Jodeci's K-Ci and JoJo
Photo: Chrissy L. Nguyen/ MTV News

The roster of 1990s R&B royalty currently on the comeback trail — including acts such as Bobby Brown, Guy, En Vogue and SWV — continues to grow. Next up? North Carolina's R&B bad boys Jodeci.

Before you start scoffing and saying you've heard it all before (the reunion has been talked about for at least five years), evidence is pointing to the fact it just might happen this time. Jodeci — two sets of brothers: Joel ("JoJo") and Cedric ("K-Ci") Hailey and Donald ("DeVante Swing") and Dalvin ("Mr. Dalvin") DeGrate — performed together during Clive Davis' Grammy party in February, just finished a tour of Europe, and say they have been in talks with Jamie Foxx to hit the road with him (Foxx, in fact, brought out Jodeci at Davis' party).

"Everybody thought we disappeared, but we just laid back for a while and figured out our strategy," JoJo, fresh from a studio session with the group, said last week in Los Angeles at a pre-Oscars event. "It's all good, though."

Just as the self-professed "mad band" was at its height, the guys disbanded. Devante Swing, considered one of R&B's most innovative R&B (he discovered Missy Elliott, Timbaland and Ginuwine), basically disappeared from the scene, while his brother Dalvin released the ill-fated solo LP Met.A.Mor.Phic under his real name in 2000.

Just as the self-professed "mad band" were at their height, they disbanded. Devante Swing, one of the most innovative R&B producers of all time (he was also responsible for discovering Missy Elliott, Timbaland and Ginuwine), basically disappeared from the scene, while his brother Dalvin released an ill-fated solo LP, Met.A.Mor.Phic under his real name in 2000.

K-Ci & JoJo found multiplatinum success as duo, but their popularity has faded in recent years and the duo have found themselves opening up for people like Keith Sweat.

Jodeci as a collective haven't released an album since their third LP, 1995's The Show, the After Party, the Hotel. But the group has reportedly been at work on a new studio album for years (see "Long-Awaited Jodeci Album Due By Year's End").

"It's incredible," JoJo said of the album. "It's the Jodeci sound, but ... If you heard our second and the last half of Hotel, it's like the bridge between the second and third albums. There's 17 cuts — it's a double CD."

"We're blessed," K-Ci added. "We're just doing a bunch of music, baby. That's all I can say."

K-Ci said that in addition to the Jodeci LP, he has a solo album in the works, but his first priority is to the group. The members of Jodeci have also contributed recently to songs by such acts as Mariah Carey, Petey Pablo and Naughty by Nature. Although the guys say to look for the album in July, no release date, label or title has been announced, but they say they do know what their first single will be.

"A song called 'Show Off' — and you're the only person I've told that to," JoJo divulged. "My brother Devante is gonna be mad that I said that because it's gonna be our #1 single. It's crazy — it's a song about a strip club. I can't tell you more."

• Jodeci

K-Ci & JoJo
Photo: Eufloria

NEW YORK — Singing siblings K-Ci & JoJo stopped off in their "second hometown" Tuesday night at the Beacon Theatre, and the performance was everything fans have come to expect from the 10-year vets — soulful crooning, twice as many gyrations as singing riffs and K-Ci taking his clothes off.

The duo, dressed in burgundy and green, started their show with "Ooh Yeah." Singing about all the "K-Ci & JoJo haters," they came out and were greeted by women who left their seats to come to the front of the auditorium.

"I touched it!" screamed an overly enthused fan who reached up and copped a feel of JoJo's family jewels while he sang "Last Night's Letter." And while ladies stayed excited throughout the show, the heat was turned up during one of K-Ci's solo portions of the set. Taking his shoes and shirt off, a bare-chested K-Ci began a fiery version of his remake of Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now." He climbed to the top of one the 10-foot-plus-high speakers on the stage and shook his moneymaker for the swooning fans. Then he climbed down and went into the crowd, singing as he walked up the aisles.

"Lady, I wanna let you know/ I can't be in two places at one time," he sang as security guards tried to hold back the women attempting to grope him. K-Ci, the more flamboyant of the brothers, then motioned for people to get out their chairs and climbed into the first few rows, walking on the armrests of the chairs, dripping sweat on the audience while giving them an up-close and personal performance. He ended the song in dramatic fashion, making his way back onstage and lying on the floor.

