Lean on Me to Men of Vizion: A Riff Retrospective

Jumping off your success with the movie, how did you end up landing that major record deal?

Anthony: Well the people from the movie, the director, the producer, they formed a production company which was called Fisheye? And by having an opportunity to work with us guys, they said "Here's a chance for us to go ahead and try to get a deal.

The opportunity of a lifetime came by going to only two record companies. The first record company we went to, they felt that our image was not what they wanted. But the second record company, which was SBK Records - we sung around a piano and basically got signed right on the spot. We didn't have to do no studio, no demo. We didn't have to do anything, basically it just came right to us. They told us, you know what, we want you guys to come back up here next week, cause we got a couple other people that we'd like you to sing in front of. The young lady who was the head of A&R, and the President of the label, that's who they wanted us to sing before. And we sung before those two guys which was like the key people which solidified our deal. And once we sung before them, we blew them away. We didn't have to do anything else, just sign on the dotted line.

So you mentioned at that point that you were named The Playboys but then you changed it to Riff. What caused the name change?

Steven: We were at a practice one time and we was singing this song, I think it was Gladys Knight and the Pips "Giving Up Is Hard to Do," and at the end, we just got into the zone, we just riffin it. It was like "Well you know what, you guys should just your name from Playboys to Riff." And we all just looked around, stopped for a minute and was like "That's good!" We looked up the dictionary term which is a vibrato movement of the vocal chords and we just went okay, that'll work. And that's how we got the name Riff.

So you guys had a lot of success for a while but then you kinda went silent and didn't release any more albums. What happened there you know? What caused you guys to go silent?

Mike: We all will take some of this, cause this was the changing moment of our lives. You know what I mean? Basically, we cut another album okay? It was more geared to the urban side, and after we got done, the record company dropped a single and they pretty much thought that that wasn't the direction we should've been going in at the time.

Our first album was a straight pop record. The second album was an R&B record. So at the time, the record company figured let me give them a shot to do a record that they want to do, since the first album, we were told what to do. The second album, they let us do whatever we wanted to do and they wasn't 100% behind it. So we were offered to do another album, but at the time, we had already opened for Vanilla Ice for like 6-7 months and after that we did the LL Cool J tour, the Mama Said Knock You Out tour. So we had an experience with both crowds, it was like the pop crowd and the hip-hop/ R&B crowd. And to be honest with you, we was just coming off the LL Cool J tour, we enjoyed that tour because that was the tour we were coming off of.

You know, had we been coming off the Vanilla Ice tour, we probably would have had a change of heart. We was just young and we loved what we were doing but we wanted to be different at that time and we had differences of opinion. We just had differences of opinion and we end up separating to make a long story short.

Anthony: Also, not only that. The label was going through transitions far as employment wise. They were bringing in different people, and they was setting up different deals with different co-companies. It was a lot of mess and as far as our careers, we felt like we needed to take a different direction on that.

Mike: Yea because of the new personnel, we felt like we was falling through the cracks, like they were getting new artists. D'Angelo had just signed there. They had different artists and we felt like we were being slighted. We had just done an album that we thought was hot. The record company agreed that it was hot, but then after the first single, didn't do nothing and it's like "Ya'll gotta go back in and do another record." And at the time, we had just got into our writing and we had wrote a few songs and felt good about it and they just wasn't feeling it. It just started to unravel right there.

But we felt like we could get another deal, broke away and that wasn't the case. I think at the time because we were young, like we really didn't look hard enough. We kinda looked for like a good two weeks and it was like "It's over fellas, it's over!" You know what I mean? We really didn't put our feet forward and plan it and be like "Yo this is what we're going to do, this is it." So now we have a second chance to do something and I think we're gonna do it.

So you mentioned recording a full album and then being dropped. What happened to that album? Did it just disappear or fall into a vault somewhere?

