[Music] foreign
Waco Texas a place known for a lot of different things the birthplace of Dr Pepper home of the
Texas Sports Hall of Fame as well as sadly one of the most tragic incidents in American religious
history Mastermind by a maniacal cult leader something the city is definitely not known for is
producing musical Superstars but it happened when R B group high five came on the scene the group
formed in 1989 consisted of original members Tony Thompson Jr Roderick Pooh Clark Marcus
Sanders Russell Neal and Oklahoma City Oklahoma native Toriano Easley Tony Pooh Marcus and Russell
all grew up together in Waco approximately 100 miles south of Dallas Tony's mother discovered
her little boy had some real talent after hearing him sing in church as a member of the youth choir
he also participated in local talent shows another older up-and-coming musician that Tony would run
into at these shows was William Walton little did Tony know how much of an integral role William
would play in helping to make his dreams come true later when William connected with a couple
of music managers out in New York Vincent Vinnie Bell and Robert Ford they told him that they were
trying to find a young kid who could sing and possibly be the next Michael Jackson of course
William knew just the kid who could easily fill those shoes the moment the managers heard Tony
sing they knew they'd found what they were looking for now with Tony as the focal point The Next Step
was finding some other youngsters to complete a groom Tony himself suggested his friend from
Oklahoma Toriano later three other neighborhood boys Russell Pooh and Marcus came on board thereby
completing the quintet The Playmates as they were now called secured a management deal with Vinnie
and Robert and they in turn secured the guys a deal with Jive Records before things could get
going though a name change was an order as it turned out Hugh Hefner owned the name Playmates
so that wasn't going to fly high five a Jester of Celebration that they often did with one another
seemed perfect then it was off to New York to meet with Superstar r b hip-hop and New Jack
Swing producer Teddy Riley high five burst under the music scene in 1990 with their debut track
I just can't handle it it shot all the way to number three on the r b hip-hop songs chart in
the group's unsung episode they told the story of how excited they all were to hear the song on the
radio for the first time while driving home from rehearsal everyone that is except Toriano he was
locked up while visiting his hometown of Oklahoma City he got into a physical altercation with a
person he was acquainted with according to Toriano in the midst of the scuffle which he believed to
be just a fist fight Toriano pulled out the firearm he'd been carrying to pass it off to
his friend and resume the role as he did that the guy he was fighting hit him and grabbed for the
peas the next thing they knew it went off hitting the guy in the stomach Toriano who was just 16 at
the time of the incident was charged with first degree murder he later pled guilty to manslaughter
and was sentenced to 10 years behind bars he would serve six and a half Victorian out of commission
high five wasn't going to work with four members so a search began for a replacement enter Bronx
High School student Tristan Irby High five's debut album dropped in September 1990. it included
the singles I just can't handle it I Can't Wait Another Minute and their number one pop and number
one r b hit I like the way the kissing game I Can't Wait Another Minute also became a number one
r b hint the group's second album keep it going on was released two years later even though it wasn't
as successful as their debut effort several tracks from the project including she's playing hard to
get and quality time did become top 5 r b hits with all the success the group is experiencing
it was no surprise that they started to feel themselves a little bit we're getting tired of
all the restrictions placed on them because of their age and wanted more freedom to them that
meant getting rid of Vinnie and Robert high five ended up giving their positions to their Road
manager their record label Jive would be the next people to feel the group's wrath the guys were
well aware of the number of records They were selling so they didn't understand where all the
money was going to grab the label's attention Russell came up with the idea that the group
shouldn't participate in the promotional tour the label had set up to advertise their latest album
until they were able to meet with the powers that be to go over the numbers the other members didn't
go for it but Russell stuck to his guns the result was Russell not being a part of the video shoot
for the album's lead single she's playing hard to get Eagle Eye fans will notice that in some of
the group shots there are only four people while in other dance shots the Strategic placement of
their choreographer makes it look like he is the fifth member alas yet another major catastrophe
was about to wreak havoc on hi-fi's Journey one day as the group was motoring down the road the
van they were in crashed and rolled over on top of another vehicle everyone was able to exit
the van except who he couldn't as he was unable to feel his legs later it was confirmed that he
was paralyzed from the chest down and would never walk again one thing Pooh could do was reach out
to Russell which he did asking him to come back to the group so they could carry on Russell honored
the request if Russell thought since the other guys welcomed him back in the fold that meant
that everything was kosher between them he needed to think again while in the process of working on
their next project high five was weighing their options with other labels as their tenure at Jive
was coming to an end ultimately they accepted a deal with giant records and in turn received
a hefty signing bonus of sixty thousand dollars a piece the other three members though felt that
