UB Celebrates 25th Anniversary of ‘Rated NEXT’

Our own Minneapolis, Minnesota, R&B collective NEXT, is comprised of Robert “R.L.” Huggar and biological brothers, Terry “T-Low” & “Tweet” (Prince Raphael Shawan) Brown.

T-Low and Tweet‘s choir director uncle first introduced the two to R.L., which eventually led to time spent being managed and trained by T-Low‘s Godmother, legendary Ann Nesby.

Anyone who knows their story has heard of their 1994 performance at Minneapolis‘ noted Juneteenth celebration, where they made the acquaintance of Prof T and Lance of the group Lo-Key?. “They saw us,” Tweet once recalled, “and we started working with them and put a few songs on tape. Shortly after that, we went to a Naughty By Nature concert, we spoke to one of the road managers, and he asked us for a tape.”

Though they were advised not to give the music away, they took a chance, and with God’s blessings everything worked out. Within weeks, they were in New Jersey meeting with Naughty By Nature producer Kay Gee, who immediately expressed interest in signing the talented, streetwise trio to his Divine Mill label imprint. In short: Paying dues singing at the Minneapolis Sabathani Community Center and Arnelia’s in St. Paul, paid off for R.L., Tweet and T-Low.

The name of the group originally was “Straight 4 Ward,” they would later change their name to NEXT.

Kay Gee ultimately brought the fellas to the attention of industry impresario, Clive Davis, who immediately inked the group to his Arista imprint.

The fellas were off to a great start also being managed by Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit Management. On their debut album “Rated Next,” released 25 years ago today on September 30th, 1997. The trio collaborated with Naughty By Nature, Adina Howard, and Koffee Brown.

The push for “Rated Next” began with the success of the act’s first single, “Butta Love,” that sold more than 1 million units in it’s first few months of release. The album went double platinum!

“”Phone Sex” was the second song we ever recorded as a group, and “Sexitude” was recorded early on in our careers,” stated T-low to Billboard.”

“Butta Love” was [cut] during a growth period where we were getting involved with new people. You can hear the difference in the freedom we were feeling.”

The albums second single was the massive successful triple platinum “Too Close.” The album also featured the hit single “I Still Love You,” another gold single which featured a fire remix with late great Big Pun.

The group spent their time on the road promoting “Rated Next” opening for Usher and Mary J. Blige. NEXT being the “it” R&B male group at the time and RL being the talented writer he is, led to a duet with them on Destiny’s Child‘s highly anticipated sophomore release “The Writing’s on the Wall” on the track “If You Leave.”

NEXT was Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Artist of the year in 1998.

Take A Trip Down Memory Lane with “Rated NEXT!”