If you’ve been keen, notice that apart from the deceased, the most of the rest have been keeping their music active and sticking to R&B, with some having released successful albums recently. Toni Braxton, Tamia, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Kelly Price, Syleena Johnson, Sparkle, Aaliyah, Brandy, Faith Evans, Monica, are some of the queens of the time. Kelly and Babyface were some of the exceptional masterminds of the 90s music movement (in terms of discovering artists and penning chart-topping hits). It’s no wonder Brian Mcknight was scolded for singing the song “How Your Pussy Works” in 2012 while the macho-fueled new R&B kid on the block, Miguel was flagged off for singing “Pussy Is Mine”. It’s the guts with which the singers sang out every single word they wrote, and the bravado in which they delivered it. Only in the 90s were lyrics like: I wanna sex you up and I wanna freak you, were accepted, and bizarrely not considered as sexist or disrespectful. Most music groups pressed the sex-music agenda, and we adored it and sang along.

Music of the 90s simultaneously pushed hip hop and R&B genres, as opposed to this day when only pop and some kind of hip pop rules. Now only Boyz II Men, New Edition, Kci & Jojo and Mint Condition have maintained keeping their spirit alive, displayed by recent releases/tours and concerts. You can’t describe old school R&B, without those lost yet big names of the yester years, who together with myriad solo artists defined the 90s era as the decade of baby-making music. I don’t want to listen to an SWV album, sounding like the then SWV, but a new vibe still stamped with their signature. I don’t want to listen to a Sisqo album but Dru Hill. Some of them are desperately trying to make a comeback, mostly through one or two members off the now-defunct groups. You must get nostalgic while listening to songs by lost groups: Shai, Jodeci, 112, Xcape, Jagged Edge, Color Me Badd, Silk, LSG, Milestone, Blackstreet, En Vogue, Brownstone, Next, Total and many others. To stop fussing over what happened to the R&B music groups of the 90s, take a minute and listen to the album Three Kings by Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tyrese (TGT).

Tyrese new album 2014