foreign
tet as yet formed in Philadelphia in 1989 initially as a Duo consisting of Dion Allen
and Sean Rivera as time went on the group would not only grow in numbers but undergo endless
lineup changes before things finally got off the ground Dion honed his singing skills in church and
school choirs while Sean a first generation Puerto Rican born in the mainland us and who didn't start
taking music seriously until halfway through High School joined the choir to get closer to a girl
and ended up finding his voice after landing a lead solo they stumbled upon Kenny Terry and
brought him into the group after meeting him in the hotel he was working at after overhearing
him sing in a washroom his love for music came from his mother who also sang as well as his
school choir where he learned music theory and established a lot of his vocal experience Claude
Thomas Ali Hyman Damon core and DeSean Benson also joined bringing the total number of members
to seven that number number would soon decrease to 5 when Ali and Damon ended up leaving early
on after working hard over several years to get the attention of labels the group scored big when
their demo fell into the hands of Jacqueline macquam the Los angeles-based businesswoman
was so impressed by the guys that she signed a deal with them to act as their manager this
move would lead to even bigger and better things since Jacqueline's son-in-law just happened to be
Kenneth Babyface Edmonds Babyface heard the guys sing and liked what he heard enough to sign them
to his laface records label and he also had them open his concert with after seven and El Debarge
then throughout the process of getting management and being signed both Claude and DeSean exited
the Grove that left the door open for fellow Philly native Daryl Anthony Hobbs Babyface and
the laface team had the group add one more member solo artist Mark Nelson who had actually been an
original member of Boyz II Men prior to their first release to round out the group's lineup
and serve as a second lead vocalist Once Upon a Time Mark attended the same Philadelphia High
School as Nathan Morris they became best friends and got the idea to put together a group called
Boys to Men along the journey to secure a record deal Mark says he was instrumental in getting the
guys backstage at a New Edition concert they snuck into where they met and sang for Michael
Bivens one thing led to another and the group minus Mark eventually signed on to be managed
and produced by Michael behind the scenes Mark as well as the rest of the group was
already signed to local management the others were able to get out of that deal in order to
sign with Michael since they were minors 17 and under unfortunately Mark who was 18 at the time
and considered an adult couldn't get out of the deal as easily so he ended up getting left out
with the five members finally solidified as yet released their self-titled debut album
in 1996 on lafaye's records the first single last night went on to become a
platinum hit reaching number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the r
b chart it also appeared on the soundtrack to the 1996 comedy film The Nutty Professor
fun fact the music video that had the guys looking like they were performing in front
of a bunch of Windows 95 screensavers was actually very expensive to make
the group's second single hard to say I'm sorry a cover of rock band Chicago's number one hit
was nominated for a Grammy award for best r b performance by a duo or group of vocals reach
number eight on the Hot 100 and just like their debut single achieved Platinum Status following
the group's debut album they went through a period of roster changes once again first Mark
left the group for a solo career and was replaced by Tony Grant with this lineup the group recorded
another Chicago hit You're the Inspiration with their lead vocalist and bassist Peter
Cetera Tony would leave in 2001 to pursue a career in theater and focus on solo music he
was replaced with Ladon Bishop the group was said to have then been dropped by laface and
later reformed with only one original member Daryl he was joined by Ladon and new members
Chris Gilder and Dante Harper they released an EP in 2004 titled that bu this version of
as yet left the scene in two thousand 7 only to resurface the very next year with original
members Dion Sean Kenny Tony and Mark can you guess what happened next yup more changes
Mark and Tony were out of there pretty quickly and a blast from the past Claude came back on
board Mark returned some years later making the group of five son again a few years after that
Sean became the latest Dropout then finally in 2016 whatever version of as yet was around
at the time dropped their official second album titled she's magic the following year when Mark
was asked by r b junkieofficial.com what was next for the group he revealed that he wanted
to do more with the guys but the same reasons that it took so long for them to reunite still existed
and as a result he was moving on he's admitted that for many years he felt a lot of pain shed
a lot of tears and considered the experience of missing out on what he could have been a part of
With Boys to Men to be very traumatizing a full circle moment did present itself in 2013 when he
got the opportunity to perform with Boys to Men during their Vegas residency when asked about why
he thinks as yet wasn't able to put out a second album after the tremendous success of their first
he told you know I got soul.com in 2011 that he believed it had a lot to do with their manager
being the Mother-in-law of Babyface he felt the relationship was a bit incestuous with Babyface
and LA Reid also being the CEO of the label they were assigned to according to Mark the group was
grateful for all she did for them as a manager but also felt that it wasn't enough to continue
to catapult them to further success in 2021 the newest lineup of as yet sat down for an
interview with halftime chat YouTube channel they believed was the loss of the Brotherhood between
the members that was the main reason for their lack of progress yet another group that Mark was a
part of for a very short time also brought its own set of issues he had to deal with Tony approached
him with the idea to create an r b supergroup with the lead singers from as yet Blackstreet
and silk called Blaze Mark had a publishing deal with Sony at the time so he went to them to ask
if they would fund the prime project they agreed and the guys got to work sadly everything fell
apart as he detailed in a follow-up 2020 interview with you know igotsoul.com a manager approached
the group and he took us to J Records and we were about to sign this dope deal and then one
of the members I won't even say who it is just killed the whole thing for us it was ridiculous
it's just one of those things groups different personalities he definitely messed that up for us
for many years now Marx continuously mentioned a book he's been working on that he says will
reveal all about what really happened with Boyz II Men as yet and Blaze but as of the
making of this video it hasn't come to pass he's also made a great career out of writing
for other artists like John B Tyrese Toni Braxton Tamiya and Brandy just to name a few
and release three solo albums in response to as yet's interview with halftime chat
in early 2021 original member Sean Rivera did his own interview on the channel just
a few months later to tell his side of the story which involves spilling a lot of tea
according to him Mark didn't leave on his own accord he was voted out they weren't really
drawn by lafays they were paid to leave in a sense because the label was on the verge
of being absorbed into another company he and he alone arranged and produced the acapella
version of hard to say I'm sorry for the group's debut album And as far as their issues trying
to get their second album off the ground go Sean agreed with what Mark had said in the past about
their management being the main factor in fact he revealed that some power players in the industry
told them that if they didn't switch management certain doors wouldn't open when asked why he left
as yet Sean disclosed some personal information that he'd never publicly revealed before Mark
allegedly brought a deal offer to the guys from a label they offered the group the opportunity
to re-record last night without Babyface and do a full album The Catch was that because of the way
the deal was structured the group would end up owing the label money the other members wanted
to take the offer but Sean said no he accepted their decision and told them whenever they were
ready to do another project together they could get in touch with him he didn't consider himself
not a part of the group anymore he was just not a part of this specific project however later
he found out that they re-registered the trademark to the group's name without Sean's name on it that
was the last straw to add insult to injury his royalties were held hostage by the other members
until he intervened to get what rightfully belonged to him today Sean is enjoying being
a member of a group again a Latin acapella group called vivamas so what happened to Daryl Anthony
Hawes well whatever you do don't ask the other members of as yet that question in the group's
interviews his name is never mentioned in fact they go out of their way to not mention him as
well as other former members a little research shows that as far as music goes he's stuck
to mainly writing arranging and producing over the years he also appears to have had
variety of sales and marketing positions up to the present day with several different
companies as yet's latest effort a single called kleptomaniac dropped in 2019 and features Dion
Claude Kenny and newest member Paris Smith as the latest iteration of the group two years
later Kenny decided it was finally time to take a step back from the group to focus on his own
solo Endeavors he insists though that he's still a member of as yet and always will be
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