Dru Hill
Baltimore's harmony-stacked R&B quartet — Sisqó, Nokio, Jazz, and Woody — behind late-'90s slow jams like "In My Bed" and "Never Make a Promise." Named after the city's Druid Hill Park, they were one of the defining male R&B groups of the era, right up until Sisqó's platinum-blond "Thong Song" solo fame both lifted the group and splintered it.
Dru Hill came together in Baltimore in 1992 — four teenagers, Mark "Sisqó" Andrews, Tamir "Nokio" Ruffin, Larry "Jazz" Anthony, and James "Woody" Green, who reportedly first sang together while working at a fudge shop in the city's Inner Harbor. They took their name from Baltimore's Druid Hill Park, signed with University Records — an Island Records imprint — and released their self-titled debut in 1996. The ballads "In My Bed" and "Never Make a Promise" made them stars, all silky harmonies and heartbroken pleading in the tradition of Jodeci and Boyz II Men.
Their commercial peak arrived in 1998. "How Deep Is Your Love" — their own song, from the Rush Hour soundtrack — reached number three on the pop chart, and the album Enter the Dru produced "These Are the Times," a top-five R&B hit. In all the group racked up seven top-40 singles on the Hot 100 — most of them in the late '90s — making them one of the signature male R&B acts of the decade, though notably their singles peaked in the top three and top forty rather than at number one.
The group's fortunes turned on the success of one member. Sisqó's 1999 solo debut Unleash the Dragon spun off "Thong Song," which exploded in the spring of 2000, followed by the number-one ballad "Incomplete" — a solo run (not a Dru Hill group record) that made him a household name and, in the process, pulled the group apart. Dru Hill reunited for 2002's Dru World Order but never recaptured the momentum of their late-'90s peak.
Similar items
DMX
The barking Yonkers growl who crash-landed on the glossy late-90s rap charts like a dog off its chain. Earl Simmons snarled prayers over Swizz Beatz beats, made Ruff Ryders a household name, and opened a #1 movie at the box office. Equal parts menace and open wound, he was hip-hop's most ferocious voice when it needed one most.
Next — "Too Close"
The greatest innuendo-hiding-in-plain-sight of 90s radio: a bouncy R&B smash unmistakably about dancing too close ("you're making it hard for me") that daytime radio played all year without blinking. It spent five weeks at #1 and finished as Billboard's #1 single of 1998.
Usher — "You Make Me Wanna..."
The love-triangle confession that made 18-year-old Usher a star: seven straight weeks at #2 on the Hot 100, held off the top the whole time by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997." The video — five Ushers dancing in perfect sync inside a white-and-purple circular room — became his visual signature.
Rush Hour
The buddy-cop smash that paired Hong Kong action legend Jackie Chan with motormouth comedian Chris Tucker as mismatched cops forced to team up on a kidnapping case in Los Angeles. Chan's stunt-comedy and Tucker's nonstop riffing turned culture-clash friction into one of 1998's biggest hits — and launched a franchise.