Big Brovaz

Big Brovaz is an R&B / Hip Hop music group from London, England.

Biography

In the beginning

The group Big Brovaz originally comprised three girls, Cherise, Dionne, Nadia and three boys, J-Rock, Flawless and Randy, plus two producers Skillz, also known as JJC, who also manages his group 419 squad, and Fingaz. The group have been compared to the likes of The Fugees and OutKast ^[1].

The group were brought together by Fingaz, one of the collective's producers, who already worked under the title "Big Brovaz". The "Big Brovaz" team asked the individual members to showcase their talent alongside underground London R&B and hip hop artists on a compilation that was being put together, entitled "Big Brovaz - Watching You". On the album, rather than giving each member an individual track, the producers decided to make the artists work together and perform on the same track. The chemistry between all of the members developed and so, the Big Brovaz compilation album in fact became the group.

The "Big Brovaz - Watching You" compilation was a heavily successful underground release and sold over two thousand copies on the underground alone. The live shows to promote the release built up the reputation of the producers and artists on the record.

A track from the album which featured West London R&B singer Cherise was picked up by the organiser of the annual MOBO award organisers and she was asked to compete in the annual Mobo Unsigned talent competition, walking away with first prize. Cherise was signed and later release her own solo album. Following this, the group were picked up by Sony records and the rest is history.

Cherise - Look Inside (Solo Album)

Female member Cherise released a solo album "Look Inside" before the debut album from Big Brovaz was released. It only spawned one single, however, "2nd Best", while the album won a MOBO award.

Nu-Flow - Taking over the show

The group's breakthrough was in October 2002 when the group's debut single, "Nu Flow" became a huge hit all over Europe, particularly in the UK, where it made the top 3, spending over four months inside the top 75. Their debut album of the same name was released on 4th November 2002 to rave reviews. This single has recently been covered in 2006 in a UK Halifax TV advertisement.

The group's success continued into 2003 with the release of further singles from their debut album. The group's second single, "OK" made #7 in the UK prompting a re-release of the album with a re-ordered track listing and new tracks on 10th February 2003. However, the album was re-issued yet again one month later, on 24th March 2003, with another re-ordered track listing and a new track entitled "Favourite Things". This song became the group's third single and was famous for sampling the song "My Favourite Things" from the musical The Sound Of Music. As well as their own interpretation of the classic song, the group decided to include a cover of the original as a hidden bonus track on version three of "Nu Flow". "Favourite Things" became the group's biggest highest peaking hit to date, peaking at #2 in the UK singles chart and spending 3 weeks inside the top 3 of the singles chart ^[2]

The fourth single taken from the album was "Baby Boy". The music video for the single was famous for being inspired by the extremely popular sitcom Friends. "Baby Boy" became the group's fourth top 10 hit in a row, peaking at #4 in the UK singles chart. The fifth single from the album, "Ain't What You Do", which sampled Fun Boy Three and Bananarama's collaboration "It Ain't What You Do It's The Way That You Do It" was the group's fifth top 15 hit, peaking at #15.

The group's debut album was certified platinum in the UK, a great achievement for UK R&B and hip hop ^[3].

Scooby Doo 2 and losing a member

The group next appeared on-screen in the 2004 film Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, in which they performed a version of Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)". They also released the single "We Wanna Thank You (The Things You Do)" as the theme song from the soundtrack in April 2004. Unfortunately this was the collective's smallest hit to date, peaking at a disappointing #17 in the UK singles charts. To add to this disappointment, rapper Flawless (Temi Asida) was stopped at LAX airport and was found to be smuggling over 2.2 grams (0.07 ounces) of Cannabis into the UK. This resulted in his sacking from the group in 2004, leaving the remaining 5 group members and two producers to carry on without him ^[4].

Later in 2004, one member down, the group released another new single, "Yours Fatally", which was due to be taken from their second album. Although receiving good reviews, the single did not catch on as much as their record company had hoped and were subsequently dropped by their label due to poor sales in late 2004 ^[5].

