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Bell Biv Devoe – “Poison”

Dave: “Never trust a big butt and smile.” Has there ever been a statement so true? And this coming from three dudes that sang “Mr. Telephone Man.” I love the fact the Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe pushed themselves into a new genre, getting rid of the squeaky clean New Edition lyrics and coming out hard. There were so many generic New Jack Swing artists that it was exciting to hear someone really extend the genre a bit.

Will: And yet it bears remembering that while New Edition graduates Bobby Brown and Ralph Tresvant were able to make solo careers for themselves, these three guys needed to team up to create a viable musical product. And the key word here is definitely “product,” since no-one in the trio had the first thing to do with writing this song. Instead, they turned to new jack swinger-for-hire Elliot Straite, who would soon go on to provide another band (Color Me Badd) with their signature song (”I Wanna Sex You Up”).

Dave: Tick-tock, you don’t stop, do you, Will? If this is what you are defining as “product” then Bobby Brown and Ralph Tresvant wouldn’t have had careers either. Tresvant’s hit “Sensitivity” was a Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis track and last time I checked they were still recycling the same old Rhythm Nation sound. And Babyface and L.A. Reid wrote a nice chunk of Bobby’s hits as well. You can’t really blame them for going and getting a hit record now, can you? What makes “Poison” so fresh sounding in the New Jack Swing genre is that Teddy Riley didn’t write it. And what makes a solo career so much better than a group? (more…)