Early career The members of Dru Hill are natives of
Baltimore. The group became known getting jobs at The Fudgery, a local
fudge factory at
Harborplace at Baltimore's
Inner Harbor, beginning a store tradition of singing and performing to entertain guests while making fudge. The group's name comes from Baltimore's
Druid Hill Park, which is commonly shortened in the
local vernacular to "Dru Hill".
Self-titled debut album (1996) After scoring a deal with Island Black Music, an urban, "Black market-targeted" division of
Island Records in 1994, two years later, on November 19, 1996, the group released their
eponymous debut album. It peaked at number twenty-three on the
Billboard 200 and went on to sell over one million copies by the summer of 1997. It scored major hits like "
In My Bed", "
Tell Me" and "
Never Make a Promise".
Success, guest appearances and Island Records dispute Between their first and second albums, Dru Hill contributed "
We're Not Making Love No More", a number 2 R&B and number 13 pop hit, to the
Soul Food soundtrack. "We're Not Making Love No More" was written and produced by producer
Babyface. Dru Hill and
rapper Foxy Brown recorded "Big Bad Mama", a remake of
Carl Carlton's 1981 hit "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)", which was the main single for the soundtrack to the 1997
Bill Bellamy film ''
Def Jam's How to Be a Player''. The group was also instrumental in writing and producing for new University artist
Mýa, whose first two singles "
It's All About Me" and "
Movin' On", were co-written by Sisqó, who also performs guest vocals on "It's All About Me". In 1997, Dru Hill filed a lawsuit against Island Records, seeking a release from its contract, after an Island employee hit one of the group's managers, Keith Ingram, over the head with a
pool cue. It was discovered that the employee in question had a criminal record. At an October 1997 deposition hearing, Eric Kronfeld, president and
chief operating officer of Island's parent company
PolyGram, was asked why he had hired such an individual. His response was that if he were not to hire African-Americans with criminal records, then "there would be virtually no African-Americans employees in our society or in our industry." Kronfield's remarks set off a wave of controversy when word of them reached the media in November. The Reverend
Jesse Jackson became personally involved, publicly stating that the
Dutch-based PolyGram had "a pattern of race and sex exclusion." By the end of the month, Dru Hill had settled with Island Records, and issued a joint statement with the label, stating in the agreement that they would remain on the label.
Enter the Dru (1998), Island Def Jam merger, Woody's departure and Sisqó's solo success Dru Hill's third top 20 pop hit came in the form of 1998's "How Deep Is Your Love" (Pop No. 3), which was included on the soundtrack to the
Jackie Chan and
Chris Tucker film
Rush Hour. The single "This Is What We Do", featuring a guest rap from
Method Man, set the tone for the group's second album,
Enter the Dru. The album featured several other mid-tempo tracks in the vein of "How Deep Is Your Love", as well as the R&B top 5 single "These are the Times" (Pop No. 21), co-written and co-produced by Babyface, and featuring guitar work from Atlanta-based session guitarist and former
Earth Wind & Fire member Dick Smith. The album was released on October 27, 1998. It peaked at number two on the
Billboard 200 and eventually sold two million copies by May 1999. After PolyGram (parent company of Island) was acquired by
Seagram on December 10, 1998, thus PolyGram's music division was later merged with
Universal Music Group in 1999. Then, on New Year's Eve, Island Records' operations as a label was combined with sister labels
Mercury Records and
Def Jam Recordings to become
The Island Def Jam Music Group. As a result, Island Black Music was folded, soon after Island and Mercury's R&B and hip hop rosters were transferred to Def Jam and thus, Dru Hill was moved to its R&B division of
Def Soul, having found a new label home. However, after a shooting incident at a concert in
Paris that almost costed two lives of its entourage, member Woody Rock decided to part ways with the group. Later that year, Dru Hill released a remix of "
You Are Everything", featuring rapper
Ja Rule, and recorded a version of "Enchantment Passing Through" for the soundtrack to the
Broadway musical Aida, which was also featured on Sisqó's solo debut album
Unleash the Dragon, which was later released in November 1999. The album had a minor hit with his first single, "Got to Get It" featuring Make It Hot. His second single, "
Thong Song", became a major hit during the spring of 2000, and his third, "
Incomplete", became a number-one hit during the summer. The group made the final appearance of that year on the
title track to the western comedy film
Wild Wild West, starring the track's leading performer,
Will Smith.