After the disappointing news of being dropped, the group decided to call it a day, split up and pursued solo ventures. The girls from the group were rumoured to be creating a group called "Little Sistaz" but the group never materialised. The group had gone into relative obscurity as they had disappeared from the commercial hip-hop scene.

Big Bro are back, without Dionne

In 2006, an announcement on their official website messageboard was made by group member Randy confirming that the group had re-united but as a four-piece. ^[6] The re-formed group now consisted of Nadia, Cherise, J-Rock and Randy, losing Dionne. It was confirmed by group member Randy on the official Big Brovaz forum that Dionne has moved to Australia to start a new life.

The reformed group's MySpace webpage confirmed that a new single would be released 24th April entitled "Hangin' Around". "Hangin' Around" became the group's lowest charting hit to date, peaking outside the UK top 40. However, despite this setback, the group continued and they announced that their second album "Re-Entry" (originally due for a May release) would finally be released in early 2007. The third single from the album (as "Yours Fatally" was to be included), confirmed as "Big Bro Thang", was announced to have a release before the album. The song won the fan's voting poll vote on their official website and so, due to popular demand, was picked as the third single.The video has begun circulation on the popular UK music channels, but as of yet is to be listed on MTV and The Box. Forum posts regarding the single and video have favoured positively since promotion began.

The single "Big Bro Thang" was released with six remixes launching on the iTunes website between 26 February, 2007 and 19 March, 2007 with the album Re-Entry finally released on 9 April, 2007. In an interview with online magazine Popjustice, Nadia and Cherise confirmed that all promotion for Re-Entry had finished, meaning "Big Bro Thang" was the third and final single from the album ^[7].

Booty Luv

Nadia & Cherise are now also performing under the name Booty Luv. Their first single, a cover of Tweet's "Boogie 2nite" was released in the UK via the Hed Kandi label on 27 November, 2006. The single received good reviews and became a favourite on the uk club scene. It peaked at #2 in its third week on the UK Singles Chart. The single has now spent ten weeks in the top fifteen in the UK top forty charts. The single "Boogie 2nite" has spent seventeen weeks inside the top forty.

A follow up to the hugely successful "Boogie 2nite" has now been confirmed on the Ministry of Sound website. The single "Shine", a cover of the Luther Vandross song, will be released through Ministry of Sound sometime in April/early May as a date is yet to be confirmed. A remix of "Shine" will be available from the 2007 edition of Hed Kandi released March 2007 along with another exclusive track by the duo called "Be Without You", also a remix version.

Booty Luv's debut album Boogie 2nite was released on September 17, 2007.

Eurovision attempt

On 28 February 2007, the BBC announced that "Big Bro Thang" would be one of the six finalists in the British pre-selection for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Despite having the most positive remarks of the night from the panel, a standing ovation from the crowd and being voted as the favourites by the representatives of the other countries in the competition, Big Brovaz were outed of the competition by Scooch.

Discography

Albums

• 1. Nu-Flow - 4th November, 2002 - #6 (UK), #37 (AUS) - BPI Certification: Platinum
• 2. Re-Entry - 9th April, 2007- (UK)

Singles

Films

• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

References

1. ^ http://www.thesituation.co.uk/ukartists/big_brovaz/big_brovaz.html The Situation - Big Brovaz Article
2. ^ http://www.polyhex.com Source for UK chart information.
3. ^ http://www.bpi.co.uk/platinum/platinumright.asp?rq=search_plat&r_id=31060 UK British Phonographic Industry Platinum certification for "Nu Flow"
4. ^ http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/big%20brovaz%20sack%20drug%20bust%20star "Big Brovaz Sack Drug Bust Star" news story from Contact Music
5. ^ http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/big%20brovaz%20dropped "Big Brovaz Dropped" news story from Contact Music
6. ^ http://uk.sonymusic.co.uk/forums/bigbrovaz/viewtopic.php?t=2464 Big Brovaz message from group member Randy to the fans.
7. ^ http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1036&Itemid=266 Booty Luv interview with Popjustice

External links

• Official Website
• MySpace Website
• Big Brovaz Lyrics
• Official Big Brovaz Forum

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