What Happened? Blackstreet

BLACKstreet

founded in 1991 by Thomas Taliaferro and Teddy Riley, (the inventor of New Jack Swing) known for his work as a member of Guy. Chauncey Hannibal and Levi Little were signed under production and management contracts with Thomas Taliaferro.  Chauncey and Levi were merged into what became Blackstreet featuring Teddy Riley. The original members of Blackstreet were Teddy Riley, Chauncey Black, Levi Little, and Joseph Stonestreet. Stonestreet was replaced, however, by Dave Hollister before they began work on their self-titled debut album. The name Blackstreet is a portmanteau of the nicknames of Hannibal (Chauncey Black) and Joseph Stonestreet (Street).

Hollister is cousin of musical artists act K-Ci & JoJo. He started developing fame as a musician in the early 1990s. Some of his biggest early appearances were with 2Pac on tracks like "Brenda's Got a Baby" and "Keep Ya Head Up" where he was credited on both as "The Black Angel" as well as the original version of "Don't You Trust Me." The remake of which was released on Loyal to the Game.

 After the disbandment of Guy in 1992, Ted Riley moved to production, performance on and promotion. His biggest project Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” album was released in November of 91. The Dangerous project, would continue to sell and release singles into late 1993. Teddy also worked on Wreckx-N-Effect's second album Hard or Smooth. Based in Virginia by this time, Riley discovered The Neptunes who assisted production on Wreckx-N-Effect's smash hit single Rump Shaker.

The original group BlackStreet released their first single in 1993, on the soundtrack to the Universal Pictures comedy CB4 (starring Chris Rock) titled "Baby Be Mine", featuring Joseph Stonestreet on lead, produced by Teddy Riley, and written by Teddy Riley and Joseph Stonestreet. However, Stonestreet left the group shortly after the single was released (due to personal issues) and was replaced by Dave Hollister.

Their debut album, Blackstreet, was a platinum-selling success, featuring the singles "Booti Call", "Before I Let You Go", and "Joy", two of which were Top 40 hits ("Before I Let You Go" hit the Top 10).

The follow-up, 1996's Another Level was a breakthrough success due to the top single "No Diggity" (with Dr. Dre), which was a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1996, and won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, along with the Top 40 hit "Don't Leave Me" which was a big hit in 1996. Another Level eventually went four times platinum in the United States and peaked at #3 on the Billboard chart. "No Diggity" is ranked at #91 on Rolling Stone and MTV: 100 Greatest Pop Songs, while Blackstreet comes in at #214 of the Top 500 Pop Artists of the Past 25 Years.

Dave Hollister left the group to pursue his own solo career. He was signed to DreamWorks Records and began working on an album. In 1999, Hollister released his first album, Ghetto Hymns. The album was successful, going gold, and creating one hit single, "My Favorite Girl". "My Favorite Girl" reached #10 on the R&B charts.

Levi Little also departed from BlackStreet. He recorded the lukewarm “Pick Up The Phone” his only charting song from the album Levi Little and the Soul Convention.

The album Another Level featured Mark Middleton and Eric Williams in place of Dave Hollister & Levi Little. The success of Another Level landed them a guest appearance on Jay-Z's "The City Is Mine" and they teamed with Mya and Mase for the hit "Take Me There" from the Rugrats soundtrack. The success of Another Level would also land them a spot on Janet Jackson remix of “I Get So Lonely” from her platinum album Velvet Rope.

Hollister's follow-up album, Chicago '85... The Movie was released in 2000. The album was an autobiographical work and went gold. "One Woman Man" the album's biggest single, reached #8 on the R&B charts. Also in 2000, Dave Hollister collaborated on "He Say, She Say" with Keith Sweat on "Don't Have Me".

T Riley recorded a reunion album with Guy in 2000, and subsequently began working on material for his first solo record. However, he had second thoughts about disbanding Blackstreet, and patched things up with Hannibal; Middleton and Williams, returned to restore the Another Level lineup, and Riley's solo project became a Blackstreet reunion. The resulting album, Level II, was released in early 2003.

