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Boyz II Men in 1994

Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

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Boyz II Men Celebrate 25 Years Of Their Masterstroke Second Album, 'II'

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To commemorate 25 years of 'II,' The Recording Academy spoke with Boyz II Men's Wanya Morris and Nathan Morris about what all went into making their second album such an immediate and long-lasting success       
Will Hodge
GRAMMYs
Aug 30, 2019 - 8:48 am

As soon as an artist experiences success with their debut album, the shadow of the dreaded "sophomore slump" starts swirling on the horizon. In the 1990s, however, there were quite a few second album smashes that showed just how defiantly that curse can crumble under rarified musical talent, mastercraft songwriting and record-breaking runs at the top of the charts. Throughout the pre-millennium decade, Nirvana and A Tribe Called Quest delivered undeniable game changers with Nevermind and Low End Theory, TLC and Oasis more than doubled the achievements of their multi-platinum debuts with CrazySexyCool and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, and Boyz II Men achieved inescapable pop culture ubiquity with their 12x platinum-selling, multiple record-breaking, triple GRAMMY Award-winning album, II, which celebrates its 25th anniversary milestone this month. 

Spearheaded by the strength of a pair of Billboard number one singles ("I'll Make Love To You" and "On Bended Knee") and a Billboard number two chaser ("Water Runs Dry"), II debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart, maintained a solid five-week run at the top spot and ended up staying on the charts for just shy of two full years. A couple months before the release of II, the Philly foursome offered up the Babyface-penned "I'll Make Love to You" as the album's lead single and the steamy ballad had radio and MTV on absolute lockdown during the late summer of 1994. "I'll Make Love to You" ended up eventually tying the record for the most weeks at number one by matching Whitney Houston's 14-week stretch of "I Will Always Love You" from The Bodyguard. 

The group’s unparalleled vocal harmonies and the impossible-not-to-sing-along-with chorus of "I'll Make Love To You" might’ve been enough to surpass Houston's record if only they hadn’t been knocked out of the top spot by… the album's second single, "On Bended Knee." By December, the summer sizzler handed the crown over to the winter weeper as Boyz II Men became only the third musical act of all-time to replace themselves at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had achieved it before them). To look back on these astounding achievements and to commemorate 25 years of II, The Recording Academy spoke with Boyz II Men's Wanya Morris and Nathan Morris about what all went into making their second album such an immediate and long-lasting success.               

Wanya Morris: After the success of our first album, it felt like a lot of people were starting to realize that Boyz II Men was a force to be reckoned with. Our voices and our harmonies were evolving and becoming more mature. That allowed us to try new things and people were really receptive to our creativity. It seemed like we couldn’t go anywhere without being recognized. I remember walking down the street near Yodoyabashi Station in Osaka and people would run up to us and yell out our names. It felt so huge because in our minds, we were just four dudes from Philly.        

Nathan Morris: For me, it was all a whirlwind because singing wasn’t really my first choice for a career. I grew up wanting to play professional football, but my mom pushed me into going to a performing arts school. That’s actually the whole reason why there’s even a Boyz II Men at all. I got bored at school, so I just started a singing group in my spare time. Everything that was happening for us as Boyz II Men wasn’t really anything that I had ever dreamed of or expected. So, I was just taking everything in as it came, enjoying it, and trying to soak it all up.

Following the massive success of their debut album, Cooleyhighharmony, and its pair of Top 5 singles ("Motownphilly" and their cover of G. C. Cameron's "It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday"), Boyz II Men's doo-wop-meets-New Jack Swing-meets-hip-hop musical hybrid and their relentless work ethic were all on full display during a frenzied pop culture blitz that included opening for M.C. Hammer's 2 Legit 2 Quit tour, filming an episode of MTV Unplugged with Joe Public and Shanice, earning a Top 5 standalone single with their cover of "In the Still of the Night (I Remember)," appearing in the holiday episode "Twas the Night Before Christening" on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and recording the double-platinum holiday album Christmas Interpretations (featuring the seasonal radio hit "Let It Snow" with Brian McKnight). During this crucial between-albums timeframe, they also scored their first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "End Of The Road" from the Boomerang soundtrack. At the time, "End of the Road" broke the record for longevity at the top of the charts with its impressive 13-week run. It would be the first of three times that Boyz II Men were a part of achieving this notable accolade.

Nathan Morris: Going into the second album, our confidence level was pretty high. Motown didn't really know what to do with us when they signed us, so we got to write almost the whole first album by ourselves. Since that album went nine times platinum, that gave us a lot of confidence as writers and producers going into the second album.

Wanya Morris: Honestly, it was a pretty hectic time. Things had gotten so big with the first album and then "End Of The Road" came out and blew up. We were really feeling the pressure, but the process had to start somewhere. So, we just did what we always do, which is get in the studio and start writing songs and recording demos. 

Nathan Morris: Dallas Austin had produced most of our first album, but he wasn’t available for the second album. So, he recommended we try working with Tim & Bob, who were kind of his B-team. We got in the studio with them and started working on a bunch of the songs that we felt good about. We clicked really well, so Tim & Bob ended up producing most of the songs on the second album.

Wanya Morris: I first met Tim & Bob when I worked on a song called "One More Try" for Another Bad Creation's second album. I traveled to Atlanta to work with them and we ended up hanging out and kicking it almost that whole summer, just writing songs and recording demos. I brought those songs back to the guys and our A&R team and it was decided that we should all fly out to Atlanta to work with them. That’s where the bulk of the songs on the second album came from.                 

Alongside working with Tim & Bob for most of the recording of what would become II, Boyz II Men's chart-topping success also earned them the opportunity to craft a couple of songs with some of the most celebrated producers in the business—Midas-touch hitmaker Babyface ("I'll Make Love To You" and "Water Runs Dry") and the legendary dream team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis ("On Bended Knee" and "All Around The World").     

