User:XDPoet/sandbox

1983–1991: The Beginnings
Rooted in a strong religious Pentecostal family, and a minister as their mother, the Haileys, known then as “Little Cedric & the Hailey Singers” originally performed and recorded as a gospel group, releasing three albums ("Jesus Saves", "I’m Alright Now", and "God’s Blessings"). "Folks down South used to call K-Ci, the Michael Jackson of gospel". Separately, the DeGrates performed and toured in their own family's gospel group. The Haileys and the DeGrates made acquaintance through relationships the members were in at the time, and lived together before forming as a singing act.

At 16 years of age, group founder, DeVante Swing ran away from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, en route to Minneapolis, Minnesota's, Paisley Park Studio’s, to audition with the legendary musician, Prince. '' “I was up at Paisley Park every day begging for a job, asking people to listen to my tape. The receptionist kept saying she couldn’t help me". The rejection from Prince motivated DeVante; "...So I took my ass right back to Charlotte, N.C. I wrote a song about a girl I liked..."'' Upon arriving back to Charlotte, North Carolina, DeVante continued to record with the Hailey brothers, eventually forming Jodeci.

With only $300, the members drove to New York City with a 29 song, 3 tape demo, anticipating a signing deal with Uptown Records. Upon arriving to New York, and without the knowledge of the whereabouts of MCA's subsidiary Uptown Records, the group grabbed a phone book to find the company’s address, located on Clinton Street in Brooklyn. DeVante later recalled, "We didn't have an appointment, I didn't even know who Andre Harrell was, but I knew what Uptown was, and I wanted us to be there." They entered the company, initially being denied an audience until Uptown Records CEO, Andre Harrell, was summoned in to hear the demo. In skepticism of the high quality production, Harrell requested the group to perform. Jeff Redd recalls, ''“We went to the office that they were in, and Andre asked them to sing again. When they did, we were all blown away." Mr. Dalvin remembered, "We sung ‘Come and Talk to Me’ and ‘I’m Still Waiting’ to him live." Hip hop artist and record producer Heavy D overheard the performance and consulted Harrell. Dalvin reminisced, "The next thing we knew he was taking us out to dinner and he signed us to a deal that same day. It was pretty cool.”''

Jodeci was assigned to Uptown’s, then intern, Sean "Puffy" Combs, who took on the task of developing the new act. Counteracting the refined style of acts like Milli Vanilli and Boyz II Men, Sean Combs developed the group's “Bad Boy” image by perpetuating the hip-hop fashion (baseball caps and Timberland boots) the group is known for. Harrell told Combs, "Dress Jodeci the same way you dress in the office." The group was introduced by singing background vocals for rapper Father MC, on the song Treat Them Like They Want to Be Treated. Jodeci made their live performance debut on the June 11, 1991 episode of Soul Train.