K97.5 Featured Video
CLOSE

HipHopNC.com and K97.5 is happy to announce a few more performing artist’s for Women’s Empowerment 2010!

BBD (Bell, Biv, DeVoe)

Bell Biv DeVoe is a splinter group of New Edition that consisted of three previous members, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe. Bell Biv DeVoe began to take shape in the late 1980s, but not until completing the tour in support of Heart Break did the threesome decide to make the break from New Edition official. At the suggestion of producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, they chose to chart their own course. Bell Biv Devoe’s debut album Poison has a variety of producers, including Dr. Freeze and Spyderman, Wolf & Epic (Richard Wolf & Bret “Epic” Mazur), Guy’s Timmy Gatling, and Public Enemy’s Hank Shocklee and Keith Shocklee. As a result, Bell Biv DeVoe’s first album “Poison” has a larger new jack swing composition as compared to New Edition releases. BBD was a pioneering group that was the first to successfully combine hip-hop with R&B & pop. The CD was released in 1990, and its title track became a #1 hit on the R&B chart. The singles that followed were “Do Me!”, “B.B.D. (I Thought It Was Me)?”, “When Will I See You Smile Again”, and “Dope!” (the latter was retitled “She’s Dope!” upon release due to the rising drug abuse among children). Poison sold over three million copies. The remix album WBBD-Bootcity! The Remixes, with the Wolf & Epic produced “Word To The Mutha!” as accompanying single, was released the next year and was certified gold. Bell Biv Devoe sold in excess of 4 million albums, prompting performances on the 1990 American Music Awards and other such ceremonies.

Monica

Monica Denise Arnold (born October 24, 1980), professionally known as Monica, is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and occasional actress. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Arnold was a member of Charles Thompson and the Majestics, a traveling 12-piece gospel choir prior to signing a solo recording contract with Arista Records in 1995. Guided by Rowdy head Dallas Austin and proteges’ Tim & Bob, she came to prominence following her debut album Miss Thang (1995), which produced four singles and made her the youngest recording act to ever have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart.[2][3]

Following a major success with “The Boy Is Mine”, a duet with singer Brandy, and a same-titled second album in 1998, a series of hit records, established her position as one of the most successful of the new breed of urban R&B female vocalists to emerge in the mid-to late 1990s. However, Arnold’s popularity began to decline at the turn of the century, during which time she dealt with more personal tribulations including the suicide of her boyfriend, a tumultuous relationship with former fiancé Corey “C-Murder” Miller and the delay of her heavily-bootlegged third album, All Eyez on Me (2002).[4] In 2003, Monica eventually released her fourth album After the Storm, and after an unsuccessful period, she scored her sixth number-one hit, “So Gone”. After giving birth to her first child, Rodney Ramone Hill III, in May 2005, and another short hiatus, Monica released her fifth studio album, The Makings of Me in October 2006. While maintaining a recording career Arnold has also gained fame for appearing in several film and television productions, including supporting roles in big screen motion pictures Boys and Girls (2000) and ATL (2006) and a starring role in the MTV Films telefilm Love Song (2000). In 2009, she produced the BET series Monica: Still Standing which followed the recording of her same-titled sixth studio album.