Nathan Morris: Getting to work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis? Man, we were just such big fans of theirs ever since we were kids. We were praying we could get them on the album, so we were really excited to get to work with them.

Wanya Morris: Jam and Lewis are artist-producers, so their first move was trying to gauge our musical capabilities. For "On Bended Knee," we were with them a whole day, but we hadn’t heard anything because they wouldn’t let us inside of the studio while they were recording the instrumental tracks! After they finished the music, we knocked the vocals out so quick that they decided to try for a second song with us. That’s how we ended up writing "All Around The World" with them. They could feel our synergy and trusted us enough to just let us do what we do. 

Nathan Morris: After "End Of The Road," we were really excited to work with Babyface again. It just made so much sense to do a couple more songs with him for the second album. We really loved "I'll Make Love to You" for the album, but we also wanted to try different things for our singles. In the grand scheme of artistry, that’s your thinking. But in the grand scheme of record sales, when you go multi-platinum with something, you’re expected to make another one. So, we had a bit of a dilemma when it came time to pick the lead single for II.

Wanya Morris: We actually fought really hard against having "I'll Make Love to You" be the lead single. We had just come off of "End Of The Road" and we didn’t want to come back with a song that had the same sound. Our label was adamant about it though. They did all this market research and we were just researching our hearts, so we were told to deal with it. Clearly, they were right on that one!

After the release of II, Boyz II Men became certified global superstars. The album achieved multi-platinum sales in Canada and Australia, and it hit the top of the album charts in France and New Zealand. In fact, international demand was so high for the blockbuster album that the gifted vocalists upped their game by rerecording the album’s three big hits and their acapella cover of The Beatles' "Yesterday" in Spanish for a special version of the album called II: Yo Te Voy a Amar. As had become their signature move, the guys had no problem rising to the challenge and possibly even outdoing themselves in the process.    

Nathan Morris: Recording those tracks in Spanish wasn’t really that difficult since we had already learned a bit of it in school. We had a producer, K. C. Porter, that translated everything for us and helped us with proper annunciation. One thing that we did notice is that singing in Spanish is a lot easier than singing in English. The English language is a bit choppy and Spanish is smoother and more legato in nature. I think some of our songs sound even better in Spanish than they do in English.  

Wanya Morris: When it came time to do the second album songs in Spanish, it wasn’t really that hard because the songs already existed. We just had to emulate the vocal intensity of the rewritten lyrics. We only performed live in Spanish one time and it wasn’t even one of those songs. We actually did "End Of The Road" live for Telemundo. After that, we didn’t do it again!

At a time when memorable music videos were just as important as radio hits, Boyz II Men were MTV mainstays by consistently delivering cinematic gold. Having such good chemistry with director Lionel C. Martin on their first music videos for "Motownphilly," "It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday," "Uhh Ahh," "End Of The Road" and "Let It Snow," they continued the creative partnership through the music videos for II’s "I’ll Make Love To You," "Thank You" and "On Bended Knee," the latter of which saw the bandmembers getting to act alongside their hand-pick childhood crushes.

Wanya Morris: We each got to request our own partners for the "On Bended Knee" music video and I chose Lark Voorhies from Saved By The Bell. We were guys, so we were all trying to holler at them all day. I’m not going to lie, it was really cool and really fun getting to shoot that video. 

Nathan Morris: We all got to pick a couple names of who we wanted them to reach out to and luckily I got my first pick. I choose Kim Fields because I was a big fan of Facts Of Life. At the time, I was in a relationship and we ended up having a big fight about me being in the video. It was great though. We shot it in New Orleans and I think it was a three-day shoot. Between that one and "Water Runs Dry," those are my two favorites music videos that we’ve ever done.   

As the trajectory of the band's career continued to skyrocket on the back of II, the following year found the vocal giants collaborating on a trio of top-tier releases: Michael Jackson’s HIStory, LL Cool J’s Mr. Smith, and Mariah Carey’s Daydream. Their duet with Carey, the massively popular "One Sweet Day," hit number one on December 2, 1995 and firmly reigned there until March 23, 1996. Its astounding 16-week stay not only marked the third time that Boyz II Men had tied or broken the record for longest-running number one single, but it was also strong enough to remain as a record all the way up until earlier this year when Lil Nas X’s surprise smash "Old Town Road" landed at number one for a combined 19 weeks (the first week as a solo artist and then 18 weeks with the Billy Ray Cyrus version).   

Nathan Morris: The Lil Nas X thing is surprising because we’re in this fast food entertainment society where you need something new every four seconds. You wouldn’t think that something would stick around that long, but the good songs do. There have been some other really great songs in the last few years that I thought should’ve broken the record, but "Old Town Road" was the one to do it. 

Wanya Morris: I think it helps that there’s not so much of a "big stage" competition nowadays. Everyone is more of an individual. Plus, there are more things out today that help your music get heard. We didn't have Instagram. The internet was just a baby back then. If we wanted to reach a million people, we had to go on the road and touch a million people. Nowadays, people can just click a button and reach all of their social media followers at once, who in turn can reach all of their followers, and you can quickly get in a zone that’ll start promoting you to people who don’t know who you are.

The part about the Lil Nas X thing that makes sense to me is that it’s a black man singing country music, it sparked some controversy because they didn’t want to let him in, then the LGBTQ community embraced it towards the end and it really became a phenomenon. It’s a good song but it became a huge record because it was relatable. Everybody could sing it, everybody could dance to it, and it became one of those things that allowed people to hear and experience something new.

