Color Me Badd

A quartet of vocalists assembled during their high school years in Oklahoma City and eventually shifted operations to New York. Their skill set allowed them to deliver both high-energy dance tracks and emotionally direct ballads with equal effectiveness. After signing with Giant Records, the group broke through in 1991 by placing "I Wanna Sex You Up" on the New Jack City soundtrack. Issued separately, the single claimed the top spot on the R&B charts, reached the pop Top Five, and earned double-platinum certification. They followed that success with the gold-selling "I Adore Mi Amor," which rose to number one on both the pop and R&B surveys. Those releases built anticipation for the debut album C.M.B., which surpassed three million copies sold and produced the gold-certified pop chart-topper "All 4 Love" plus the Top 20 singles "Thinkin' Back" and "Slow Motion." The next release, "Forever Love" from the Mo' Money soundtrack, became their sixth consecutive Top 20 pop entry. At the end of 1992 they ranked second only to Boyz II Men among the year's leading pop singles acts. After satisfying demand with the remix set Young, Gifted and Badd - The Remixes, the group delivered its second album of original material, Time and Chance, in November 1993. The record generated two Top 20 pop singles—the title track, which also reached the R&B Top Ten, and "Choose"—and achieved gold status, yet sales proved modest next to the first album's blockbuster performance. Now & Forever (1996) supplied one final Top 20 pop single, "The Earth, the Sun, the Rain," though the project registered only minimal chart traction overall. The group then moved to Sony for Awakening, but weak commercial results led to their dissolution.