Ex-Girlfriend launched Forceful Records, the imprint Full Force established through its distribution deal with Reprise Records/WEA. Yvette Shure of Black Beat Magazine first brought the four New York vocalists to the attention of the Brooklyn-based six-man songwriting and production collective. Tisha Hunter, Stacy Francis, Monica Boyd, and Julia Roberson received the group surname X to embody Full Force’s guiding theme of female militarism. Their opening single, the percolating “Why Can't You Come Home,” climbed to number five on Billboard’s R&B chart and number seventy-eight on the Pop chart during spring 1991, while the follow-up “You (You're The One For Me)” reached number thirty-five R&B by the end of that year.
The quartet’s first album, X Marks The Spot, attained a peak position of number thirty-seven in summer 1991. Among its deeper cuts were the sensuous ballad “With All My Heart,” the urgent “S.O.S,” the catchy “Fellas In The Area,” the funky midtempo groove “Don't Knock At My Door,” and a gender-flipped reading of the Jackson 5 B-side originally titled “I Found That Girl” (radio-aired from “The Love You Save” and retitled “I Found That Guy”). Additional standouts included the lights-out slow jam “I Love My Man” and a cover of Unlimited Touch’s eighties dance anthem “Searching to Find the One.”
The singers also contributed background vocals to fellow Full Force client Cheryl Pepsii Riley’s rendition of Aretha Franklin’s “Ain't No Way,” which reached number forty-five on the R&B chart in fall 1991.
