Destiny’s Child may be the group that gave the world Beyoncé, but these R&B legends are much more than just a chapter in their most famous member’s history book. The group was formed in Houston in 1990 and, in what they thought would be their big break, got a spot on Star Search, where the six-person girl band was billed as the hip-hop rapping “Girls Tyme”. As anyone who has heard the snippet of the broadcast sampled on Beyoncé’s 2013 single “***Flawless” knows, they lost. That defeat led to the first of many band shake-ups and a name change. Come 1996, Destiny’s Child was born.
Their self-titled debut album came out in 1998 led by the then quartet’s hit “No, No, No Part 2”, but their sophomore album was the group’s true breakthrough. The Writing’s On the Wall gave the world a new girl-power anthem in “Say My Name”, the club-ready “Jumpin’, Jumpin’”, and the No. 1 hit, “Bills, Bills, Bills.” It was on their third album, Survivor, that the now-iconic trio lineup of Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams was solidified and their status as an R&B supergroup was cemented. That album, largely cowritten by Beyoncé, not only made the word “Bootylicious” part of the modern parlance, but breakup mixtapes got two new additions in “Independent Women, Pt. I” and “Survivor”.
Soon after that 2001 release, Rowland and Beyoncé started testing the water as solo artists, a sign of the band’s future. The group’s prophetically named Destiny Fulfilled came in 2004. With that final album, the artists went their separate ways, leaving a string of memorable, booty-shaking singles in their wake and fans always hopeful for the occasional reunion.