Remember Them?

I remember way back when I was in middle school, there were two groups from Philly whose songs use to get me hype every time I heard them on the radio.  *starts singing* “Please don’t mindddd, how I pursueee. Don’t take it personal girl, that’s how thugs do” and “If you really wanna goooo, so long, don’t stayyy. If you really wanna take your love awayyy”. These songs come from the groups Philly’s Most Wanted and No Question.


Philly’s Most Wanted was composed of  Al Holly better known as “Boo-Bonic” and Joel Witherspoon better known as “Mr. Man.” These two grew up together and were friends since the age of 5. Since everyone around them was getting into trouble, they decided to pick up on something to do, and was inspired by Boo Bonic’s cousin who used to rap… which led them to begin rapping (Amanda Koger). In 2000, they signed with Atlantic Records and were a production of The Neptunes. They came onto the music scene with their single Cross the Border and shortly later with Please Don’t Mind (which were produced by Pharell and The Neptunes).  I know for me whenever I hear these songs, I still get hype and rap the words as if they just came out. Their debut album Get Down or Lay Down was released in 2001 and shortly after, they decided to leave Atlantic Records and go to Universal, for personal reasons (Amanda Koger).  After they split from The Neptunes, they released their second album in 2004 called Ring the Alarm; however it did not do too well with sales.  After this, the duo fell out of the spotlight and decided to split. There were rumors that Boo-Bonic was working on some solo projects, while MTV reported that Mr. Man is currently recovering from a critical car accident that happened in April 2014. Prior to the accident, Mr. Man has been raising his children and remodeling homes for a living, according to his mother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ewk4T0fIVo

No Question was a soulful R&B group from Philadelphia, composed of Damon Core, Dante Massey, Tommy Blackwell, and Nicholas Johnson . In 1999, popular Philadelphia producer Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff brought them to the music scene and signed them to Philadelphia International Records. They then debut their first single I Don’t Care (Remember Jo Jo, Ray Ray, Kisha, and my cousin Malik lol). Shortly after, they made the song Get That for the Bait soundtrack, starring Jamie Fox as well as Remember Us on The Brothers soundtrack starring Morris Chestnut (Last.fm). No Question was known for “performing a spread of vocal styles, from Al Green to a raw, Soulful extension of Boyz II Men” (Andrew Hamilton). In 2000, they released another popular single entitled If You Really Wanna Go, which is still one of my favorite slow jams to this day. They then decided to leave Philadelphia International Records and teamed with Chris Schwartz to become first R&B group (Andrew Hamilton).  Unfortunately, we have not heard anything from No Question lately; however, you can find a lot of their music online for purchase on iTunes and also for free listens on www.myspace.com as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYmGs5C0IbM