Russell didn't deserve all of his share because of his previous absence after relaying their
plan to wrestle to hold back some of his money he decided to leave the group for good high five went
into recruitment mode again to bring the group from a trio back to a quintet with the addition
of Shannon Gill and Terence Murphy released in October 1993 and serving as the group's final
project required to move on from Jive high five emerged with their third album titled faithful it
featured the song's unconditional love and never should have let you go the latter of which would
end up as the group's last top 30 pop hit and top 10 r b hit the guys quickly realized though that
the great deal that they thought they had struck with giant wasn't turning out to be so in reality
the label really wanted to focus their energy on Tony and not high five eventually an agreement
was made to do a solo Tony Thompson album as well as a high five album with Tony's project coming
out first as Tony went into the studio to Begin work on his project the rest of the guys found
themselves just sitting around twiddling their thumbs when it was all said and done giant never
did end up releasing a high five album Tony though did release his is sexational drop in the summer
of 1995 and spawned two singles one of which the baby face penned I wanna love like that became
a top 20 r b hint that one Victory wouldn't be enough to keep the label happy though so they
dropped him in the group's unsung episode it was revealed that Tony had an addiction to cocaine
that no one knew about and the other members did their best to conceal it from everyone including
their record company his habit also caused him to mess up a deal he'd signed with Diddy's bad boy
label Tony would then disappear for a while but reappear again years later as part of high five
but not the high five everyone had come to know and love in 2005 he along with Terence Murphy
and three never seen before members created a new version using the old name and released an album
when the original members got wind of things they didn't get angry they got lawyers Russell Marcus
and trusten got a court injunction to stop sales of the album for improper use of the group's name
a couple of years later things had smoothed out between Tony Marcus and Tristan so much that they
began thinking of giving high five another goal they even got back in touch with Vinnie their
old manager to bring him back on board as well everyone was ready and excited for what they hoped
would be an epic comeback unfortunately it would never come to fruition on June 1st 2007 Tony's
body was discovered by security officers at around 10 o'clock at night near an air conditioning unit
outside of an apartment complex in Waco a Coroner's report later stated that he died
from inhaling a toxic amount of freon traces of methadone were also found in his system he was 31
years old four years later Tristan released his first solo effort a single called everything he
told you know I got soul.com he knew it was time to get back to making music again the day he woke
up in a hospital after getting shot five times two years prior the incident happened outside
in New Haven Connecticut nightclub and appeared to be a random act the very next year to honor
Tony's Last Wish to have the group continue their legacy Tristan Marcus and Shannon reformed high
five with two new members Andre ramsor also known as drewanda and Farooq Evans according to Marcus
they did approach the other former members to reunite as well Terence Murphy declined
instead opting to team up with Toriano easily on a project with high fives original managers that
same year high five released their first single in nearly two decades called favorite girl over
the years nothing much was heard from Russell when his name did begin to Trend again it would
be for all the wrong reasons on July 2nd 2014 the 40 year old walked into a County Sheriff's
Office in Houston to report that his wife 24 year old Catherine Martinez was deceased in their home
after authorities arrived on the scene it was discovered that she'd been stabbed numerous times
Catherine's family said that they immediately believed Russell was to blame since he'd been
physically abusive towards her throughout their relationship job police even say he confessed she
was also forced into the position of being the breadwinner for the family which included two
children because Russell was broke he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder he did bond
out at the time but two months later the bond was revoked after Russell told his bail bondsman that
he would no longer answer to his given name and prefers to be called his new name Jesus Christ
after one year of treatment at an inpatient Psychiatric Hospital the court found Russell
to be mentally ill and incompetent to stand trial prosecutors though refused to drop
the charges and Russell was ordered to continue treatment and have another competency evaluation
done at a later date in an unbelievable twist concerning the Neil family in 2009 Russell's
younger brother Ronald also took the life of his wife after years of abuse toward her the
tragedy also happened on the same day she filed for divorce Ronald was ultimately sentenced to
80 years in prison oddly all these years later there still doesn't appear to be a final verdict
on Russell's case high five finally fulfilled what they set out to do back in 2007 when they
dropped a brand new album appropriately titled Legacy in 2017. sadly on April 17 2022 former
member Roderick Pooh Clark passed away at the age of 49. according to a report from TMZ the
cause of death appears to be complications from an infection and pneumonia currently
high five consisting of members Marcus Tristan Shannon Farooq and newest member and farooq's
cousin Billy Covington continue to tour and Delight audiences with their hits that not
only made their indelible mark on the 90s r b scene but continue to be loved by fans today
[Music]