Nathan Morris: It’s a weird time. Music is changing so fast. You don’t have those multi-year cycles of popularity. Audience tastes seem to change every month. For us, it’s really nice to have three of the top five records for longevity at number one, but we understand that records are made to be broken. We broke the records of Elvis and The Beatles, so we totally get it. 

'Pronounced Jah-Nay' At 25: Zhané's Renée Neufville & Jean Norris Look Back On Their Classic R&B Debut

Artwork for For The Record episode on Aaliyah's 'One In A Million'

Aaliyah

Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

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For The Record: How Aaliyah Redefined Her Sound And Herself On 'One In A Million'

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Released in 1996, Aaliyah's career-defining 'One in a Million' marked a fresh beginning for the GRAMMY-nominated singer and launched her into a new era that saw her expand as an artistic leader, creative visionary and fashion icon
Treye Green
GRAMMYs
Aug 27, 2021 - 2:13 pm

Illuminated by the pale white light of a New York City subway platform, Aaliyah stares into the frame on the cover of her album, One in a Million. Her eyes hidden behind a pair of silver-frame sunglasses. Her slim figure cloaked in a black jumpsuit. Her pout brushed in a shade of brick-red lipstick. Her countenance unfalteringly confident as she faced her new era.

In the two years between the release of her multiplatinum debut album Age Ain't Nothing But a Number in 1994 and her follow-up, One in a Million, on August 27, 1996, Aaliyah had established herself as a budding musical talent. But in the fallout of her marriage scandal with R. Kelly and subsequent professional split from the signer, who wrote and produced the majority of Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, Aaliyah and her team faced the taxing task of finding a new team of producers equipped to push her sound forward.

Aaliyah recorded One in a Million while finishing her studies at Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, from which she graduated in 1997. She had also ended her contract with Jive Records, and then signed a joint deal with Atlantic Records and her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records. She was 16 when she began recording the album, having turned 17 when it dropped, a pivotal time in her personal life journey. She perfectly captured the transition in her iconic One in a Million era.

How 'One in a Million' Redefined Aaliyah's Sound

"I faced the adversity, I could've broken down, I could've gone and hid in the closet and said, 'I'm not going to do this anymore.' But I love singing, and I wasn't going to let that mess stop me," Aaliyah said in a 1996 interview with  writer Michael Gonzalez, per a retrospective on her career for Wax Poetics. "I got a lot of support from my fans and that inspired me to put that behind me, be a stronger person, and put my all into making One in a Million."

THE SOUND

Many artists Aaliyah's age may have been the product of the creative strategizing of their label—with managers, A&R teams, and other members of their crew choosing their producers, lyrics and overall sound with little to no input from the artists.

But Aaliyah challenged this expectation and misconception by taking creative control of One in a Million, making the sound on the project all her own. She led each member of her production and writing team to craft a One in a Million era with a variety of production styles.

"She definitely had an executive producer's ear. She had a great sense of what was right for herself, and you have to give her a lot of credit for steering those sessions to a place that obviously created meaningful hit records," Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records, told Vibe.com.

"She obviously made One in a Million, an album that was very, very much ahead of the curve and didn't sound like anything that had come before it," he added.

To aid in uncovering Aaliyah's new, "ahead of the curve" sound, Craig King and Vincent Herbert became the earliest producers to lay the musical groundwork of One in a Million, which Aaliyah first started recording in 1995.

"We caught [Aaliyah] at her probably second-most vulnerable stage in her career. We caught her at her sophomore jinx and when people were like, 'This will never work without R. Kelly because he put this signature sound on you,'" King told GRAMMY.com about working on One in a Million. "She was really trying to redefine all of that narrative, and we weren't interested in replicating what he was doing. We wanted to bring our own sound into the game, too."

Recording out of the famed Vanguard Studios in Aaliyah's hometown of Detroit, Michigan, King and Herbert produced a total of eight tracks for the project over three months, though only four made the final cut for the album. The album's production team also included contributors Jermaine Dupri, Darryl Simmons, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, and others, as well as writers Diane Warren, Monica Bell, Japhe Tejeda, and more.

With a team of production and songwriting heavy hitters in Aaliyah's corner, One in a Million began to take shape. The album would become a whole embodiment of Aaliyah's sound, building the R&B-rooted stylings that made her debut album a success into genre-blending productions while also giving listeners a fuller look into sonic complexity of the singer as an artist.

The Timbaland-produced lead single "If Your Girl Only Knew" bumps along, with its beat pulling from pop and funk inspirations, as Aaliyah calls out a flirtatious guy who's in a relationship. "4 Page Letter" and the album's title track slink along with multilayered productions packed with hi-hats, clicks, triple-beats, strings, and stacked harmonies, all the while reimagining the essential production elements of a love ballad. "Got's to Give It Up" and "Choosey Lover" put a modern spin on '70s throwback jams, while "A Girl Like You" samples "Summer Madness" by Kool & the Gang.

"I love all kinds of music, and I want to be known as the kind of singer that can do all of that. So, that's why I wanted the different varieties on the album to showcase that—showcase each part of my personality," Aaliyah said in an interview with the Associated Press during her press run for the project. "Definitely I love the soul, the hip-hop, the R&B. I love it all. But I do want people to see me as the type of artist that can sing any kind of music."

Along with their lyrical content and innovative productions, the album's tracks, like the paired-down, Warren-written "The One I Gave My Heart To" and the Herber- and King-produced "Never Givin' Up," also highlighted Aaliyah's vocal abilities, expanding the strength of her falsetto and upper register while allowing her the full space to showcase other elements of her vocal range and stylings.