Mike: Well like I said, they released a single, and they released another single. So they kinda released two singles. And then after that, they felt like look, this is not working. We're gonna put you back with a couple of pop producers, we're gonna do some songs. They flew us out to Nashville, we worked with a producer by the name of Keith Thomas, and did a beautiful song called "When You Walk Through the Storm," and it was beautiful. So there was still a little friction.

And Ima sign it off to Baby Wayne because I like to let Baby Wayne get his in there.

Dwayne: Well, from there we did the record. Okay, so the deal that we were supposed to move forward with like Slim said, everything crumbled from there. We did the single, we were supposed to put together the EP on that. And we were supposed to put that into effect but somehow with the politic of the business, I guess they wasn't reaching numbers with the producer or whatever. I mean it was a whole mix-up so that fell through so we're trying to do it again. We're back and we got heart and soul right now. So I'ma just pass this off to Smoove B.

Steven: Well the name of the second album was To Whom It May Concern. And like Slim was saying, we got into our writing and we felt good about the record. So I mean, if you guys like, you can go ahead and purchase the album To Whom It May Concern and judge it for yourself.

Anthony: Now basically, I think it was a transaction that was taken place at that time in terms of music style. We got caught up cause the first album was a pop album, the second album was an R&B album. And we kinda moved with the times. When Jodeci came out, Boyz II Men came out, we was on our LL Cool J tour. It was like wow man, this is what we need to be. This is home for us.

Not knowing that music was just about to turn again. It moved, but then it moved again soon as Boyz II Men came out and did they're thing. So Jodeci set the tone one way, then Boyz II Men came through and started doing it another way.

So we was just caught up but once again, like the guys was saying, we're ready now. I mean, we're older, we're wiser and we basically know our choices versus just trying to roll with the time. Just give positive music to the fans and what they've been missing and yearning for so long.

After you guys went silent, Anthony, Dwayne and Mike, you guys all joined Men of Vizion. So how did you end up getting involved with the guys of Men of Vizion?

Anthony: Basically, during that time, when we fell back for a minute, we tried to stay involved with our church organization and decided to form our own little gospel group. Everybody was doing their own little thing. So there was one particular night where my gospel group and one of the guys from Men of Vizion, Spanky, he had a performance as well that particular night. Now his group at that time had disbanded, you know they broke up as well. So he was looking for a couple new members.

During that transition, me, Mike and Dwayne were trying to work on one particular song for the Riff album. And what happened was in the process of us performing that night, I asked "Spanky, I need for you to come through and try and work a couple tracks out for this new Riff project." He was like "Cool, take my number and we'll talk on Monday." Not knowing that he was looking for three other members.

So what happened was, it got frustrating. With the Riff and us trying to do new songs and find deals to the point that we just said let's give up and take a break from it. So during that break, the offer that Spanky came up with was like "Listen, I have a deal over at Michael Jackson's label which is MJJ Sony. I got a situation over there and we need three guys." He said "I'm not trying to break you guys up or anything but I see you guys aren't working."

I was like well, let me bring it to the rest of the guys and see how they feel about it. And brought it some of the guys and told them we could just do this for a minute to basically just get ourselves back there into the scene. But what had happened was, we took the meeting and met these guys over in the city and start negotiating, talking about business and they said us some things that was unresistable. So we took the offer and ran with it. We ended up cutting one Men of Vizion record.

Things was cool, sweet for a second, but it wasn't as sweet as seemed.

Dwayne: It coulda been better, but like he said, it was something that we came in on. It was a blessing. So we took the ball, we ran with it and it worked out pretty good for us also. A lot of exposure on that end and all of us was pretty much like family. So it was a blessing, I think God for that.

R&B Guru: So during that down time, what did Steve do? What did you do?

Steven: Well basically I also joined a gospel group for a while and then, joined a covers tune band with my cousin called Solidified and we just went out singing and doing weddings. Writing our own songs, and producing our own songs and stuff like that. I mean, tried to stay in the business and keep the vocals correct.

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