New edition: group celebrates 20 years of making music together with new CD, 'One Love'

Jet, Nov 15, 2004 by Margena A. Christian

"People were still looking at them and characterizing them as a bubblegum group," explains Johnny. "That bothered Mike more than anything. He said, 'We've had hits and want to be respected in this game.' If you had a high voice, you were considered lightweight or bubblegum. If your voice was rugged or hard, then that was considered a man. The whole game plan was to change their image."

The plan worked. In 1988, NE released Heart Break, which would become one of its biggest-selling albums to date. Can You Stand The Rain, If It Isn't Love, You're Not My Kind Of Girl, Crucial, N.E. Heart Break and Boys To Men were among the hits spawned.

After the release of Heart Break, members decided to each do solo projects in 1990. Ricky, Mike and Ronnie formed the group Bell Biv DeVoe (BBD). Its album Poison featured songs like the title track, I Thought It Was Me, Do Me and When Will I See You Smile Again? Ralph released a solo album with songs like Sensitivity, Rated R and Do What I Gotta Do. Johnny also released a solo album with hits like My My My, Rub You The Right Way, Wrap My Body Tight and Fairweather Friend. Each project went multiplatinum.

"I think we were one of the first groups of our generation," says Johnny, "to do what we've done, be successful and then spin out and do our own thing and then come back. Most groups can't make it that far."

Following the mammoth success of their solo projects, the group came together in 1996 for Home Again, which included the songs Hit Me Off and I'm Still In Love With You.

"Our accomplishments with solo projects outsold the group," says Ralph. "We came back and were able to do a successful project because of that. Those accomplishments mean something."

Bobby had no involvement with the group's latest, One Love. "He's out taking care of some Bobby things right now," explains Ronnie. "Of course he has the reality TV show that he's doing right now and he's got a couple of, you know, other issues that we all kind of know about publicly. Bobby is a great family man. Bobby is a brother and a friend of ours. Bobby has an open door to New Edition anytime he wants to come in ... You have to play by the rules and at this particular time, he might not be ready to do that."

On a personal note, Ralph, the father of two sons and two daughters, and Ricky recently tied the knot to their longtime girlfriends on the same day as Ricky's birthday. Mike, the father of a son, Johnny and Ronnie are all single. Ricky and Johnny now call Los Angeles their home, while Mike resides in Connecticut. Ralph and Ronnie live in Atlanta, where Ronnie also works as a top real estate entrepreneur.

The group is looking forward to touring the states in late December and embracing a new generation of fans.

"It's about being successful and about being significant," says Ronnie. "All the accolades and the tours and millions of records sold is wonderful, but at the same time, we want to be significant and change lives. That's what we're doing this time around."