It's inevitable that groups split up. The temptation is too great not to follow your own artistic muse, or-more practically-the money looks a lot better when it's all yours instead of being split four or five ways. In most cases, the lead singer is the first to bolt. If you're a vocal group, maybe one more dude out of the band makes a solo record. The rest of the group generally fades into obscurity, only to show up years later in a "Where Are They Now" profile, or, in some cases-a police blotter. It's very rare for all of the members of one group to have some kind of solo success. Matter of fact, the only two bands I can think of that have managed that trick are The Beatles-and New Edition.

Straight outta Roxbury, Mass, New Edition was the 1980's answer to the Jackson Five. They were a team of slickly produced, tightly choreographed teenagers singing syrupy sweet songs about "Mr. Telephone Man" and "Popcorn Love". They also-as far back as their 1983 debut-one of the first groups to successfully fuse hip-hop & R&B. Founding member Bobby Brown (who jumped ship in '85) could arguably be called the first major artist to have decent singing and rapping skills.

After 1988's successful "Heart Break" album and tour-and with group focal points Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill set to head to the studio to record solo albums, the other three N.E. cats-Ricky Bell, Mike Bivins and Ron De Voe-were left in the lurch. Were the three gonna sit around and wait for the inevitable "reunion" record?

Hell naw. Not only did BBD's "Poison" precede Gill & Tresvant's solo albums, it outsold both of them-combined. In addition, while Gill & Tresvant rode on the new jack swing/seductive ballad train, BBD went for something just a little more rugged, fusing Ricky's high-pitched singing with Mike and Ron's MC skills.

Hahahah...I just said Ron and Mike had MC skills...

At any rate, the evolution of hip-hop soul, in the form of artists like Mary J. Blige & Jodeci, had a lot to do with BBD's success. The genre's most successful act, TLC, was even conceived as a female version of BBD. Contrary to the new-jack formula, which was singing over a vaguely "urban" groove and applied to generally all uptempo R&B in the late 80s/early 90s, hip-hop soul was R&B vocals over beats supplied by hip-hop producers, with breakbeats and samples and actual rapping. And BBD were really the first group to make this sound come off.

WHow weird was it to see or hear "Poison" for the first time, going "these are the same corny dudes from New Edition?". It was like Michael Jackson coming out with a gangsta rap record. "Never trust a big butt and a smile?" What kinda sh*t was this? And the fact is, "Poison" the song still slams a decade and a half later. It's almost all rattling percussion. The bottom is so heavy it practically distorts your speakers. Mix in some sampled horn stabs and a cut-up Kool G. Rap shouting the title line, and the actual vocals are somewhat secondary. Well, I take that back. Ricky does a good job expressing the paranoia (some say misogyny) of a man who definitely has some trust issues, but Mike's and Ron's raps are generally window dressing. If MC Hammer is a 1 and Rakim is a 10, Biv and DeVoe were hovering somewhere around 3 in terms of lyrical skills. And this was in 1990.

This album has every conceivable reason not to work, but somehow it just does. For three dudes who should know a thing or two about mackin' broads (a decade of catching Ralph's, Johnny's and Bobby's leftovers should be sufficient)-they sure don't like women too much. A lot of the early press in those days focused on the fact that many of these songs were not too kind to the fairer sex. "BBD (I Thought It Was Me?)" is probably most notable for the chicken scratch guitar that runs through it-but also features yet another shellshocked vocal from Ricky-this time he meets a girl and then finds out she only wants him because he's a celebrity. This was one of several songs that benefited from the production of The Bomb Squad-who until that point had pretty much been Public Enemy's in-house production team. Did Chuck D. approve of BBd calling chicks low-pro hoes? We'll never know. The more frenzied "Let Me Know Something!" finds Biv and DeVoe lyrically backslapping a chick who rejects them until she finds out who they are-all over a muddy guitar/bass groove.

Of course-BBD loves them hoes as much as they hate them hoes. "Dope!" boasts the shiniest production on the album, as the uptempo beat is backed by a set of piano stabs. Again, the rapping is secondary to Ricky praising the girl who "reminds me of a sexy X-rated video queen". And how could we forget the undeniably salacious "Do Me!". If d*cks could talk, this song represents exactly what they would sound like. Over a midtempo groove that wouldn't be out of place in your average porno flick, this song pretty much deserves credit for jump-starting the whole "sex me up/lick you down" phase in R&B music. This song not only lays down directly in it's misogny and rolls around in it like it's a pig in a pile of sh*t, but also manages to be so damn catchy that you don't realize that Ron is rapping about f*cking a 16 year old. And, to top it all off, ya gotta love a song that introduces a catchphrase like "smack it up, flip it, rub it down, oh no!"

When they're not busy with the hoes, they take a minute to talk about themselves. "Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike, Ralph and Johnny (Word To The Mutha!)" is actually the song that sounds most P.E.-like, with the bells, whistles and sirens recognizable to anyone who's ever listened to "Night Of The Living Baseheads". This track stands as the fellas statement of purpose, and also reminds fans that there's no official break up-the fellas are just branching out (of course, there wasn't a full reunion till six years later when all of the members' solo careers had gone flat).

After all the smackin', flippin' and rubbin' down, the fellas still haven't forgotten about the art of romance-as the two ballads that end the album make clear. Biv and DeVoe are pretty much absent here (the dudes cant sing or rap!), leaving Ricky to his own mack-daddy devices on the sax-spiced slow jam "I Do Need You" and the more beat-attuned "When Will I See You Smile Again?". This song-like all of the 6 singles that were released from the album-would wind up souding slightly better in remixed form, but they all hold up well on the album.

Four million records sold definitely made MCA Records more amenable to expanding those production budgets, and the one knock on "Poison" is a somewhat low-budget sound. Of course, I might change that way of thinking if I had a CD copy instead of the same $4 bootleg tape I purchased in high school. However, their remix album ("WBBD Bootcity!") is definitely worth a pickup if you can find it, for the simple fact that it offers slightly more fleshed out versions of these songs. And yes, the sound is somewhat dated on this album, particularly in light of this sound having been worked to death and refined over and over, but it's still an enjoyable listen.

But that's not to take anything away from the impact this album made on the R&B landscape following it's release. Although some women may chafe at the not-exactly friendly lyrics, "Poison" was a watershed moment in the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups-esque combining of hip-hop and R&B. And, hey-maybe there's something to that not trusting a big butt and a smile thing.





"Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Repeat: "Poison", "Do Me!", "I Do Need You", "When Will I See You Smile Again?"


Skip: The atrociously awful follow-up BBD album, "Hootie Mack".


Great Music To Play While: Wondering why that whole baseball-caps-with-the tag-still on look didn't catch on.

Recommended: Yes