*Jodeci is back on the road. The R&B group is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its No. 1 debut album, “Forever My Lady,” with a 35-city U.S. tour. Tickets are available now at JODECI35.com.
The tour opened Wednesday, Nov. 4, in St. Louis, hitting up major cities including Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and New Orleans. For the group, the run is about more than one album. It’s a tribute to the music, the fans, the legacy and the culture Jodeci has helped shape since 1991.
“Forever My Lady” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart in its first week. Its title track also went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and Tracks chart. A new black 2LP vinyl reissue marks the anniversary. It adds five bonus tracks, including a previously unreleased a cappella take on “Stay.”
K-Ci and Mr. Dalvin spoke with EURweb about the milestone, the tour, and the legacy behind it.
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Looking back on 1991, K-Ci said seeing their debut album top the charts felt like a dream come true. “It was like unbelievable. But, you know, it was no questions about it, like God is good,” he said. “Our dream was coming true and, you know, we had fans… It was just a happy moment for us. Our world had just changed like that. So it was lovely.”
Mr. Dalvin admitted the group started with much simpler goals.
“You dream about these things and you do them, but you never know what to really expect,” he said. “We just wanted to get girls and get some cars, but we didn’t have no idea that the world would embrace us like it did. We were confident that we had something great and something magical, but I don’t think you can ever prepare for… the outcome for Jodeci in the beginning.”
Three and a half decades later, the joy is still there for K-Ci, but the job has changed.
“Back then it was more fun. It was real fun. You know, we was real anxious,” he explained. “We didn’t know it was going to be this much work. We thought it was gonna be like, okay, we got a hit… now we’re gonna have fun. But nah, baby, it’s work. It was fun back then, now it’s work… but we thank God for it.”
Mr. Dalvin said the songs carry more weight with each passing year.
“You kind of mature with the music,” he said. “Singing the same songs over and over and you toggle people’s emotions and see how emotionally they connected with something that you created. It kind of matures you in a way… a little faster. So you gotta understand your responsibilities as an artist now, because people are actually using your song as a soundtrack to their lives.”
Some fans even tell the group they started families to its music. “Because you have people like, ‘I have my kids off of Jodeci’… So you start really realizing your responsibility,” Mr. Dalvin said. “I have a responsibility to these people. It can’t just be pickup lines. It’s like a soundtrack to their lives.”
K-Ci joked that the debut was made for flirting. “The whole album is like a pickup line. ‘Come and Talk to Me,'” he said.
So what can fans expect on this tour? K-Ci said the group goes all in every time.
“Everything we do, we put 110 into it,” he said. “A lot of songs, that wasn’t singles, is going to be on there… We’re doing other stuff too, like the second album, the third album. We’re putting it all. We’re celebrating the 35 years of Jodeci being together making music as well.”
Those later eras are packed with hits. “Diary of a Mad Band” (1993) gave the group its second No. 1 album and the chart-topping single “Cry for You.” “The Show, The After Party, The Hotel” (1995) followed as the group’s third No. 1 album, with “Freek’n You” and “Love U 4 Life.”
Mr. Dalvin said fans will hear several songs live for the first time.
“We’re doing a lot of songs we’ve never performed before,” he said. “So it is a mixture of the celebration of… the time and the nostalgia of where you were when you first heard ‘Come and Talk to Me’ and ‘Stay’… or ‘Cry for You.’ So we’re just trying to give people those memories and bring back the time in your life… You always know where you were when you heard a particular song.”
With three No. 1 albums to pull from, Mr. Dalvin said building the set list is a balancing act.
“I see comments and fans, like, ‘Do this song, do that song,’ and we can’t do every song,” he said. “So we try to put something that makes sense that will take you on this journey… We might not do your favorite song… It is what it is. We try to give you the best experience that we can as far as the set list and the music.”
He compared the process to cutting a film. “It’s kind of like editing a movie. You know, you might have to take out one of the scenes to make the movie work, but it still works,” he said. “There’s no two Jodeci shows alike… The songs might change, but the show is going to change every single night.”
Mr. Dalvin also explained where the reissue’s a cappella bonus track came from. The group recorded many versions of its songs over the years.
“To be honest, all of our songs have a lot of unreleased versions of them. Like, you know, K-Ci got different vocals. I mean, there’s different verses on even ‘Forever My Lady,'” he said.
When asked to name favorites, Mr. Dalvin gave two answers.
“My favorite song to perform is ‘Freek’n You’ because it’s fun, and my favorite Jodeci song, I think it’s ‘Cry for You,'” he said. “I don’t know why… because I’m not a sappy person. I’m not a crier. But I think just the structure of the song and… the melody. That’s probably my favorite Jodeci song.”
K-Ci picked the song that launched them.
“It’s a couple that really got us out there, that really got us known, and it’s going to be, of course, the baby of them all, ‘Forever My Lady,'” he said. He also named “Love U 4 Life” and “Get On Up.” “Everything we did, like I said, we put a hundred in on them. So I just appreciate everything.”
Mr. Dalvin added that the music hits harder on stage. “Everything’s more amplified when we do it live,” he said. “Do different arrangements and add a little… It’s different live.”
The tour ends with two hometown shows in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday, Dec. 19, and Sunday, Dec. 20. Saturday’s show has already sold out.
“It just means a lot. We’re going to be home, our family, our close friends. Everybody that was in our corner from home is going to be there,” K-Ci said. “It’s just going to be nice. One big celebration. And it’s the holiday season. We get to spend the holidays at home with our families.”
For Mr. Dalvin, the timing is a gift. “I haven’t had a chance to spend Christmas with my family in a long time,” he said. “So this will be a chance I get to… spend Christmas with my family.”
Jodeci has sold more than 20 million records worldwide and collected Soul Train Awards and Billboard Music Awards along the way. Both members said they hear the group’s influence in today’s R&B.
“I hear a lot of Jodeci in all of them,” K-Ci said. “Something like the way they produce their vocals, some vocal arrangement, chord changes and stuff. I hear that. And the image too as well, you know, the little street vibe… 35 years and other groups been listening to us. It’s an honor.”
Mr. Dalvin believes Jodeci changed the game. “The whole schematics of R&B changed once Jodeci came out, and it became the standard of even the image, like K-Ci said, and the vocal production, the arrangements,” he said.
He added a word of caution for younger artists. “I hear a lot of nuances that, you know, could be flattering, sometimes be annoying, but you know it’s cool as long as they understand where it came from,” he said. “I respect all artists, but when you take something… just don’t try to claim something that don’t belong to you.”
As the tour heads toward December, K-Ci already knows how he wants it to end. “When it all wraps up in December, I want to be like, ‘Job well done,'” he said.
Mr. Dalvin wants fans to know the fire is still there after 35 years.
“I want people to understand, like, you know, even after this time, we still are passionate about what we do, and it comes through every performance,” he said. “I still get butterflies… I still get nervous and I still get the butterflies and anxiety until we hit that stage, and there’s a whole different animal. It’s not like, ‘Oh, boy, I don’t feel like doing it.’ I get excited.”
Watch EURweb’s full interview with K-Ci and Mr. Dalvin below.
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