Jodeci

By mixing yearning balladry with street-savvy lyrics, Jodeci cemented its place in the hip-hop soul movement of the ‘90s. After meeting in their hometown of Charlotte, NC, in the late 1980s, the two sets of brothers—Donald “DeVanté Swing” and Dalvin “Mr. Dalvin” DeGrate, and Cedric “K-Ci” and Joel “JoJo” Hailey—joined forces, drawing from their collective gospel backgrounds to craft a new, impassioned, and contemporary sound in R&B. After getting signed to Andre Harrell’s Uptown Records (at the behest of pop-rap maestro Heavy D), the quartet worked to distill its stacked harmonies, fiery solo vocals, and sensuous production choices. The result was Jodeci’s new jack swing-inspired 1991 debut album Forever My Lady, which featured the amorous title track about an enduring love. The group would further its soulful agenda on 1993’s Diary of a Mad Band, a project that delved deeper into the roots of R&B, exemplified by the unhurried, breakup-to-makeup single “Cry For You.” In 1995, Jodeci would release The Show, the After-Party, the Hotel, led by the unapologetically carnal “Freek’n You.” After a 20-year hiatus, Jodeci reassembled to drop the 2015 comeback album, The Past, the Present, the Future, a revamped take on the group’s highly individualized melodic style, as showcased on tracks like the affectionate lead single, “Every Moment.”