Solo

While singing on a street in Soho, Manhattan, R&B vocal group Solo caught the attention of former Time members Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, hit-making producers who had previously worked with the likes of the S.O.S. Band, Alexander O'Neal, and Janet Jackson, among many others. Signed to the duo's Perspective label and flown in to record at their Flyte Time Studios in suburban Minneapolis, the group came out with a self-titled album in 1995. Two of its singles -- "Where Do You Want Me to Put It" and "Heaven," the retro-styled latter of which sounded like no other contemporary song on radio -- reached the Top Ten of Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop chart. The album eventually went gold. A less successful second album, 4 Bruthas & a Bass, was issued in 1998. Although neither Jam nor Lewis was involved in any of the writing or production, it featured an exceptional single in the form of "Touch Me," a collaboration with Raphael Saadiq that deserved much better than its number 26 R&B/Hip-Hop peak. Solo re-emerged during the early 2010s and gradually worked toward the release of an independent album, the unsurprisingly refined and soul-rooted 3.0 Rebooted, which was issued in 2015. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi