Cash Money Records CEOs Bryan "Baby" Williams and his brother Ronald, a.k.a. Slim, hope to add to their list of millionaires with their first R&B act, Official.

The down-South label plans to release Official's debut, Telling Our Story, on August 8, and the Philly-based unit of Ralph Boykins, Edward "Edie Kane" Pack, Kairi Guinn, Solomon Boyd and Damon "Stormy Dai" Miller said Baby and Slim took a hands-off approach and didn't try to impress their hip-hop sensibilities on the group.

"The thing that we loved about [Cash Money] is that they never wanted to change who we are," said Stormy Dai, the only member not originally from Philadelphia — he's a native of Toledo, Ohio. "We came to them a finished product. As soon as it was time to get in the studio, they were just like, 'Go do what you do.' They didn't want to change us." Two years ago, Slim and Baby were put on to the group — who changed their moniker from Unplugged to Official — by a mutual friend. During their audition, the quintet's thunderous harmonies impressed the brothers.

"We was on that night," Edie recalled. "[Baby] let us know that night we were part of the clique." The quintet didn't start recording overnight, however. Official first hit the road with the Cash Money clique on their many tours (including five outings in 2000), and they had a few things to learn as well. "It took us three or four months to get in the studio," Edie said. "They had us learning what to do on video sets and what being in videos was like. You might catch a glimpse of us in [B.G.'s] 'Bling Bling' video if you look real hard." The group will put its on-the-set knowledge to good use when it shoots the video for its first single, "Anything You Want," in a couple of weeks. The mid-tempo track keeps with the Cash Money floss-or-die credo and features Lil Wayne, with whom Official have already collaborated on two other tracks.

"That's been our man from the jump," said Dai, who produced most of the album and will also be handling production on CMR's hip-hop releases with Mannie Fresh. "It's fun working with Wayne. The boy's a straight professional. Two takes and he's finished." Someone else the guys are looking forward to working with again is their incarcerated sixth member, Pooh. Pooh was one of the group's founding members and helped to recruit Stormy Dai into the unit. When he got locked up, the group filled his slot with Kairi, the son of Pooh's godfather. Although he is out of sight he is not out of mind, as Official reference him throughout their LP.

"When [Pooh] comes home, we're gonna take it to another level," Edie said. "Once you get tired of us [five], you'll have another face and voice to start loving, and we'll take the game over again."