The first single from Blackstreet third album, "Girlfriend/Boyfriend", a collaboration with Janet Jackson featuring Ja Rule and Eve. Blackstreet scored  a top ten album with Finally. But the differences in personnel shifts wrecked the group and contributed to the relative failure of Finally continued success and Blackstreet shortly broke up.

For his third effort, Dave Hollister moved to Motown Records. He hoped the new label would instill new energy into his music. The album, Things In the Game Done Changed was released in 2002 and fared poorly on the charts and radio. It would be his first and last release for Motown.

As a result of the Dave third album's shortcomings, Hollister renegotiated a new contract with DreamWorks where he released his forth solo outing Real Talk in 2003.

Rumors of legal action and a preemptive countersuit, the group BlackStreet re-banded and released Level II in 2003.

Blackstreet now consists of original members Teddy Riley, Chauncey Hannibal, Dave Hollister and new member Sherman "J-Stylz" Tinsdale. Also Kermit Quinn formerly of the R&B group Intro performs with Blackstreet. Mark Middleton and Eric Williams left due to differences with Teddy Riley & Chauncey Hannibal over money distribution. They started going oversees singing Blackstreet's music with another guy Jeremy "Remy" Hanna. They eventually came up with the group name M.E.R. to avoid being sued by Teddy and Chauncey.

At the start of 2006, he was part of the New Jack Reunion Tour, featuring Blackstreet and Guy, in addition to After 7, SWV, and Tony Toni Toné. In May 2006 Riley announced that he would be working on two key projects: a new Blackstreet album and a new Guy album.

In June 2008, a fire destroyed Riley's Virginia Beach recording studio. Fire investigators said that an electrical problem caused the blaze that burned the abandoned recording studio. The Virginia Beach Fire Department said lightning in the area also could have been a factor, although there was no direct strike.

In 2009, Riley performed with Guy at the BET Awards.  In the same year, Riley worked with Amerie and Robin Thicke on their respective albums. Leading on from his work on Snoop Dogg's album Ego Trippin' Riley became part of the production supergroup QDT, which features DJ Quik as well as Snoop Dogg. Teddy produced and co-wrote an album track "Teeth" with Lady Gaga for her EP The Fame Monster.

Speaking in March 2010 to Blues & Soul's Pete Lewis - Riley said that he was no longer affiliated with Guy (Riley last performed with the group in October 2010). Riley also said that the current line-up of Blackstreet comprised himself, Chauncey Hannibal, Dave Hollister and Sherman 'J-Stylz' Tinsdale. He confirmed that he was working on a new Blackstreet album, though intended to release his own album - entitled 'TRX' - first.

In an August 2010, co-executor of the Michael Jackson estate, John Branca, confirmed that a posthumous album of Michael Jackson would be released, containing work done in the previous five years with producers Neff-U, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Riley himself.  Riley suggested that there we're only elements, not fully produced songs from his work with Michael Jackson that were still left in the can. "They may use some elements from me, put together ideas but I haven’t been working on the new album" Riley is reported to have said. He claimed that vocal processing was done which added artifacts to Jackson's voice.

Hollister fifth album in the industry, The Book of David: Vol. 1 The Transition. The album was released on September 26, 2006 from Gospo Centric. A departure his Blackstreet and pervious solo efforts, this gospel inspired album contain music from male dealing with relationship, with the streets, women and Christ.

Riley produced the tracks "Believe" and "Flow" for the Twenty album of the R&B group Boyz II Men.

Dave Hollister reunited with his former group Blackstreet and will be performing with them on their upcoming reunion tour Teddy Riley, Dave Hollister, Mark Middleton, and Eric Williams started touring in 2011.

Chauncey has returned to the group & now Mark & Eric are no longer with the group so the current Blackstreet lineup consist of Teddy Riley, Chauncey Black, Dave Hollister, & Lenny Harold.