UB Soul Friday: Celebrating ‘The Boys’ 35th Anniversary
Their Sophomore Album Turns 35 This Year!
This weeks “UB Soul Friday” spotlight’s one of the most talented young artists of the 80s/90s, The Boys!
The Boys were literally born, to be entertainers!
This year the group will celebrate the 35th Anniversary of their sophomore self-titled album, featuring their #1 single “Crazy.”
“UB Soul Friday,” spotlighting artists, albums, singles and videos that left a mark in R&B and Soul music!
Showing tremendous promise and God-given talent, their parents, Jabari and Angela Abdulsamad, encouraged them to follow their dreams, telling them: “This is America, you can be anything you want.”
They started as the youthful, multifaced singing group, that consists of the four Abdul Samad brothers.
Khiry (born November 8, 1973), Tajh (born December 10, 1976), Hakim (born March 27, 1975), and Bilal Abdulsamad (born April 17, 1978), started singing in their hometown of Carson, CA, when Bilal was five and Khiry nine.
Originally, it was Khiry and Hakim, then Tajh and Bilal joined when they started entertaining in public for tips.
The Boys learned how to entertain from their grandmother.
The group’s manager, top casting agent Reuben Cannon, was not only impressed with their talent, but also with their overall persona as youthful entertainers. “In all my 18 years of discovering and casting new talent, I had never seen anything like The Boys,” stated Cannon to Billboard. “Most child entertainers are usually rather obnoxious because they perform so much, but not The Boys. They’re very secure about themselves and they enjoy being performing kids. It’s a rare combination to have all these qualities at such young ages.”
Khiry produced and managed young neighborhood groups for The Boys‘ own production company, Einstein Productions; Hakim was the family sound engineer, songwriter and choreographer. Also an actor who appeared in the classic “Ernest Goes to Camp“; Tajh also had an impressive list of TV commercial acting credits; and Bilai was the whiz kid singer/dancer who wanted to be President of the United States when he grew up.
After working for two years as weekend beach performers, The Boys made an appearance on the junior version of the “Star Search,” and recorded a demo tape, their parents shopped it around.
In only one week they had offers from three of the top record labels in the business.
The secret was as old as Motown itself. Just as Motown staffers once groomed the five brothers from Gary, Indiana, into the Pop phenomenon the Jackson 5.
The Jackson 5 served as The Boys’ spiritual mentors early in their career, “When we first started singing, people would always compare us to the Jackson 5. But nowadays, we’re usually compared to New Edition. And that’s cool—because we love it!” Khiry proudly stated to an industry trade.
Their father discussed the label offers with the boys and decided to go with MCA, where senior executive Jheryl Busby was extremely impressed by the act.
He signed the siblings and, as MCA bought Motown Records in 1988, took them to the “new” Motown upon becoming its president.
The Boys also made a split-second appearance in legendary Stevie Wonder’s music video for “Skeletons.”
The foursome worked in the studio with various producers, including L.A. Reid & Babyface, who wrote with Daryl Simmons and produce the Boys’ first hit, “Dial My Heart.”
“Dial My Heart,” rose quickly to #1 and soon households and classrooms everywhere were talking about The Boys.
We had The Boys book-covers (yes back then), of the debut album art covering our books.
They charmed America‘s heart with snappy routines and playful lyrics.
Late 1988 saw the release of the group’s debut Motown album, “Messages From The Boys,” which also included their second #1, “Lucky Charm,” also produced by L.A. & Babyface.
Such success brings benefits. “We got to see the world,” Khiry told Billboard. “We’re constantly traveling and we always meet new people. We get to see what’s out there…because if you don’t know what’s out there, then you won’t reach for anything.”
“Messages From The Boys,” was a great album from a group of kids. Outside of girls, the brothers also spoke on anti-drugs, and pro-education themes to their peers.
The album, at first met with a dismal response from the group, but eventually began to like it as well and it was certified platinum and peaked at #32 on the Billboard Top 200.
The success included a promotional jaunt to Europe, plus numerous guest appearances on television shows, ranging from “Soul Train” to “The Muppets.”
