Thursday, March 5, 2009

Who is K-Ci & JoJo?

Who is K-Ci & JoJo? They are an American R&B duo, consisting of brothers Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey (born September 2, 1969) and Joel "JoJo" Hailey (born June 10, 1971). Natives of Wingate, North Carolina, they were also members of the chart-topping R&B group Jodeci with the DeGrate brothers—Donald (better known as DeVante Swing) and Dalvin.

When they were children, K-Ci and JoJo grew up singing in a Pentecostal church, (Church of God in Christ). As teenagers, they met Donald DeGrate, Jr.

(DeVante Swing) and Dalvin DeGrate

(Mr. Dalvin). All four members openly talked about performing in a group.
When DeVante was 16, he journeyed to Minneapolis to join Prince's organization, but he was turned down. He then asked K-Ci and JoJo to join him in New York to shop demo tapes around featuring his production skills and their singing. Dalvin decided to tag along at the last minute. Soon thereafter, Heavy D

got his hands on a tape and passed it on to Uptown Records CEO Andre Harrell,

who made arrangements to sign the group, who called themselves Jodeci.
Sean "Puffy" Combs

was credited for creating the group's gritty, hard-edged looks, and for helping develop the group's new jack swing-styled

sound for their debut album Forever My Lady.

Watch more Yahoo! Music videos on AOL Video

K-Ci and JoJo had a notable career with Jodeci, topping the R&B singles charts with such songs as "Stay",

Watch more YouTube videos on AOL Video

"Come & Talk To Me",

Watch more Yahoo! Music videos on AOL Video

and "Cry for You".

Watch more Dailymotion videos on AOL Video

In 1992, DeVante

formed the Swing Mob,

a group of artists, songwriters, and producers that took part in their later albums. Jodeci

released three albums, but in 1996 the group went on an indefinite hiatus (the group never formally split up). Jodeci is credited with starting the musical careers of Missy Elliott,

Timbaland,

and Ginuwine.

K-Ci and JoJo's first sign of independence came in 1994 when K-Ci covered Bobby Womack's

hit "If You Think You're Lonely Now"

for the movie Jason's Lyric.

Early in 1996, K-Ci and JoJo teamed up for the song "How Could You" for the movie Bulletproof

starring Damon Wayans

and Adam Sandler.

By July 1996, K-Ci and JoJo finally had a hit on their hands as guest artists in 2Pac's number-one R&B hit "How Do U Want It".

It also topped the Billboard Hot 100. The brothers made their side projects into a full album, Love Always. Released on June 17, 1997, the album spawned two top-ten R&B hits: "You Bring Me Up"

Watch more Love Always videos on AOL Video

(Pop #26) and "Last Night's Letter"

Watch more Love Always videos on AOL Video

(Pop #46). The minor success of those singles, however, paled in comparison to the success of the album's third single, "All My Life"

Watch more Love Always videos on AOL Video

(which was dedicated to JoJo's daughter). A supple, lush ballad far removed from the Jodeci material of the early 1990s like "How Could You"

Watch more Love Always videos on AOL Video

, "All My Life" was the number-one song on the Hot 100 for three weeks, a feat that K-Ci and JoJo had never achieved with Jodeci. Future singles and albums would be crafted in the vein of "All My Life", which was the duo's only number-one hit.

Love Always went on to sell four million copies, and the success of the album put Jodeci's reunion on hold indefinitely.
Their second album. It's Real. was released on June 22, 1999. It spawned one major hit "Tell Me It's Real"

Watch more It"s Real videos on AOL Video

which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard's R&B charts. The "Club Asylum Steppers" remix of Tell Me It's Real has proven extremely popular within the UK Garage scene.

K-Ci and JoJo returned with X on December 5, 2000. "X", the Roman numeral for ten, was picked as the album title to celebrate the Haileys' tenth anniversary in the music business. They made a strong return to the Billboard Hot 100 early in 2001 with the song "Crazy",

also included on the Save the Last Dance

soundtrack. "Crazy"

Watch more X videos on AOL Video

peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

The fourth K-Ci and JoJo album, Emotional, was released on November 26, 2002, but did not find commercial success. K-Ci and JoJo released a greatest hits album on February 8, 2005.
In late 2006 K-Ci

released his debut solo album entitled My Book. He released single the single

"I apologize" it received some radio play but was not a block buster hit.

Watch more YouTube videos on AOL Video

In 2008, they released their fifth album called Love which was released in Japan only on February 6. The album will be released in the United States later in the year.
They are currently back in the studio with the DeGrate brothers DeVante Swing

and *Mr. Dalvin

and are recording a new Jodeci album to be released in the first quarter of 2009.

A reunion was organized, and K-Ci and JoJo were the only members of the group in appearance. The performance itself was interrupted when JoJo fell unconscious during the performance. Due to a 22 hour flight to Sydney, Australia and the subsequent on stage appearance only 5 hours after the flight, JoJo was believed to be dizzy before and during his performance. JoJo has been diagnosed in January 2008 as being epileptic. After medical staff attended to him after the show patrons were advised that JoJo had an epileptic seizure. Venue staff reportedly advised that JoJo had also passed out 15 minutes into the show then for the second time 49 minutes into the show.