press
"Making Good on Badd's promise: Giant sets up CMB's sophomore album"
by David Nathan
Billboard
December 4, 1993
Following a triple-platinum debut album and three major hit singles is no easy feat for a new band. In considering the approach they would take to their all-important second outing, the four members of Giant Records act Color Me Badd opted to make an album with a markedly retro feel that they believed would showcase their vocal prowess and their burgeoning skills as producers and songwriters.
Cassandra Mills, president of black music at Giant, says "Color Me Badd knew exactly what they wanted to do for this album. We sat down and talked about the kind of record they wanted to make, and in terms of selecting producers and songs, they really did this themselves. We did want them to work with someone who we felt was close to the streets, so we brought in DJ Pooh. But it was their idea to work with David Foster, and they'd worked with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on the 'Mo' Money' soundtrack" Other producers on the album include Howie Tee, Geoffrey Williams, and Hamza Lee.
Group member Bryan Abrams notes that the four Oklahoma City natives had begun working on tracks prior to meeting with Giant executives about their second album. "Once they heard the tracks like "Trust Me" and "God Is Love" they got the direction we were going in. It's much more of an adult sound because we're growing, and it reflects the love we have for older music. We caught some flak for our first album because the pop people would ask why we did urban material, and the urban folks would ask why we did pop. Our interest is in just doing good music, writing good songs."
Both the album and the first single (the title cut) have received immediate response at radio and retail. Steve Backer, Giant's head of marketing, says the label "didn't want to overhype the record. Our approach was to capture a new audience while reclaiming the audience who bought the first album. Our set-up campaign has had a heavy emphasis on retail and press. We've been geared to taking the group back to the street, where the first album took off."
In addition to listening parties held at the beginning of October for key retailers and press, Giant did extensive sniping in 15 major markets nationwide two weeks before the album's Nov. 16 street date. Signaling what the label's Mills says is "a company-wide effort, in which we're working the group at pop and urban," the title track went to both formats Oct. 19. It has already entered Billboard's top 40.
For many programmers, the single is shaping up as a major hit. "It's doing fine for us," says Rick Stacy, PD at KKFR, a top 40/rhythm crossover station in Phoenix. "The group's drawing an older demographic in terms of appeal-the song's bringing in 25-to-34-year-olds. We're playing another track from the album, 'Choose,' as well."
Stacy says the single stands and excellent chance of doing as well, if not better, than Color Me Badd's breakthrough smash, "I Wanna Sex You Up," which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1991. "this song is testing much better," he says. "I was at a station in Atlanta when that song came out, and it wasn't testing well even though it sounded good on the radio. It was not the hit that this one is turning out to be."
A video for "Time and Chance," directed by Ice Cube, was serviced to MTV, BET, The Box, and local video outlets. Mills adds that the choice of Ice Cube "was very important. We didn't want the group to come across as too slick. We wanted to send a signal that Color Me Badd is very much a part of the street."
The new album gives the group an opportunity to display a diverse range of material. In addition to strong original material that includes several plaintive pop/R&B ballads and groove-driven cuts, Color Me Badd tackled Sly [and the Family] Stone's "Let Me Have It All" and two classics, "The Bells" (a Marvin Gaye composition that gave the Originals a 1970 hit) and "Wildflower" (first cut by Skylark in 1973).
"We went all the way with this album," says group member Sam Watters. "There was no in-between; we didn't make any artistic compromises. Our aim was to make an album that each of us could say we loved."
An emphasis on "live" instrumentation was a key factor in the album's production, adds Abrams.
Since Color Me Badd's initial success with the double-platinum single "I Wanna Sex You Up" and subsequent hits "I Adore Mi Amor" and "All 4 Love" was not confined to the U.S., the group began promotional work for "Time and Chance" overseas. "The group went to key markets in Europe and Asia in October to do television and press," says Giant's Backer. "Since we have a new relationship with BMG overseas, we also wanted the local staff in those markets to meet the group."
The label's Mills adds that "since we were able to break the first album worldwide, the group has a global base," so, following a Nov. 15 New York launch party for the album and a Nov. 18 appearance on the "Arsenio Hall Show," Color Me Badd headed to key international markets performance. Maintaining domestic visibility for the group while it travels globally, Giant has taken 30-second adds on MTV, BET, and The Box.
The band's virtually instant success still has some of the group's members reeling, says Abrams. "We didn't think it would happen the way it did. When we got the chance to be on the 'New Jack City' soundtrack (from which 'Sex You Up' originally was lifted as a single), we were just honored to be on the album with so many well-known artists. We had tried for a long time to think about what was happening around us." After the 1991 Club MTV tour, the group did a domestic stint with Paula Abdul in 1992, followed by overseas performances.
Work on "Time and Chance" began toward the end of 1992, and because of their creative involvement in the project, group members feel a natural concern for the new album's success. "Everyone tells you about the sophomore jinx," says Watters. "The pressure's been there, but we know we worked real hard on this record."
Adds Abrams, "This album is a big jump musically from the first album but this time, it's completely us."