Al B. Sure!

Emerging in the closing years of the 1980s, Al B. Sure! briefly stood among new jack swing’s leading romantic vocalists. Born Al Brown in Boston, he spent his formative years in Mount Vernon, NY, absorbing the styles of smooth vocalists such as Marvin Gaye and Johnny Mathis before discovering rap and folding that approach into his singing. At ten he and a friend recorded a track written by Ellie Greenwich for the Sesame Street soundtrack; around the same period he began composing material alongside his cousin Kyle West. While still in high school, where he served as quarterback, he formed a friendship with Edward Ferrell, known professionally as DJ Eddie F, who was then collaborating with rapper Heavy D. Through that connection the teenager was introduced to Andre Harrell, Heavy D’s manager and head of Uptown Records, resulting in backing-vocal appearances on several Heavy D recordings and ultimately a contract with Warner Brothers.

His debut album, In Effect Mode, arrived in 1988. Crafted with production from DJ Eddie F and numerous songwriting contributions from West, the record achieved platinum status largely on the strength of the hit single “Nite and Day,” which climbed into the pop Top Ten and held the top spot on the R&B chart for three weeks. Its follow-up, “Off on Your Own (Girl),” also reached number one on the R&B side, cementing his status as a major figure with urban listeners even though sustained pop-chart visibility proved elusive.

The 1990 release Private Times...and the Whole 9 yielded yet another R&B chart-topper in “Misunderstanding” and featured the duet “No Matter What” with Diana Ross. Sexy Versus, issued in 1992, met with less commercial success; afterward Al B. Sure! stepped away from recording and eventually accepted a vice-presidential role at Motown. He escaped serious injury in a 1996 automobile accident in New York, and in 2002 he launched a quiet storm–formatted radio program in the San Francisco Bay Area. Returning to music under the Hidden Beach imprint, he issued Honey I’m Home in 2009, marking his first full-length project in seventeen years.