"Y'all thought I was going to take off my pants, but I fooled y'all," he joked as he stood up, referring to the lewd conduct and indecent exposures charges he was hit with after a December concert in Los Angeles (see "Police Hunt K-Ci For Allegedly Exposing Himself At Concert ").

"You'se a bad muthaf---er," JoJo told his brother as he came back onstage. JoJo then sang Jodeci's "Lately" before engaging his brother in a friendly battle for the crowd's affection. JoJo went through a few minutes of scatting, while K-Ci was able to sneak in a few screams of "Yeaaaaaaahhhhhh!" The two even playfully tussled on the floor, with K-Ci teasing JoJo by taking his microphone.

K-Ci momentarily stopped the show to make an announcement. "This may be the last time you see K-Ci & JoJo perform together," he said with a smile. "Jodeci! You know what I'm talking about." Judging from the crowd at the Beacon, the Jodeci reunion album is highly anticipated. K-Ci & JoJo's medley of several Jodeci songs, including "Stay," "Feenin'," "Come & Talk to Me" and "Cry for You," got the biggest response of the night.

"That's' what I'm talking about," one of the women in the audience said. "Take me back to '91 (the year Jodeci's first album came out). That's what I been waiting all night for." The night took a serious tone as the concert ended. Coming back into the crowd, K-Ci started a sermonlike testimonial, standing in the aisles he requested be cleared.

"I know you heard a lot of stuff about me," he said. "Some good, some bad, but I don't care about none of that sh--." He then stood on the armrest of an empty chair and took the crowd to church. "Have you ever been falsely accused?" he defiantly asked. "Have you ever been falsely accused, my brother? But I'm all right. I'm all right." "I grew up in a poor family," he begin to sing, "and all we had was God." He then joined his brother onstage and went into a raucous extended version of "Life." The Hailey brothers ended their almost 90-minute set when JoJo brought a preteen girl onstage and the two gave her a rose, serenading her with their song "All My Life." Earlier in the evening, Case opened the concert, and, ironically, exposed a bit of himself to the crowd. During his finale of "Touch Me Tease Me," he unbuttoned his pants and gave the audience a peek at his underwear.

Jon B. was next, and he tried to get the crowd pumped up by enticing them with snippets of Shyne's "Bad Boys" and Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s "Player's Anthem" before he came out. Equipped with a DJ, Jon infused hip-hop into parts of his set, playing the keyboard while his record spinner played parts of rap songs like Biggie's "Ten Crack Commandments." Brooklyn rapper AZ joined the singer on "Layaway," and a few couples began dancing in the aisles as Jon closed with his current single, "Don't Talk." The K-Ci & JoJo Tour 2001 ends May 27.

• K-Ci & JoJo
• Jodeci

Jodeci
Photo: MCA Records

LOS ANGELES — After nearly two years of "coming soon" promises by the bandmembers, a new Jodeci album is finally taking shape.

The North Carolina quartet has eight songs in the can and another 40 contenders, members K-Ci and JoJo said Wednesday while attending the Soul Train Music Awards. The follow-up to 1995's The Show, the After Party, the Hotel should be finished by August and on shelves just before the ball drops on 2002, the brothers, born Cedric (K-Ci) and Joel (JoJo) Hailey, said.

Jodeci, who debuted with Forever My Lady in 1991, also includes brothers Dalvin and DeVante DeGrate.

JoJo said in August 1999 that Jodeci would regroup to record their next album as soon as he and K-Ci finished their tour late that year. But the project was delayed, as K-Ci and JoJo focused on X, released last year, and Dalvin recorded and released his solo debut, Met.A.Mor.Phic. DeVante also has kept busy, recording his solo debut and producing music for other artists, even lending Michael Jackson a hand on his forthcoming album. His solo album is still in the works and no release date has been set.

K-Ci & Jo-Jo are expected to stage a spring tour in support of X. The duo announced one date so far, a May 18 stop at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

K-Ci spoke out Wednesday for the first time about allegations he exposed himself during a Los Angeles concert in December, saying, "If y'all know K-Ci, y'all know K-Ci didn't do it." (See "K-Ci Denies Alleged Indecent Exposure.")

• Jodeci

Jodeci member and now solo artist Dalvin DeGrate is denying rumors that he did not perform the vocals for some of the songs on his upcoming solo debut LP, "Met.A.Mor.Phic."

• Jodeci

After inking a deal with Madonna's Maverick Records label late last year, Jodeci's Dalvin DeGrate is finally set to release his debut solo album, titled "Met.A.Mor.Phic," on April 18.