Hakim stated; “In France, we did a show called Champs Elysees. It was the first time we sang live. The show goes out to 30 million people. We did pretty good for some little boys singing live for the first time in front of 30 million people. In London, they’re kind of conservative. They don’t scream as much. But you could see them smiling and you could tell they were proud of us. When we went to the Salt-N-Pepa concert in London, people were stopping us and asking for our autograph because they had seen us that morning on television. I can’t wait to go back.”
A video collection was released for the first album, featuring all of the videos from the album; “Dial My Heart,” “Lucky Charm,” “A Little Romance,” and “Happy.”
During that time, The Boys also shot an unsold ABC pilot, for a series titled “The Boys.”
The Boys were featured in the pee-wee parody of Michael Jackson‘s “Bad” video, as depicted in, “Moonwalker.”
In early 1990, The Boys won the NAACP Image Award for Best R&B Album for “Messages From The Boys.”
In spring of 1990, 35 years ago, The Boys released the lead single from their sophomore album “Crazy.” From their self-titled album.
Motown’s belief in the band became even stronger. “Enough for us to produce just about everything on the second album,” stated Tajh, “except for one song, which was done by L.A. and Babyface.”
“Crazy” was another Billboard #1 on the R&B charts, and written by all four Abdulsamad brothers.
“Crazy” became their third R&B #1 in the fall of 1990, it was their last R&B #1 record.
The video helped propel the single to the top, the video spoofs popular videos; Janet Jackson‘s “Rhythm Nation,” Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller,” George Michael‘s “Faith,” Bobby Brown‘s “Every Little Step“, Madonna‘s “Vogue” and “Baby Don’t Forget My Number” by Milli Vanilli.
Pepsi featured “Crazy” in a commercial and Jabari established a 900 number that for $2.50 a minute, you could chat with the Abdulsamad brothers in “real time“, and it was very successful.
Jabari did this without interference or compensation to Motown because he kept all of the Boys’ ancillary rights.
That four-week course taught him to hold on to things like merchandising rights, etc. Motown wanted to get a manager for the group, citing Jabari and Angela‘s inexperience as a weakness, but the couple stuck to their guns and never relinquished their managerial reins on their brood.
The group soon began to want more creative rights over their music and they also wrote and produced the next single “Thing Called Love.”
The Boys recorded with legendary Earth, Wind & Fire on the single “Heritage.” EW&F taught the message of our heritage in the same tradition as our African ancestors.
Maurice White stated, the inclusion of The Boys on the record seemed appropriate “since they stand clear to inherit the music that we’ve done to this point. The song truly is about our family ties in music from Jazz and R&B, everything from EW&F to Fats Waller.”
That was followed by “Thanx 4 the Funk” dedicated the the soul pioneers who paved the way in soul and R&B. The final single from the album, was another album highlight “I Had A Dream,” featuring rapper/DJ D-Nice.
That album also featured their first cover, “Got to Be There” originally recorded by the legendary Michael Jackson and the highlight “Funny” featuring Shanice.
In 1992, Hakim began production work on their third and final Motown album, “The Saga Continues.”
Released in collaboration with his HAK Records, the album scored three singles, including the title track, “Doin’ It wit’ The B (Bilal)” and “Tonite.”
The album was a solid release, however no hits were garnered from the album. “You Got Me Cryin’” was dedicated to the late great MC Trouble, while the albums highlight single “Happiness” featured amazing vocals from label-mate and friend Shanice.
After the initial contract ran out in 1993, Motown awarded them with a new six-year deal. They accepted, then decided that they did not want to record for Motown anymore.
The label had failed to promote their album.
However, The group did produce for the label, working on the albums for Jason Weaver and Shanice, on her monster hit “I Love Your Smile.”
In 1993 they also returned to the small screen with a one-hour ABC-TV special, “The Boys,” created by Debbie Allen.
The plot found the brothers getting “adopted”, and included a performance by former Motown artist Thelma Houston.
In 1994, when they thought they would come out with another album as The Boys, they redirected their outlook on life, and moved to Gambia, West Africa.
From there they decided to create inspiration and spiritual music.
They were reborn as the Suns of Light, offering a blend of alternative hip-hop and traditional West African music known as mbalax, in albums such as “Mission” and “Millennium Music.”
The Boys are now men, and Suns.
The group is currently crowd founding for their reunion. Which would include new albums, and a reunion documentary.
Take A Trip Down Memory Lane With The Boys!