"I remember being in the studio when she was singing ['The One I Gave My Heart To'] and hitting those notes and it was just beautiful," Warren told Vibe.com. "It just showed another side to her. The octave goes up in the end and some of that was what I'd written into the song, but she took it somewhere else. She not only rose to it, she went beyond it. She nailed that song and it was amazing what she did. It's still one of my favorite records."

Speaking on "Never Givin' Up," King said he was completely enamored with her interpretation of the track when they recorded it.

"The vocal arrangement. Every single time we layered a vocal, she was just so on point," King said. "She just superseded all my expectations. I was very, very impressed with her style there."

"This album, it shows the growth of the past two years. I'm 17 now. So, I've grown in a lot of ways. And this album, I think it shows a lot of my vocal range," Aaliyah told the AP while speaking on developing her sound for the project.  "I took a lot of risks on this album. I tried different things. And that's the main change from the two albums."

Aaliyah's shift in her sound resulted in some standout commercial wins. There were a staggering six singles released from One in a Million: "If Your Girl Only Knew," "One in a Million," "Got to Give It Up," "4 Page Letter," "Hot Like Fire," and "The One I Gave My Heart To." The latter eventually peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the highest-charting single from the album. The remaining tracks saw varying degrees of success in both the U.S. and internationally — with "If Your Girl Only Knew" topping the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and "One in a Million" topping the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay.

THE LOOK

While her fashion remained a key piece of her overall creative narrative as an artist throughout her career, Aaliyah's style transcended in the One in a Million era. She elevated her aesthetic with the assistance of her stylist and costume designer Derek Lee. As his first project with her, Lee styled Aaliyah's "One In A Million" music video after the two had a chance encounter in Santa Monica, California, just days before shooting the video in Los Angeles.

"[Aaliyah's] look was already established in a certain sense, but I wanted to start a progression. Prior to One In A Million, [her look] was definitely younger, her look was her age. Now, when we get to One in a Million, it's still her age, but it shows a little bit more of a maturity as well," Lee told GRAMMY.com.

Much like her album cover shoot, which featured moody shades of black, concrete gray, merlot, and the grey-green paint of the subway platform, Aaliyah's One in a Million era was often framed around a dark styling narrative that reflected her favorite colors and fabrics, including her affection for leather pieces.

"It was easy to make black stuff look cool and hard and sexy at the same time. One of her favorite colors was black. She liked it. She felt comfortable in it. It was easy to feel,"  Lee said. "One thing with Aaliyah is that her biggest accessory was her swag. She sold confidence, and the color black just enhanced it."

Aaliyah opted for minimal outfit combos consisting of one to three pieces that were fuseless and easy and in no way distracted from her presence on stage or on camera: See her oversized leather-coat-and-pants combo she wore during an appearance on "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee," her looks on the her "One in a Million" and "4 Page Letter" music video, and the metallic boiler suit Lee hand-painted and airbrushed for her performance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

"She was so sweet and just regular, when you're sitting there with her and kicking it with her. But soon as she gets on stage, she's this persona, which is her, honestly. She turns up that swag so much that you don't really want anything to distract from it because it shined so bright," Lee said of Aaliyah's looks, which regularly played with proportions by pairing oversized pants with mid-drift-baring T-shirts, bra tops and crop tops. "That was always on purpose. Even though she was dressed cool, it wasn't so over­ the ­top where you weren't still paying attention to what she was doing."

Much like she held creative control over the album's sound, Aaliyah exercised full agency over her One in a Million style narrative. She refused to buckle to any perceived pressure regarding the sexed-up styling arcs often employed by labels, stylists and other industry entities looking to rebrand a late-teen music artist approaching young adulthood. She instead chose to let her style reflect her authentic self, offering an example for her younger listeners that even in their own lives, they didn't have to rush to meet any standard or expectation that misaligned with what they wanted to portray.

"When she was ready for something, she was ready for something and was sure. If she wasn't mentally ready for something, then we wouldn't do it. Because she never wanted to look like she was dressed by somebody. I never want anyone I dress to look like they're dressed by anybody," Lee said. "She trusted me when she saw that I understood that. It was almost an unspoken agreement between me, her and her mom.

"I was always protective of her and never wanted her to sexualize herself in a certain way and dress in a certain way until she was ready … She never did anything before the time. She never forced it."

THE LEGACY

For 17-year-old Aaliyah, One in a Million became a career-defining project that silenced any lingering questions regarding her industry viability and influence. It also allowed her to grow as an artistic leader as she voiced her expectations for the project to her roster of contributors, working with them to ideate and execute the album's musical and visual concepts.

"[Aaliyah] never really chased after anybody else's style or chased what was going on at the moment," Lee said. "She knew her lane, wanted people around her that understood that lane, and wanted those people to accentuate her in that lane and leave the rest up to her … Her leadership was consistent. She was someone that had conviction and had a vision. I thank God for that because it made my job a lot easier knowing someone's vision, instead of having to guess what their vision was."

"I hope [listeners] appreciate the songbird that she is, the writer that she is, the singer that she is, and the vocal choices that she's made in this project," album producer King added. "I hope people really embrace and lean into her vocal abilities on this record. It really has set a precedent for a lot of singers in the game."

Released in the U.S. 25 years ago to the day, One in a Million continues its legacy in 2021. This month (Aug. 20), the album was released on streaming services after being largely absent on the digital market for over a decade, allowing music fans worldwide easier access to the album that has served as an inspiration for countless artists in the decades since its release. The rerelease comes days before the 20th anniversary of Aaliyah's death and the 25th anniversary of One in a Million.

But beyond its commercial impact and influence on pop culture, One in a Million, and its true wonder, will forever rest in what the album represented for Aaliyah personally as she stepped into her late teens and flexed her creative voice with reposeful fervor and unwavering certainty.

