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Jodeci Hit The Comeback Trail
03.07.2006 6:00 AM EST
Group says long-promised new album is due this summer.
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Jodeci's K-Ci and JoJo
Photo: Chrissy L. Nguyen/ MTV News
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The roster of 1990s R&B royalty currently on the comeback trail — including acts such as Bobby Brown, Guy, En Vogue and SWV — continues to grow. Next up? North Carolina's R&B bad boys Jodeci.
Before you start scoffing and saying
you've heard it all before (the reunion has been talked about for at least five years), evidence is pointing to the fact it just might happen this time. Jodeci — two sets of brothers: Joel ("JoJo") and Cedric ("K-Ci") Hailey and Donald ("DeVante Swing") and Dalvin ("Mr. Dalvin") DeGrate — performed together during Clive Davis' Grammy party in February, just finished a tour of Europe, and say they have been in talks with Jamie Foxx to hit the road with him (Foxx, in fact, brought out Jodeci at Davis' party).
"Everybody thought we disappeared, but we just laid back for a while and figured out our strategy," JoJo, fresh from a studio session with the group, said last week in Los Angeles at a pre-Oscars event. "It's all good, though."
Just as the self-professed "mad band" was at its height, the guys disbanded. Devante Swing, considered one of R&B's most innovative R&B (he discovered Missy Elliott, Timbaland and Ginuwine), basically disappeared from the scene, while his brother Dalvin released the ill-fated solo LP Met.A.Mor.Phic under his real name in 2000.
Just as the self-professed "mad band" were at their height, they disbanded. Devante Swing, one of the most innovative R&B producers of all time (he was also responsible for discovering Missy Elliott, Timbaland and Ginuwine), basically disappeared from the scene, while his brother Dalvin released an ill-fated solo LP, Met.A.Mor.Phic under his real name in 2000.
K-Ci & JoJo found multiplatinum success as duo, but their popularity has faded in recent years and the duo have found themselves opening up for people like Keith Sweat.
Jodeci as a collective haven't released an album since their third LP, 1995's The Show, the After Party, the Hotel. But the group has reportedly been at work on a new studio album for years (see "Long-Awaited Jodeci Album Due By Year's End").
"It's incredible," JoJo said of the album. "It's the Jodeci sound, but ... If you heard our second and the last half of Hotel, it's like the bridge between the second and third albums. There's 17 cuts — it's a double CD."
"We're blessed," K-Ci added. "We're just doing a bunch of music, baby. That's all I can say."
K-Ci said that in addition to the Jodeci LP, he has a solo album in the works, but his first priority is to the group. The members of Jodeci have also contributed recently to songs by such acts as Mariah Carey, Petey Pablo and Naughty by Nature. Although the guys say to look for the album in July, no release date, label or title has been announced, but they say they do know what their first single will be.
"A song called 'Show Off' — and you're the only person I've told that to," JoJo divulged. "My brother Devante is gonna be mad that I said that because it's gonna be our #1 single. It's crazy — it's a song about a strip club. I can't tell you more."
— Shaheem Reid, with reporting by Brandee Tescon
 For more on Jodeci, check out the MTV News Archive
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