feel. There's a lot more
spirituality, a lot more soul coming into it this year.
NM - That's definitely needed, it's been avoided for a long time. You gotta
have both sides to really understand everything, but, at one point in time
we had a little bit too much of that.
SS - Yeah, and we know that the music industry, just like life itself, y'know,
goes through cycles. I think that's what the music industry is going through
right now.
UP - Now, with the evolution of Boyz II Men, we were talking about hip hop
before, and you wouldn't really bring Boyz II Men into the hip hop genre. But
you guys worked wiuth Keith Crouch, and I believe there's elements of hip
hop that he's bringing to this.
SS - He brought a very distinctive element, because his style is so
distinctive, and we've always admired his style, with the things that he did
with Brandy and Ray J. His
