Ginuwine was also a member of the Swing Mob. Some of the notable members of the Swing Mob were Missy Elliot, her friends Tim 'DJ Timmy Tim' Mosley (later dubbed Timbaland by DeVante) and Melvin 'Magoo' Barcliff. The twenty-plus members were mostly Jodeci fans who auditioned for DeVante backstage at concerts. Swing Mob was a collective of artists, songwriters and producers who all lived in a single house together. One of the group's major contributions to the R&B industry was DeVante's Swing Mob. Nevertheless, with 'Lately' and hit singles 'Feenin' and 'Cry For You' another #1 R&B hit, the album was able to sell over a million copies. The group was having conflicts with their label and thus, received very little promotion. The track Lately would be included on the group's next album Diary of a Mad Band which came out in the same year and had a bumpy start. The singe reached #1 on the R&B charts and was a Top 5 pop hit. They did a cover of Stevie Wonder's 'Lately' and eventually released a studio version of the track. In 1993 the group performed on 'Uptown Unplugged' an episode of MTV Unplugged. K-Ci and JoJo were the typical lead vocalists while Devante did most of the production and songwriting. Follow-ups 'Come and Talk to Me' and 'Forever My Lady' also went to #1 on the charts, helping the album sell over three million copies. The album's first single 'Stay' hit #1 on the R&B charts. Combs helped the group develop their bad boy image and in 1991, recorded Forever My Lady. The group was signed and worked with Uptown executive Sean 'Puffy' Combs. They were nearly rejected but rapper Heavy D was impressed and convinced Uptown president Andre Harrell to listen to the group. They had 29 songs recorded when they arrived and approached Uptown Entertainment. Leaving to go to New York and market themselves, the two boys were joined by K-Ci and Dalvin. Returning to their hometown of Charlotte, he wrote a song and recorded Jojo singing it. JoJo DeVante K- Ci.Īt 16, DeVante ran off to Minneapolis where he tried, and failed, to get in Prince's organization. The group came up with the name Jodeci at this time, a combination of three members aliases. Yet fate had it in for the guys and they hung out and talked about potentially recording. While they had heard each other's songs on the radio, K-Ci was with a girl Dalvin had once dated and a fight almost broke out. When the members of Jodeci first met, it was not in good terms. The DeGrates father was a minister and both sets of brothers had released a gospel album before they became a group. All four members of the group had strong ties with the Pentecostal church. The bad boy group Jodeci was made up of two sets of brothers: Cedric 'K-Ci' and Joel 'Jo Jo' Hailey and Dalvin and Donald 'DeVante Swing' DeGrate.