One in a Million marked Aaliyah's new beginning. And 25 years later, the project remains a symbol of her self-awareness and artistic sureness as she plotted the next steps in her journey from breakout star to an established music industry force who's confident in her sound, her self-image, and the creative story she wanted to tell.

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Artwork for For The Record episode on Beyoncé's '4'

Beyoncé

Photo: Kevin Winter/American Idol 2011/Getty Images

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For The Record: The Creative Rebirth Of Beyoncé On '4'

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For the 100th episode of our For The Record series, GRAMMY.com takes you inside Beyoncé's GRAMMY-winning, platinum-selling 2011 album, '4,' an ode to the classics that ignited a personal and creative rebirth for the singer and launched a new chapter
Bianca Gracie
GRAMMYs
Jun 27, 2021 - 4:27 pm

Just before the 2010s, streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora picked up where Napster rose and fell in the late '90s, driving the music industry toward a singles-driven market. Beyoncé's 4 album showed she was clearly not having it. In her 2013 HBO documentary, Life Is But A Dream, she targeted the then-burgeoning trend.

"It's a tough time for the music industry. I'm an artist that tours, I'm an artist that makes albums," she explained in an exasperated tone. "People don't make albums anymore, they just try to sell a bunch of quick singles and they burn out and they put out a new one. People don't even listen to a body of work anymore."

Before hip-hop dominated streaming in 2017, EDM and pop wore listeners out on sticky dance floors. Everyone wanted a piece of the mainstream radio pie, with songs like Usher's "OMG," Lady Gaga's "Poker Face," Rihanna's "Only Girl (In The World)," Jay-Z's and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind," and the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" ruling Billboard's Top 40 chart before and during the new decade.

But rewind just a few years before the release of Beyoncé's 4, a time when she, too, was caught up in the same sonic whirlwind she seemingly resented. In 2008, Queen Bey was at the height of her career thanks to her mammoth third solo album I Am...Sasha Fierce.

The Creative Rebirth Of Beyoncé On '4'

She scored five GRAMMY wins at the 52nd GRAMMY Awards in 2010, including Song Of The Year for "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)"), becoming the first woman artist to win six GRAMMYs in one night. "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," "Halo," "If I Were A Boy," and "Sweet Dreams" were inescapable Top 10 singles. Beyoncé later doubled down on her mainstream presence by collaborating twice with Lady Gaga: "Video Phone" off Sasha Fierce and "Telephone" off Gaga's The Fame Monster. Bey's growing trendiness led to I Am... World Tour, her biggest and highest-grossing international trek at the time.

"After the last tour I was a bit overwhelmed and overworked," she explained in her 2011 Year of 4 documentary. "My mother was the person that preached to me and almost harassed me every day after I was doing the last world tour: 'You really need to live your life and open your eyes. You don't want to wake up with no memories and never really being able to see the world.'"

After the tour, Beyoncé announced a year-long hiatus to catch up on sleep and rethink her life's purpose. Her worldwide exploration of places like the Great Wall of China, the Egyptian pyramids and the Red Sea gave her insight, grounded her as a human, and eventually inspired 4, whose special title signifies the date of her marriage to Jay-Z, both their birthdays and her mother's birthday.

Released in June 2011, 4 is a 12-track refocus of Beyoncé's artistry on which she disregarded making music solely for mainstream appeal. The album's heightened maturity is reflective of three life changes. Two months prior to the album's release, the artist mutually severed management ties with her father Mathew Knowles, who'd guided her career even before the birth of Destiny's Child in the '90s. Around that time, according to Jay-Z, she became pregnant with Blue Ivy Carter during a Paris trip for the album's cover shoot. And along with being a new mother, she would soon enter her 30s.

Needless to say, Beyoncé was already "Drunk In Love" before the ubiquitous 2013 hit won two GRAMMYs three years later. And what better way to celebrate romance than with R&B? But instead of modernizing the sound as she did on previous albums, the artist opted to highlight the genre's traditional roots.

4 is more stripped-down compared to the gloss of I Am...Sasha Fierce, the liveliness of B'Day, and the contemporary radio-friendliness of Dangerously in Love. Instead, 4 is an ode to the classics. "Love On Top" resurrects the vibrancy of '80s R&B, a time when all-stars like the Jackson 5 and Whitney Houston upheld the heart of Motown's past. The song's retro appeal continues in its music video, with Beyoncé going full New Edition via boy band choreography.

Read: Inside The Visual World Of Beyoncé And Black Is King, Her "Love Letter" To Black Men

Nostalgia proved to be a winning formula: "Love On Top" won the GRAMMY for Best Traditional R&B Performance at the 55th GRAMMY Awards in 2013. The album then heads to '60s Philadelphia soul on "Rather Die Young," where Beyoncé uses the melodrama she picked up from her film roles in Dreamgirls and Cadillac Records to fuel the impassioned vocals and lyrics: "You're my James Dean / You make me feel like I'm 17," she whispers in the first chorus.

"Run The World (Girls)," the lead single off 4, was a total red herring. The female empowerment anthem, which samples Major Lazer's "Pon De Floor," doesn't indicate the album's time travel. (Diplo later pops in to co-produce "End of Time," a wildly addictive tribute to Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti).

The unapologetic mushiness of 4 is balanced by uptempos that remind you just why Beyoncé is a superstar. "Best Thing I Never Had," an unofficial sequel to the singer's 2006 GRAMMY-nominated anthem "Irreplaceable," finds her classily kicking a no-good man to the curb while trading Ne-Yo's pen for Babyface. The effervescent "Countdown" is wholly dedicated to her longtime boo, Jay-Z. Sampling Boyz II Men's 1991 hit "Uhh Ahh," the brass-heavy single shows off her signature rap-singing style first debuted with Destiny's Child: "Still love the way he talk, still love the way I sing / Still love the way he rock them black diamonds in that chain."

