UB Anniversary ReVisit: The Silk Reunion Interview

Over the next few months, we’ll be spotlighting features from our e-zines from the last 25 years. T M H Entertainment, T M Hxone and Urban Bridgez.

As the longest running website for R&B online, since 1999 – We’ve been able to conduct some amazing interviews with R&B Royalty, as well Hip Hop Legends.

Today is the 25th Anniversary of Silk‘s third album “Tonight,” originally released March 23rd, 1999. We celebrate that release, as well there last album release “Quiet Storm.”

UB spoke to Silk about the release of their 2016 reunion album.

When Silk takes the stage, the five-man R&B harmony group makes it a mission to electrify the crowd with their dynamic vocal abilities and thrilling stage presence-an all too rare commodity on the contemporary R&B scene.

Always on their A-game, Silk is a constant reminder of just how thrilling a male R&B vocal group can be, in a musical style perfected by a number of great talents ranging from The Temptations to Boyz II Men.

Silk got together as teenagers in 1989 in Atlanta and before long their talents caught the eye of legendary singer/songwriter Keith Sweat and Andrea Ryans.

The group was originally a quintet made up of Timzo Cameron, Jimmy Gates, Jr., Gary “Big G” Glenn, Johnathen “John John” Rasboro, & Tyga Graham who was replaced by Gary “Lil G” Jenkins before they recorded their debut album.

Keith Sweat signed Silk, becoming their mentor. By 1992 their classic line-up of Gary “Big G” Glenn, Gary “Li’l G” Jenkins, Timothy “Timzo” Cameron, Jimmy Gates, Jr., and Jonathan “John John” Rasboro had solidified and Silk scored their first hit with “Happy Days,” followed by their platinum #1 R&B smash “Freak Me” in 1993.

Other staple tracks from the double-platinum debut album included, the title cut “Lose Control” and “Girl U For Me.”

With the release of their gold sophomore self-titled release, “Hooked On You” led as the lead single, but it was “I Can Go Deep” from the soundtrack of “A Low Down Dirty Shame” that was the highlight.

In 1999, they released their platinum third album release “Tonight.”

Production for “Tonight” was handled by Darrell ” Delite” Allamby, Kenny “Kenny Flay” Dickerson, Steve Morales, Maurice Wilcher, John Howcott, and Donald Parks.

“We took some time to regroup after the last album,” stated Lil G at the time to Billboard. “We felt like we needed to go back to the mind frame we had on our first record. When our second album [1995’s “Silk “] came out, the public may not have been ready for the change in our approach, even though the album did go gold.”

Lil G stated with “Tonight” the group, “Went back to the more sexual, sensual kind of entity our fans want from us. We looked at the content of our first album, which gave us an idea of what people wanted from us, and we added a new edge to it. The songs on this album, like ‘Check Your Friend’ and `Please Don’t Go,’ have more reality [to them]. Even though we’re known for our sexual and sensual themes, we want to show people that there are different aspects to us beyond the “Freak Me.”

The albums lead single “If You (Lovin’ Me),” was an instant hit with Silk fans. The follow-up, “Meeting In My Bedroom” was a masterpiece penned by Darrell “Delite” Allamby, that reassured Silk had a lane of their own.

In 2003, down to a quartet, Silk released their fifth album “Silktime,” on their own label Silk Music Group. The album featured the songs “Silktime”, “My Girl”, and “Check My Story” and a cover version of Blue Magic‘s “Sideshow“. That song reunited them with their mentor Keith Sweat.

By 2006, the group returned with their sixth release, a cover album entitled “Always And Forever” on Shanachie Records. The album featured covers of R&B songs including “Adore” by Prince, “Always and Forever” by Heatwave, and “Secret Garden” by Quincy Jones.

Silk released their last album in 2016, “Quiet Storm,” was their long-awaited first release in a decade. Featuring the singles “Only Takes One” and “Baby Maker.”

In 2018, the group Silk was spotlighted on TV One‘s highly rated series “Unsung.”

For the “Quiet Storm” release, Aries from UB spoke to Silk about their return, their opinion of Day 26‘s ‘Lose Control‘ cover, best advice from Keith Sweat and more.

