Az Yet

The group Az Yet was created over a long period of time. Shawn Rivera and Dion Allen met in 1990 and decided to form a group in Philadelphia. While in search for quality singers to join their group, the two men stumbled upon Kenny Terry and brought him into the group. The guys met Kenny when he was working at a hotel. As Dion and Shawn were leaving, they overheard Terry singing and invited him to join the group, expanding it to a trio.

After working hard to get the attention of labels, the group scored big when their demo fell into the hands of Jacqueline McQuam. McQuam was a business woman in Los Angeles who was so impressed by the guys that she signed a deal to act as their manager. This agreement was crucial for the guys because McQuam's son-in-law was Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. Babyface heard the guys sing and was impressed enough that he signed them to LaFace records and had them open his concert with After 7 and El Debarge.

As the group signed to LaFace, they added Darryl Anthony to their line-up to replace a member who had left. Babyface and the LaFace team had the group add one more member, Marc Nelson (who had actually been with the group Boyz II Men prior to their first release), to round out the group's line-up and serve as a second lead vocalist. Prior to joining the group, Marc had been a long-time friend of Dion's, making him a perfect fit for the group.

Az Yet released their self-titled debut album in 1996 on LaFace records. Their first album featured the hit single 'Last Night' which reached #1 on the R&B charts and #9 on the Hot 100. The album's second single, 'Hard To Say I'm Sorry,' hit #8 on the Hot 100 and achieved platinum status ('Last Night' went gold). Driven by the two singles, the album managed to eventually go platinum in 2002.

Following the group's debut album, they went through a period of roster changes. First, Marc Nelson left the group for a solo career and was replaced by Tony Grant. With this line-up, the group recorded the single "You're The Inspiration" with Chicago's Peter Cetera. Tony Grant left the group in 2001 to pursue a career in theatre that includes Tyler Perry's The Marriage Counselor play and the solo album Grant Life which was released in 2007. Grant was then replaced with LeDon Bishop.

The group was dropped by LaFace and eventually was reformed with only Darryl Anthony remaining of the group's original members. This new line-up released a collection of tracks in 2004 titled, That B U, which was a dual disc (it featured a DVD on the reverse side).

Darryl Anthony's Az Yet left the scene in 2007 and a revival of the original group was introduced. This latest iteration of Az Yet is comprised of original members Dion, Shawn, Marc and Kenny. Together, the men of Az Yet are working hard on releasing a new album, with the new track "Share Life" being featured on the group's MySpace.