The '90s pop up on "Party," the laid-back groove dripping in "swagu" thanks to Kanye West's co-writing and co-producing credits. The album's version features Outkast's too-smooth André 3000, while the video features a then-rising J. Cole. 4 then heads back to the '80s for the bonus track "Schoolin' Life." Here, Beyoncé channels Prince as her playful vocals weave between an irresistibly funkified melody.

What makes 4 special is Beyoncé's vocal growth. There's the grit of "I Care," whose rawness cuts deep—"You see these tears falling down to my ears / I swear, you like when I'm in pain"—as she scats alongside the electric guitar solo; the infectious opening run on "Countdown"; the tenderness of "I Miss You," influenced by co-writer Frank Ocean; the emotionally unguarded "1+1," which riffs off Sam Cooke's 1960 classic "Wonderful World"; and the jaw-dropping four-key change on "Love on Top."

"Strong enough to bear the children / Then get back to business," Beyoncé affirms on "Run The World (Girls)." It's the motto of the 4 era: The album is the artist's lowest-selling LP to date, but just as she reassures in Life Is But A Dream, that was never the point. She helped revitalize the album's art form while proving that women can balance their careers and motherhood, all while taking major risks. After parting ways with her father, Beyoncé founded Parkwood Entertainment, a Columbia Records imprint and management company, which helped bring 4 to life.

Of course, this is Beyoncé, so the accolades were still impressive: The platinum-selling 4 continued her hot streak of debuting atop the Billboard 200 chart. And along with "Love On Top" winning a GRAMMY, album single "Party" earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 54th GRAMMY Awards in 2012.

The album's vulnerability led to the world-stopping, industry-shifting surprise drop of Beyoncé in 2013 and the gripping Lemonade in 2016, both revealing more layers of heartache, overt sexuality, postpartum depression, socio-political injustices, feminism, trauma, infidelity, and forgiveness.

That continued intimacy worked in her favor tenfold: At the 2021 GRAMMY Awards show, Beyoncé made GRAMMY history when she became the performing artist with the most career GRAMMY wins with a total of 28, as well as the most nominated woman artist, counting 79 GRAMMY nominations overall. It all goes back to taking a chance on herself with 4, which further shaped a legacy that now matches the same legends she honored on this very album.

"There is room on this Earth for many queens. I have an authentic, God-given talent, drive and longevity that will always separate me from everyone else," she told Complex in 2011. "I've been fortunate to accomplish things that the younger generation of queens dream of accomplishing. I have no desire for anyone else's throne. I am very comfortable in the throne I've been building for the past 15 years."

Black Sounds Beautiful: How Beyoncé Has Empowered The Black Community Across Her Music And Art

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Artwork for For The Record episode on Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' At 50

Marvin Gaye

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For The Record: Inside Marvin Gaye's Revolutionary 'What's Going On' At 50

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Born from the singer's personal loss and the tragedy that descended on the Black community at the dawn of the '70s, Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' is the iconic singer's era-defining, eye-opening magnum opus; GRAMMY.com explores the making of the classic
Scott T. Sterling
GRAMMYs
May 21, 2021 - 2:04 pm

By 1970, Black America was in turmoil. In April 1968, civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was brutally assassinated in Tennessee. Edwin Pratt was shot to death in the doorway of his Seattle home in January 1969. Black Panther revolutionary Fred Hampton was killed by police gunfire, while sleeping after being drugged, in Chicago in December 1969. In March 1970, Tammi Terrell, Marvin Gaye's longtime singing partner, succumbed to brain cancer.

For Gaye, this string of events became part of the recipe for a heartbreaking masterpiece to come: What's Going On, Gaye's 11th studio album, released May 21, 1971. Widely considered his magnum opus, regularly ranked as one of the best albums of all time, and inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 1998, What's Going On was born from both the singer's personal loss and the tragedy that descended on the Black community at the dawn of the 1970s, compounded by the thousands of young men returning home to America from the Vietnam War. Among them: Gaye's brother, Frankie. That same year, the singer broke a self-imposed three-year media blackout to talk about the tumult that went into the creation of the pivotal album.

Inside Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' At 50

"I was terribly disillusioned with a lot of things in life and life in general, and decided to take time out to try to do something about it," Gaye told Disc and Music Echo (via the Guardian) by telephone from his home in Detroit. "I spent the three years writing, producing and reflecting. Reflecting upon life and upon America especially – because that's where I live – its injustices, its evils and its goods. Not that I'm a radical – I think of myself as a very middle-of-the-road sort of person with a good sense of judgment. I think if I had to choose another profession I'd like to be a judge because I'm very capable of determining what's right and what's not."

"What's Going On," the album's flashpoint, came to be when songwriter and Four Tops member Obie Benson was inspired to start writing after witnessing Bloody Thursday at People's Park in Berkeley, California, while on tour in 1969.

"They had the Haight-Ashbury then, all the kids up there with the long hair and everything," he told MOJO (via American Songwriter). "The police was beating on the kids, but they wasn't bothering anybody. I saw this, and started wondering what was going on. 'What is happening here?' One question leads to another. 'Why are they sending kids so far away from their families overseas?' And so on."

Read More: Marvin Gaye 'Let's Get It On' | For The Record

Benson, who co-wrote the song with fellow Motown songwriter Al Cleveland and, later, Gaye himself, took "What's Going On" to the Four Tops and Joan Baez. After both artists turned down the tune, Benson and Cleveland shared the song with Gaye, who was adamant that the track was ideal to launch a new vocal group, the Originals. Benson ultimately made Gaye an offer he couldn't refuse: "I finally put it to him like this: 'I'll give you a percentage of the tune if you sing it, but if you do it on anybody else you can't have none of it.'"

