UB Black Music Month Spotlight: Michael Jackson’s Brownstone

Brownstone, which originally consisted of Nicci (Nichole Gilbert-Daniels), Maxee (Charmayne Maxwell) and Mimi (Monica Doby), who left in the summer of 1995. Kina (Kina Cosper), Nicci‘s friend from college replaced her.

They were in their early 20s, when they auditioned for Michael Jackson at his Los Angeles studio and were subsequently signed to a record deal with his label MJJ.

Nicci is from Detroit, while Kina is from New Orleans and the late Maxee was born and raised in Guyana. Which easily explains why no other girl group, had a sound and harmony like Brownstone.

Brownstone wrote its songs with a great deal of emphasis on melody and harmony. “Sometimes, we literally sit together in a circle and write,” Nicci told Billboard in 1994. “We’ll get tracks from producers and we come up with melodies. Maxee comes up with smooth sounds and Mimi writes a lot of lyrics based on her poetry. I do a combination of both. There’s not a song on the album about anything we haven’t experienced.”

With rich, soulful harmonies and powerhouse, emotion-filled vocals as their stock in trade, Brownstone emerged in 1995 as one of the decade’s premiere new female groups.

The trio’s debut album, “From The Bottom Up,” is platinum plus and was elevated by the #2 R&B/Top 10 Pop gold single, “If You Love Me,” and its #6 R&B follow-up, “Grapevyne.”

“If You Love Me” went gold and was the most played song on R&B radio in 1995. Coming ahead of TLC‘s “Creep,” Montel Jordan‘s “This is How We Do It” and Adina Howard‘s “Freak Like Me.”

As “If You Love Me” climbed the Pop and R&B charts, Brownstone were invited to join Boyz II Men on a sold-out US tour in the spring of ’95. The group also performed on shows with Anita Baker, Patti LaBelle, Maze, and Blackstreet, and made major television appearances on “The Soul Train Music Awards, The Lady of Soul Awards, and BET’s Video Soul. “If You Love Me” received a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and earned a Billboard Music Award.

The album features without a doubt, the best remake of the Eagles classic “I Can’t Tell You Why.” You wanna hear some real sangin.’

“We weren’t expecting the kind of response we got when the first album came out,” Maxee stated at the time. “Naturally, we hoped it would be successful, and we were very happy and thankful when everything started to take off.”

The group began working on “Still Climbing” in the middle of 1996. Nicci produced a timely revival of the Alicia Meyers ’80s favorite “If You Play Your Cards Right” — in all, eight of the “Still Climbing” twelve tracks were written or co-written by the groups members.

A near-perfect blend of hip r&b grooves and tender ballads, the album showcases the musical artistry which characterized Brownstone from the beginning. The spotlight falls strongly on the trio’s peerless vocal skills, from the power vocal first single, “5 Miles To Empty.”

Gordon Chambers contributed once again on “Still Climbing” which flows from the straight-up lyrical approach of tunes like “Revenge,” one co-written by Maxee and Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman and produced by Soulshock & Karlin and sensual “Kiss And Tell,” one co-written by Nicci, to the soul-drenched slow jams “Around You“, which was written and produced by Robin Thicke.

“We didn’t have a particular game plan for this album,” stated Kina, “We had producers and songwriters submit material, then we chose songs that we all felt we could relate to.”

That was the last Brownstone album. In 2005 Nicci Gilbert released a solo album entitled “Grown Folks Music.”

In 2015, Maxee passed away from an accidental fall in her home. UB spoke to Maxee in 2008 and one of the things we got to tell her was how much we love “I Can’t Tell You Why.” “Aww thank you so much! It was actually the President of the labels idea to do it.” Maxee continued,” We knew we wanted to do a cover of something. Then he came in and was like do “I Can’t Tell You Why” by the Eagles. So we tested it out and decided that we wanted to go with it for the album.”

At that time, while Maxee was promoting her solo release “Useless.” However she told us she was headed to Atlanta in a few weeks, to start on the next Brownstone project.

Last year UB spoke with Nicci Gilbert-Daniels and asked her to share her best memory of Maxee, “Wow, so, so, so many. I think my fondest memory that covers the full gamut of our relationship. Is her laugh. Me, Maxee and Teisha would laugh until we literally were in tears.” Nicci went on to say, “Especially Maxee and I thank god that I just hear and see her laughing. To the point of tears, I see her face, I hear her voice. God left me with that and I’m so grateful for it.”

As the CEO of NoEgo Entertainment, Nicci created TV One’s most popular docu-franchise, R&B Divas that spawned two franchises and seven seasons and the popular BET Her series, From the Bottom Up.

Brownstone is coming back soon, Nicci has announced with Arin Jackson and Teisha Lott. We’re Ready!

Take A Trip Down Memory Lane with Brownstone!

The UB Interview: Nicci Gilbert Talks New Brownstone, R&B Divas and Lawsuits