WARNING : EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
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""Silk? Shai? UNV?" DeVante chuckles. "Put that in there. That I laughed. They're just jokes. There are only two powers: us and Boyz II Men."
It's 2 a.m. in New York City. God knows where K-Ci, Dalvin, and JoJo are. We're in a recording studio, where over Zima and too-hot microwaved Chicken McNuggets, Donald "DeVante Swing" DeGrate says he is one persistent motherfucker. He likes that word, and he loves to tell a story.
When I was 16, I ran away from home and went to Minneapolis to get a job with Prince. K-Ci and JoJo and them was, like, "If you make it with Prince, don't forget about us." When I got to Minneapolis, I hooked up with two white girls who had this gold Mustang that their father let me drive. I was up at Paisley Park every day begging for a job, asking people to listen to my tape. The receptionist kept saying she couldn't help me. I wasn't gonna leave until they put me on.
"Silk? Shai? UNV?" DeVante chuckles. "Put that in there. That I laughed. They're just jokes. There are only two powers: us and Boyz II Men. Anybody that comes after us has to be classified as like one or the other." Boyz II Men have been cast as the pop Boy Wonders, and Jodeci as the magnetic, penis-pumping, bluesy Bad Boys. To Puffy, though, it's all about Jodeci: "No group can compare to them. Not even Boyz II Men. Boyz II Men have more of a mass appeal, but Jodeci is straight black. Straight chicken and grits. Boyz II Men is a salad and a veggie platter. But it's all good food."
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