112, once known as "The Gentlemen of Bad Boy" is an all male quartet from Atlanta, GA composed of Quinnes Dammond Parker aka Q, Marvin E. Scandrick III aka Slim, Michael Marcel Keith aka Mike, and Daron Tavaris Jones.
These four fine, talented, young men have had a love for music all their life and have known each other throughout elementary and middle school
and it was while attending Walter F. George High School that they decided to start a singing group called 'Forte'.
They started off by performing at talent shows and singing together at church.
By performing at these talent shows, they gained the attention of their present managers, Courtney Sills and Kevin Wales who introduced them to Sean "Puffy" Combs at a local Atlanta club, Club 112, thus where they got their name.
Soon they found themselves in New York studios recording their debut album.In the summer of 1996, 112 released their first single "Only You" which blew up the charts,
then was followed up by the remix which featured MA$E (his debut) and the Notorious B.I.G. which was also a hit (and is still one of my favorite songs)
and blazed the charts. '112', their self-titled debut album was later released in late 1996 which blew up and reached gold status (and is currently multi-platinum). Other singles that were released from that album were "Come See Me," and "Cupid" which also turned out to be hits
and had tremendous amounts of radio play. Soon they were hitting the road and performing at various places. They were requested by Ron Isley to be the Isley Brother's opening act. After that, the group began touring across the country with Keith Sweat,
New Edition and Puff Daddy and the Family for a year and a half.
Their second album titled, 'ROOM 112'
(which inspired the title of this website) came out early November 1998. If you liked their first album which exhibited pure soul, R&B, gospel, and hip-hop, you'll love their sophomore album, 'ROOM 112' (a phrase started by label-mate, the late Notorious B.I.G.).
This album ranges from slow, love ballads to songs that just wanna make you dance -- a whole variety of what 112 has to offer. What makes this album more personal than the previous is that 112 has written and produced almost half the album themselves.
Not to mention that they also had help from The Hitmen, Dallas Austin, and Diane Warren (who wrote "Your Letter," one of my favorite tracks on the CD)."We write from the heart" says Mike, "and that means writing about our experiences. It makes for the best songs. Obviously now we've experienced more. We're wiser, better and stronger from the first time around and that's reflected in our music."
"I think when a group can write and produce their own music it makes it more real," says the quartet's main producer, Daron. "If you look at the greats like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, they wrote and produced their own music and that's why it turned out the way it did. We wanted to try and get the same musical unity."
The first single to drop was "Love Me" featuring MA$E which samples an old Luther Vandross song.
The second single to hit the air waves was "Anywhere" featuring Lil' Zane (his debut), a rather different style of 112 from which we've all been used to hearing but which also brought up the sales of 'ROOM 112.'
Other artists featured on their sophomore album are: Lil' Kim, Faith Evans, MJG and of course Puff Daddy (doing a few background vocals). Other singles which followed were: "Your Letter" and "Love You Like I Did". This album is a must-buy for all you R&B listeners out there.
(more...)