With Gaye throwing himself into the producer role for the record, Benson marveled at how the singer made "What's Going On" his own.

"He definitely put the finishing touches on it," Benson said. "He added lyrics, and he added some spice to the melody. He added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem more like a story than a song. He made it visual. He absorbed himself to the extent that when you heard the song you could see the people and feel the hurt and pain. We measured him for the suit, and he tailored it."

Example: The iconic saxophone melody at the start of the song happened while saxophonist Eli Fontaine was getting ready to play. Fontaine was just warming up; suddenly, Gaye stopped the tape player and thanked him for his work. When the instrumentalist informed the singer that he was simply goofing around, Gaye responded, "Well, you goof exquisitely." He had captured exactly what he needed.

"I feel very good about it. I wasn't sure what would happen to it," Gaye, describing the finished song, told Disc and Music Echo in 1971. "But I don't feel good for myself – I didn't have much to do with the song; I feel it all came from God. He drew me into it."

The singer was similarly pragmatic in regards to What's Going On as a whole. "I musn't get into ego tripping, because I didn't have much to do with it," Gaye insisted. "But I'm only human and when you get a lot of pats on the back for something it makes you go on trips. I was only the instrument in the album – all the inspiration came from God himself. It's one that should be listened to. The material is social commentary but there's nothing extreme on it. I did it not only to help humanity but to help me as well, and I think it has. It's given me a certain amount of peace."

Legendary record executive and Motown president Berry Gordy, on the other hand, hated "What's Going On," calling it, "the worst thing I ever heard in my life." According to Gordy himself, though, the truth isn't quite as dramatic. "I was in the Bahamas trying to relax," he remembered in the 2016 Motown documentary, Marvin, What's Going On? "He called and said, 'Look, I've got these songs.' When he told me they were protest songs, I said, 'Marvin, why do you want to ruin your career?'"

"I was extremely happy that I released [e] because it was the biggest record at that time," Gordy told TMZ in 2016. "But Marvin was so determined, and such a beautiful person was Marvin. And he fought everything that he thought was injustice and he wanted to speak about—he had a brother in Vietnam—and he convinced me that we should try it. But I didn't think it was going to work."

Released as the album's lead single in January 1971, "What's Going On" was an instant hit; it captured the country's mood while moving more than 10,000 copies in just the first week in record stores. The song made a steady ascension up the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 2 over the week of April 10, 1971. The song that blocked Marvin Gaye from the No. 1 spot? The Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)."

Released in June 1971, the album's second single "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," a similarly laid-back yet topical cut, rode up the Hot 100 chart, reaching No. 4 on Aug. 20, 1971. The top tune in America that week: Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart." Like "What's Going On," "Mercy Mercy Me" peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart; it was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 2002.

"Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," the third and final single off What's Going On, proved to be another Top 10 hit in the American mainstream, climbing to No. 9 over the week of Nov. 6, 1971. (Cher had the No. 1 song at the time with "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves.") That same week, "Inner City Blues" was the No. 1 song on the Billboard R&B chart, marking a perfect hat trick for Gaye. At the 14th GRAMMY Awards held in 1972, the song received a GRAMMY nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male.

With What's Going On, Marvin Gaye made a massive, and potentially devastating, shift in his artistic direction. But as he puts it, he simply had nothing left to lose.

"There seemed to be nothing else to do," he admitted to Disc and Music Echo. "My life, destiny and fate weren't pointing in any direction, so I thought maybe that would bring it all together a little more."

Fifty years after the release of What's Going On, it's clear Gaye's risk paid off. Its impact has left an indelible mark on Black music and culture. "After What's Going On," Rolling Stone writes, "Black musicians at Motown and elsewhere felt a new freedom to push the musical and political boundaries of their art." Elsewhere, John Legend described the album as "the voice of Black America speaking out that we couldn't always smile on cue for you."

Born out of the social unrest that defined America five decades ago, What's Going On remains a pillar of Black music and the soundtrack to the social revolution.

Black Gold At 50: How Nina Simone Refracted The Black Experience Through Reinterpreted Songs

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Janet Jackson

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For The Record: The Transformational Public Heartache Of Janet Jackson's 'All For You' At 20

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Janet Jackson's GRAMMY-winning seventh album, 'All For You,' released two decades ago this year, was a healing session that solidified her as an unshakeable icon
Bianca Gracie
GRAMMYs
May 2, 2021 - 3:37 pm

After years of turmoil, Janet Jackson entered the Y2K era as a free woman. The artwork of her 2001 album, All For You, says it all: Lounging on a bed, a white blanket covering her nude curves, she flashes her famous, million-watt smile. It's a stark contrast to the cover of her 1997 album, The Velvet Rope, in which her face is lowered and nearly covered by ginger curls.

The introspective The Velvet Rope digs into Jackson's depression caused by an emotional breakdown. Long regarded as her magnum opus, the album embraces the LBGTQ+ community, addresses domestic violence and serves as a raw therapy session where Jackson lets the curtain of the "Strong Black Woman" trope fall.

In her 2017 essay, "The Mule of the World: The Strong Black Woman and the Woes of Being 'Independent,'" Cailyn Petrona Stewartee discusses how Black women have historically been forced to mask their true selves behind armor.

"The Black woman is represented to be either too mad or too strong, her presence is constructed as one that is always hyper-visible leaving no room for acknowledgment of her organic human complexity and nuance," Stewart writes. "And if survival is attained, pieces of the Black woman's sanity and humanity have been lost along the journey."

