Blaque

The group Blaque is comprised of Natina Reed (born 1979), Shamari Fears (born 1981) and Brandi Williams (born 1982). The group's name stands for Believing in Life and Achieving a Quest for Unity in Everything, and was originally known as Blaque Ivory.

At a young age, both Reed and Fears moved to Atlanta, Georgia where they met in high school. The two formed their own R&B groups with Reed creating Blaque Ivory and Fears creating Intrigue. Intrigue earned a recording contract with Elektra Records and while performing at a talent show with the group, met Williams. Fears left Intrigue to join Blaque Ivory and brought Williams with her.

With the group completed, all that was left was a record deal. The deal came after Reed met Ronald Lopes while singing jingles. Lopes introduced the group to his sister, Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes of TLC and she signed the group to her Left Eye Productions.

The group released their debut album Blaque in 1999. The album was successful, going platinum. The album featured two songs that charted in the Hot 100, '808' which reached #8 and was written by R. Kelly and 'Bring It All To Me' which featured JC Chavez of NSYNC and reached #4 on the Hot 100. On the R&B charts, '808' reached #4 and 'Bring It All To Me' reached #15.

Following their first album, the girls had minor roles in movies. First, the entire group appeared in the 2000 film, Bring It On, in which they starred as members of the group East Compton Clovers. Williams also had a role in the 2001 movie On The Line.

Blaque Out, the group's second album, was geared for release in 2001. However, bad luck followed the group as they were dropped from Columbia Records. Then, their mentor Lisa Lopes died in a car crash and the album leaked on the internet. Nevertheless, it eventually saw release in 2002 but failed to match the group's first album's success. The group was then signed to Elektra Records.

Trouble continued to follow the girls as they geared up to release their third album, Torch. The album featured all star production with support from Missy Elliott and Rodney Jenkins. Yet the intended first single, 'Ugly' failed to gain radio attention. Switching to the single 'I'm Good,' featured on the soundtrack for the movie Honey, the group hoped to gain success. Yet this single also failed to perform welll. The album never saw official release.

In 2004, Natina left the group to go into the ministry. Singer/rapper Erica Pullins took her place and performed with the group overseas.

Erica stayed with the group for a brief period before Natina returned in late 2004. The girls anticipate a 2008 release for a new album, which was chronicled in a reality tv show filmed by the girls titled "Blaque in the House."