Dru World Order (2002) and Def Soul issues Before the group's third album came into fruition, Dru Hill began having problems internally. Sisqó's success as a solo artist had hampered the group. Def Jam president
Kevin Liles, a fellow Baltimore native, pressured the group for a comeback album and a few solo follow-ups, but it never fully materialized. Jazz was supposed to release a solo debut album in 2001 after having recorded it between 1999 and 2000, but due to issues with
Lyor Cohen, another top Def Jam executive, the album was shelved and Jazz was dropped from the Def Soul division as a solo artist. Nokio focused on his work as a producer, having produced for
DMX ("
What These Bitches Want"), Foxy Brown ("Na Na Be Like") and others. In 2000, Sisqó and Nokio formed the label, Dragon Records, and signed a girl group named
LovHer. Then, on June 19, 2001, Sisqó released his sophomore solo album,
Return of Dragon, but it performed poorly, causing Dru Hill's comeback for the year to be postponed. After releasing his solo gospel album,
Soul Music, in May, and with a new agreement with Def Jam, Dru Hill decided to invite Woody back into the fold while adding a new member, Rufus "Scola" Waller" to the group as its fifth inductee.
Dru World Order was finished by July and finally released on November 26, 2002, two years after its planned release. Nearly all of the album's tracks were produced by Nokio, who sung lead on the tracks "She Said" and "Men Always Regret". Producers such as
Bryan Michael Cox and
Kwamé also made contributions. Most of the album's tracks featured Sisqó, Jazz, Woody, and Scola sharing the leads, including the lead single "I Should Be...". "I Should Be..." was a top thirty pop hit and a top ten R&B hit, respectively. By August 2003, promotion and marketing for the album died down as Def Jam signed another boy band to its Def Soul imprint,
112, helping to support their upcoming fourth album at the time,
Hot & Wet. Because of this, Dru Hill felt frustrated and decided to take another hiatus until issues would have been resolved. Throughout 2004, their label situation worsened when Liles and Cohen left Def Jam and were replaced by
L.A. Reid. He started pushing the group to record a fourth studio album for the label only to postpone the project to focus on artists of his certainty. Due to the group's failure to produce any new music featuring Sisqó, who chose not to lend his vocals to new recordings as ordered by Reid, he reviewed Dru Hill as a destructive and a self-imploding group that was not fully productive. As a result, the buzz around the album never became a reality and on July 17, 2004, the group was confirmed to have been dropped from Def Soul, ending their five-year relationship with Def Jam. On October 11, 2005, Def Soul released a
greatest hits compilation,
Dru Hill: Hits, along with a corresponding
DVD collection of the group's music videos. Both collections included Sisqó's biggest solo hits, "Thong Song" and "Incomplete", alongside the Dru Hill songs.
Family affairs In the midst of Dru Hill's label issues, in 2003, Sisqó became involved in a relationship with his stylist Elizabeth Pham, whom he later married on August 17, 2018. That same year, on June 12, group founder Nokio fathered a son named Niko, whose mother is radio personality
Angie Martinez.
Woody and Scola's departure In early 2008, the original quartet version of Dru Hill began touring alongside fellow 1990s acts
Tony! Toni! Toné!,
Bell Biv Devoe, and Keith Sweat. The group held a contest in their native Baltimore for a replacement for Woody, who left the group again earlier in January, settling upon a new singer, Antwuan "Tao" Simpson. The group never said why they did not keep Scola in the group, although it was later stated by Nokio that "five people [mess] up the money".
InDRUpendence Day (2010) InDRUpendence Day is Dru Hill's fourth album, released on July 27, 2010. It features the group's new member, Tao. The album has released three singles: "Love MD", "Remain Silent" and "Back to the Future". It was released under the label, Kedar Entertainment, which was founded by the album's executive producer,
Kedar Massenburg.
New lineup and The Second Coming Jazz left the group in early 2018 to work on his solo album and Tao left in early 2019 to work on a solo project because he did not like the direction Dru Hill was going. He is currently the new lead vocalist for
Intro. In August 2018, a new album,
The Second Coming, was announced. It was to feature two new members from the group
Playa, Smoke E. Digglera and Digital Black, who started performing with them after Jazz left the group. The first single from the album, "What You Need", was released in February 2020. Later that month, Nokio confirmed on Magic 95.9 that he has left Dru Hill to spend time with his family. A comeback of the band with the new lineup, Sisqo, Smoke, and Black, was hinted in March 2020. As of 2025, the band is touring extensively with the lineup of SisQo, Nokio, Jazz, Scola, Black and Smoke. ==Television appearances==