1983–1991: Early beginnings and formation Raised in an extremely religious
Pentecostal family, brothers K-Ci and JoJo – then known as
Little Cedric & the Hailey Singers – originally performed and recorded as a
gospel group, releasing three albums:
Jesus Saves, ''I'm Alright Now
, and God's Blessings''. K-Ci would later draw comparisons to
Michael Jackson during his gospel career. Separately, Mr. Dalvin and DeVanté Swing performed and toured in their own family's gospel group called the Degrate Delegation. The studio is where the duos later made acquaintances through relationships the members were in at the time. In a 2011 interview, Dalvin stated, "there was this girl gospel group called UNITY and then the Don DeGrate Delegation, which Devanté and I played in. So we met some of the girls from UNITY and [one] was dating K-Ci before we even met [and she] would always tell us that we need to meet K-Ci and JoJo." A short time after meeting, the brothers started living together after leaving their families to pursue musical careers. At 16, DeVanté Swing traveled to
Minneapolis, hoping to visit
Paisley Park in order to audition to
Prince. Swing would later say, "I was up at Paisley Park every day begging for a job, asking people to listen to my tape. The receptionist kept saying she couldn't help me". The rejection motivated Swing to relocate back to North Carolina, and work to improve his songwriting and production skills. Upon arriving, Swing continued to record with the group's additional members, eventually forming Jodeci, and began work on a demo tape to present to label executives. The name Jodeci is an abbreviation of all the members' names. "Jo" comes from JoJo, "De" comes from Devante, and Ci comes from K-Ci, with Dalvin joining the group afterwards. The members soon drove to
New York City with a 29-song, three-tape demo, anticipating a signing deal with upstart
Uptown Records. Upon arriving to New York, and without the knowledge of the whereabouts of the
MCA subsidiary, the group used a phone book to find the company's address, located on Clinton Street in
Brooklyn. Swing later commented on the signing, "we didn't have an appointment but I knew what Uptown was, and I wanted us to be there." The group was quickly denied an audition until
Andre Harrell agreed to hear the demo. In skepticism of the high quality production, Harrell requested the group to perform, where they performed "
Come and Talk to Me" and "
I'm Still Waiting", in the presence of
Jeff Redd.
Hip hop artist
Heavy D overheard the performance and consulted Harrell, eventually taking the group out to dinner and awarding them a recording contract. Jodeci was assigned to Uptown intern
Sean Combs, who took on the task of developing the new act. Counteracting the refined styles prominent in R&B showcased by
New Edition and
Boyz II Men, Mr. Dalvin created the group's image. Combs helped get the image through to Andre Harrell, perpetuating hip-hop fashion, such as baseball caps and
Timberland boots, to the group in order to establish a different aesthetic in the genre. The group was introduced after providing background vocals on the 1990 song "
Treat Them Like They Want to Be Treated", and performed live on
Soul Train on June 11, 1991.
1990–1995: Forever My Lady, Diary of a Mad Band, and The Show, the After Party, the Hotel Landing a recording deal in 1990, The album's seductive energy showcased DeVanté's songwriting, establishing a uniqueness in his production that mixed old-fashioned soul singing with New Jack Swing, creating a production of great boldness. It featured the number 1 R&B singles "Forever My Lady", "Stay", and "Come and Talk to Me". Mr. Dalvin recalls how the album
Forever My Lady was created,
"The last version of the album that was released only took us a week to finish because we had already written the songs. It was about getting our sounds right because the vocals were already done. It was us going back in the studio recreating the beats and the melodies... Most of the songs were written before we left North Carolina. My brother was 16 and I was 14 when we wrote the songs..." The album went on to sell over three million copies. In 1993, a minor feud resulted over the band's second album,
Diary of a Mad Band; Jodeci, unhappy with their treatment by Uptown, flirted with the idea of leaving for
Death Row Records, which resulted in almost zero promotion for the album. Reaching number 3 on the
Billboard 200 and number-one on the R&B album chart, where it stayed for two weeks, spawning the #1 R&B hit "
Cry for You"; "
Feenin'" and "
What About Us",
Diary of a Mad Band eventually went
double platinum. Jodeci also covered "
Lately", a
Stevie Wonder song, for the
Uptown MTV Unplugged release in 1993. The group's version of the song was released as a promotional single, claiming the number one spot on the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart as the group's fourth number one R&B hit. It was also Jodeci's highest peaking pop hit, reaching number four on the
Billboard Hot 100 in August 1993. It sold 900,000 copies and was certified
gold by the
Recording Industry Association of America. A studio version of the song was included on
Diary of a Mad Band. Jodeci's third album,
The Show, the After Party, the Hotel, was released in July 1995, reaching the second spot on the
Billboard 200, making it the group's highest-peaking release and topping the U.S. R&B Albums chart. By September 1995, it was certified platinum in sales by the
RIAA, after sales exceeding one million copies in the
United States. The album contained the
Top 40 hits "
Freek'n You", "
Love U 4 Life" and "
Get on Up".
2014–present: Return and The Past, the Present, the Future In February 2014,
Timbaland revealed that he was in the process of working with Jodeci on their comeback album. On November 7, 2014, Jodeci reunited and performed a medley of their classic songs at the 2014 Soul Train Awards. The performance also included a snippet of a brand-new single titled "Nobody Wins", which was released on December 22, 2014. The song is the first single released by Jodeci in over 18 years. The last song released by the group was "Get on Up", in 1996. Prior to the performance, the group had not taken the stage together in the U.S. since 2006. On January 28, 2015, a second single titled "Every Moment" was released. Also in that same month, it was announced by
Epic Records that Jodeci had been signed to the label to release their new album. Timbaland, who recently brought his
Mosley Music Group over to Epic, worked on the album. Their fourth album,
The Past, the Present, the Future, was released on March 31, 2015. It was their first album in 20 years. Shortly after the album's release, a Jodeci reunion tour was announced. The first show took place on June 6, 2015, in
Richmond, Virginia, as a part of the city's 11th annual Stone Soul Music Festival. Jodeci headlined the event, marking the group's first official concert performance together in the United States since 1995. == Members ==