Bell Biv DeVoe

Bell Biv DeVoe broke away from New Edition once the parent act wrapped its promotional run for the 1988 release Heart Break. Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe—all founding New Edition members—adopted the suggestion of that album’s producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to launch a grittier, street-focused brand of contemporary R&B, summarized by the group as “hip-hop smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop-feel-appeal to it.” For their first project they recruited an array of producers that included Dr. Freeze plus Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee, and Eric Sadler, the last three of whom had already logged extensive studio time with Public Enemy.

Poison departed sharply from New Edition’s youthful pop-R&B palette: its grooves carried heavier funk, its lyrics and vocals were explicitly sexual, and only two ballads appeared, both tucked onto the second side. The title track climbed to number one on the Billboard R&B/hip-hop chart, reached number three on the Hot 100, and earned platinum status. Every remaining single from the set at minimum cracked the R&B/hip-hop Top Ten. The album ultimately moved more than four million copies in the U.S. and prompted the 1991 remix collection WBBD: Bootcity!, whose version of “Word to the Mutha!” reunited the trio with fellow New Edition members Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant, and Johnny Gill.

Bivins simultaneously assembled the East Coast Family collective, whose first releases from Another Bad Creation and Boyz II Men both achieved mainstream traction. In 1992 BBD and Tresvant appeared on Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson’s number-one R&B/hip-hop single “The Best Things in Life Are Free,” recorded for the Mo’ Money soundtrack. Their second studio album, Hootie Mack, finally surfaced the next year; although far less commercially successful than the debut, it still reached gold certification on the strength of more than half a million U.S. sales.

A lengthy hiatus followed while all three members joined a New Edition reunion, yet the trio resurfaced in 2001 with the assertive album BBD, which failed to generate any charting singles. New Edition later concentrated on live work. In 2011 the six original members marked the group’s 30th anniversary, and the following year they accepted a Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award. BBD returned in 2017 with Three Stripes, issued the same week BET premiered its miniseries The New Edition Story.