Riff Revives R&B Harmonies

R&B group Riff caught the world's attention with their great vocals and harmonies in the movie Lean on Me alongside Morgan Freeman. They capitalized on the attention with two successful albums, Riff, and To Whom it May Concern. They scored R&B hits with tracks like "Every Time My Heart Beats," "My Heart Is Failing Me," and "If You're Serious," and continued their careers into the late 90s with their work in the group Men of Vizion.

In part 2 of their interview with R&B Haven, Riff talk about what they've got in the works for the present. Celebrating their 20th Anniversary, Riff plans on releasing a new album this year. In our interview, Riff discuss their plans for the future, their views on the R&B industry today, and their favorite R&B acts of the 90s.

Interview with Riff

So coming back to today now, you're back together. What brought about this revival?

Michael Best: Well you know what it is, music is starting to come back. You're starting to hear vocals come back the way they're supposed to be.

Not knocking what's out there right now, but the real musicians and music is starting to creep back through the cracks slowly. We figure that it's our time now to get back in. We still got our youth. It's time to like get in, and try to do some music so when it opens up hard, we'll be right there waiting for it.

We still got some good people behind us, my brother Pie, and John Dubuque. They're in our corners. John is well connected with the industry and he's been telling us for like three years already like "Look, you guys could be working across seas. There's still a market out there, people that know Riff." We never really felt that you know what I mean.

But anyway, to make a long story short, the reunion, it's just time for Riff to pop back and do something wonderful because there's some things that we really didn't get the chance to do. And I think now, because we know the business a little bit better, our vocals is much better, I think we can actually come back and do some great music.

Dwayne Jones: Even on top of that, with the industry the way it is now. I mean I was talking to quite a few groups that was out during the 90s and the late 80s, you know: Troop, H-Town, Boyz II Men, even Adina Howard. The music during that time, there's a gap in between there. Because now, the kids, the only people who they actually know now is probably Chris Brown.

Growing up, we can go back a decade and say you know, Force MDs, Full Force, New Edition and stuff like that. And then they can say, the Marvin Gayes and the Stevie Wonders, but coming up now in this century, that music is missing right now. So we're trying to get these guys to organize with us and put together good singing, real singing, the way it should be because it's been missing for a while now. There's no real singing, everybody's singing behind a computer right now but we wanna bring that era back because that's what's missing.

There's a market out there for that too. Right now, you got quite a few groups out there, Jodeci, Boyz II Men, Boyz II Men, H-Town, Troop is even working also. I mean we're just trying to bring this music back. The soulful singing that we come from, straight to the root, from the Temptations all the way back.

Anthony Fuller: Yea, we want to be able to give them singing and entertainment. A lot of things that's done now is basically entertainment. Even in the studios, a lot of things are programmed to where you sing one note and let the studio do the rest. You know back ten years ago, you had to really get that mic and sing. If you wanted five part harmony, or four part harmony, you had to really come through and sing it. Because it was basically all natural, and that's what a lot of the groups like us-Riff, Boyz II Men, Silk, even Jodeci (Mint Condition too). A lot of those groups - Shai, even Shai - a lot of those groups, we had to do it. And we felt the love of doing it because it's nothing like giving it a natural touch.

But real music has to come back. We wanna make sure that we're in that. As a matter of fact, we're gonna be one of the groups to reintroduce real music. I know a lot of groups is making their come back, you got New Kids on the Block, who just made their twenty-two year come back, and it's a blessing to have them guys out there just to motivate us. We wanna be right there in that number to reintroduce ourselves like how they did it and New Edition did it.

Dwayne: Right and we're not knocking all the computerized singing and stuff like that. If it works for them, then it works for them. And you know, right now that's all you're hearing. Songs with the voice box and stuff like that, again, nothing wrong with that and that's cool. But what's actually missing is that nice three, four, five part harmony. Nice deep down soul in your gut type singing, you know we don't hear anybody begging anymore.

So going back to things, this is part of your twentieth anniversary I understand. So it's kinda crazy thinking you've been around for twenty years. Did you ever think back then that you'd still be around, doing what you love?

Mike: I mean, it's a very very competitive business you know. Like I said, you can be in for one quarter and out the next. I just thank God that the amount of time, the albums we did and the tours and stuff, it's a blessing. You know I just thank God that we're still here, to actually come back and put it back together.

You know most people got members that's like really sick, Mike from Boyz II Men, God bless him. You know you got people that sometimes don't even make it that far.

Steven Capers: Deep down inside, we always knew. Every now and again we couldn't see it, but we always knew deep down inside that we would in some shape, way or form be doing something that we loved - be it singing gospel or producing or writing. Deep down inside we did feel like we were still going to be doing this.

So now it has been twenty years. Do you guys feel like you still got the bodies to sing and perform like you used to?

Dwayne: I'll be truthful with you Matt. If we don't got the bodies, I tell you we will by the time that album drops. I mean it's nature. It's natural. Nobody in this plantation that's gonna maintain a certain weight. And if you do, God bless you. But sometimes as you get older, you know things happen. You get married, you get caught up into relationships. So your shorty, she wanna keep you bigger so you can stay away from the other shorties.

We're wise enough to know that, I mean you wanna be in shape. To where, when it's time to step on stage, you don't wanna be out of shape or be breathing hard. So that's a good question. Just to let you know, we are in the gym, working out, trying to get motivated. Not only just for the music, just for health reasons you know.