Of course, Jackson had taken breaks in between albums before. But the four-year-long journey that led to All For You, her seventh album, found her picking up those shattered pieces and relearning herself again. What was behind that beaming smile on the cover? Her glow-up after finalizing her divorce from René Elizondo Jr.

For The Record: Janet Jackson's 'All For You' @ 20

Elizondo Jr. was a backup dancer for Jackson's older sister, LaToya. He later became Janet's creative partner—he directed some of her music videos, including "That's the Way Love Goes" and "Together Again"—and one of the main songwriters on The Velvet Rope.

Theirs was a nine-year secret marriage—Jackson even lied about it during a 1997 "Oprah" interview—that was only revealed following the divorce announcement. Things soon turned messy, as Elizondo Jr., who initiated the breakup in 2000, later sued Jackson for $10 million over property rights.

Once the ink dried on the divorce papers, Jackson lifted her head up high and doubled down on her newfound singledom on All For You.

"I'm no longer married. I hope it doesn't sound bad to say that was the inspiration. But because I'm in a different space, it's like I'm being introduced to a whole new world that I've never experienced before," she explained in an album promo video. "I feel really good, and the album was a lot of fun to make. My life has changed a great deal, and that's why there's a new, freer me."

Compared to Velvet Rope, All For You trades dark vulnerability for a delicate intimacy as she takes back her power as a woman and uses happiness as her revenge. Jackson goes the opposite route of pop's post-Y2K futurism that artists like Britney Spears, *NSYNC, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez were exploring at the time. Instead, she and her longtime producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, traveled back to the '70s and '80s to revive funk, disco, dance and rock.

That joyride is near-tangible on All For You's title track, which is pure sunshine captured in a song. Sampling Italian-American ensemble Change's 1980 single, "The Glow of Love," the song's vibrant production and signature Janet winks—"Got a nice package alright/Guess I'm gonna have to ride it tonight"—were a winning combination: Her fifth No. 1 hit, "All For You" won a GRAMMY for Best Dance Recording at the 44th GRAMMY Awards, held in 2002.

Jackson's free spirit continued with "Come On Get Up," an extension of her early-'80s dance-pop eras. Rockwilder, best known for his work with Method Man and Redman in the '90s, co-produced the song, along with four other tracks, marking the first time Jackson sought out new collaborators since 1986's Control. "Someone To Call My Lover," which also received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and "Doesn't Really Matter" also exude happiness. The former samples America's 1972 song, "Ventura Highway," as Jackson sweetly dreams about her next beau; the latter, a single off the 2000 soundtrack to the Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, in which Jackson also starred, is a sparkling ode to unconditional love.

Read: The Bodyguard Soundtrack: 25 Years After Whitney Houston's Masterpiece

But this wouldn't be a Janet Jackson album without a hefty dose of sex. While "When We Oooo" continues the feminine sensuality from 1993's janet., it's the one-two punch of "Love Scene (Ooh Baby)" and "Would You Mind" that really augments the erotica. "Would You Mind" finds the singer yearning to "Kiss you, suck you, taste you, ride you" as the rain comes down and she literally moans into the listener's ear. (Jackson later reignited the freaky adventure on 2004's Damita Jo via "Warmth" and "Moist," two songs even more explicit than their predecessors, in which Jackson further details the pleasures of giving and receiving oral sex.)

On the flipside of pleasure is pain, and Jackson's $10 million lawsuit is still top of mind. "Trust A Try" finds the singer raging about feeling betrayed atop a headbanging fusion of opera, rap and hard rock. On the Five Stairsteps-interpolating "Truth," she makes note of her sold-out tours and radio hits while feeling a bit bitter: "How much is enough to pay for this mistake?" she sings. She calls on Carly Simon for "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)," which interpolates Simon's 1972 classic, "You're So Vain." Jackson has every right to be angry, and she fearlessly taunts her ex-husband on the refrain: "Thought you'd get the money, too/Greedy motherf*****s try to have their cake and eat it, too."

"There are times when it feels like it just happened yesterday, and there's a bit of a sting. But I have to move on. I have to keep going. I can't let it stress me out, stop me from reaching my goals. I'm just glad that I'm in the state of mind that I'm in," Jackson told VIBE of the divorce in 2001. On the album's closer, "Better Days," she makes it a priority to live for herself without restraints: "Leavin' old s*** behind/And move on with my life/The blindfold's off my eyes/And now all I see for me is better days."

Jackson stuck to that promise to "leavin' old s*** behind" following All For You. The double-platinum album continued her No. 1 hot streak, debuting atop the Billboard 200 in May 2001, and earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. That same year, at age 35, MTV crowned her their first MTV Icon. The moment broke more ageist stereotypes, as seen with Tina Turner's 1984 Private Dancer comeback in her mid-'40s followed by Beyoncé, who most recently scored the most GRAMMY wins as a female artist at age 39.

Since All For You, Jackson has released four albums, survived a misogynistic Super Bowl catastrophe, became a mom in 2017, scored more acting roles, and received the Billboard Icon Award and the MTV EMA Global Icon Award, both in 2018. The singer could've let the divorce circus derail her, but All For You proved she couldn't be confined by a man nor her music. Along with celebrating the beauty of Black women's multifaceted nature, the album showed they could maneuver through pop and R&B with ease.

It's a feat that has continued with Black millennial artists like Rihanna, whose Rated R and Loud mimics Jackson's Velvet Rope and All For You transition, Ciara, Dawn Richard, Solange, Doja Cat, Tinashe and Kelela. Since All For You, women have shattered genre boundaries, dominated the charts and revealed their most vulnerable selves. We have Janet Jackson to thank for first inviting us into her world.

Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814: For The Record

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