UrbanBridgez.com: Who did you guys work with on the album?
Silk (Jimmy): We worked with a guy from the Hit Squad J-Dub, Darrell Delite who did Meeting in My Bedroom and other classic Silk songs. Wirlie Morris, Marcus “Daheatmizer” Devine and Anwar Phillips.

Silk (John-John): It’s definitely a well rounded Silk classic sensual album. We’re looking forward to giving it to you guys.

UrbanBridgez.com: Love the album, takes me back to Lose Control.
Silk: Thank you!
Silk (Jimmy): That’s good news!

UrbanBridgez.com: “Baby Maker” is hot and definitely has a Prince vibe to it, was that the intention?
Silk (Timzo): Everybody says that. It kind of was not on purpose, but I know when I listen to it from a personal standpoint I kind of thought it too. We’ve had various people say that to us that have heard the record. A Prince vibe, but with a Silk twist to it. It’s always a good thing to be mentioned in the same sentence as Prince. He’s just phenomenal as an artist, writer and musician.

UrbanBridgez.com: What made you guys want to return now?
Silk (John-John): Well we’re still here, 22 years in the game. We’re still together with all original 5 members. So we wanted to do another record and said let’s do it! We all felt strongly about it, so we put our all into it.

Silk (Jimmy): Doing it independent was great. We got to take our time and not be pressured to putting it out sooner than we were ready. This is our first major/independent record that’s being released on Silk Entertainment/Shanachie Entertainment. We had a chance to do it our way and we’re happy with the ending results.

UrbanBridgez.com: Day 26 remade Lose Control and if you ask me did a hell of a job, what did you guys think of the cover?
Silk (John-John): I heard it and think they did a really good job!

Silk (Timzo): We’re actually cool with those guys and see each other off and on. We had to get a chance to run into one of the members in L.A. at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles. I mean I took it upon myself to make sure that I expressed to him that we really liked their rendition of Lose Control. He said it was a song they all love and they were kind of inspired by that one so they wanted to record it.

Silk (Jimmy): It’s an honor man, to be held and looked at in that light, to the point that somebody wants to re-do your song. That’s just all around positive. I actually love that record.

UrbanBridgez.com: Take us back to the Lose Control project, what were your goals as a group then and have you achieved them?
Silk (Jimmy): Personally I think we just love to sing. We always wanted to sing and be famous. When you first get in the industry, that’s one of your main goals is to be famous. We always wanted to get awards and that type of thing. It was just one of our passions to sing like we had made it to hopefully get those accolades. That’s pretty much how it is today still, we’re striving for those awards and we have the same passion and pride that we’ve always had all those years ago. We just hope everybody loves the music we’re doing now as they did the music in the past.

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s the best advice Keith Sweat ever gave you guys?
Silk (Timzo): A lot of stuff, but the main one was to stick to what we do and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When we would be in the studio recording, he would always tell us if you can’t perform it live on stage, don’t record it. So we’ve always stuck to that when it’s came to our recording and getting on stage doing it live.

UrbanBridgez.com: What else can fans expect from you guys this year?
Silk (John-John): We’re gearing up for tours and what not for the summer. We’re currently in strong negotiations with some other R&B artists to put together some summer tours. We’re just really going to be out working the record and making sure everybody is aware of it. Just aware that we’re back and just pushing everything forward man. We’ve been gone a good while now and we got a lot of ground that we want to cover. We’re excite that people are loving the new single and video. So we’re just going to jump back in head first and keep it moving.

Silk (Jimmy): We also have an Unplugged performance album with a band that we’re recording. Something that is long overdue that we’ve been wanting to do for years now. We finally got to the point of actually putting it together.

Silk (John-John): The live record will have about 5 songs from the new album and like 3 from previous ones. Just raw and uncut.

Silk (Timzo): We’re shooting it in Atlanta and will have people from our social media’s come out and be apart of it. We can’t wait.

UrbanBridgez.com: Anything else you want to leave with your fans?
Silk (Jimmy): Yeah we want the fans to know how they can reach us on social media @thegroupsilk.

ReVisit Silks “Tonight” + “Quiet Storm”