I Forgot To Mention Something About Bell Biv DeVoe
Be careful what you smack up, flip, and rub down
Hey! Where have you all been? I haven’t heard from you in months! Which is fine, because I haven’t written anything in months. The reason for that is a subject for another article on another day, but for now let’s just say “a dentist broke a fucking needle off inside my face,” if you know what I mean.
It’s been so long since I’ve written here that figuring out a topic for my big return was kind of a challenge. Three months of silence seems like it calls for a long, heartfelt rundown of all the difficulties I’ve faced in that time. And hey, someday! But for now, instead of that, I’ve decided that the best course of action would be to just talk about Bell Biv DeVoe again.
The last thing I wrote here was about how BBD are lowkey one of the most influential music groups of all-time. I was not joking, and I have not heard any objections that changed my mind in the slightest. If anything, my resolve in that regard has only strengthened since then.
Because you see, during my absence, one of the things I did to briefly take my mind off of the fire burning inside my mouth was go see New Edition’s “Legacy” tour.
If you’re not familiar, New Edition is like a supergroup in reverse. They started as a boy band in their teens and eventually everyone went solo with varying degrees of success. As a result, the setlist that night consisted of New Edition tunes along with songs from Bobby Brown, BBD, Johnny Gill, etc.
That means there were lots of hits on that stage. Can you guess which hit closed out the night?
You’re goddamn right it was “Poison.” Like I said, highly influential.
However, there’s also something that wasn’t said when I was making that point in my last article. Let me just cut right to the chase…Bell Biv DeVoe had a little bit of a “singing about sex with underage girls” problem.
I was reminded of that when I saw them in concert. One of the songs included in their setlist was “Do Me”…
…the tune that forever cemented the phrase “smack it up, flip it, rub it down” into the brain of anyone who was alive at the time. It’s a banger, no doubt. But as they launched into the song, my first thought was, “are they gonna do that one part?”
Sure enough, at around the 90 second mark, in the 2,023rd year of our lord, Ronnie DeVoe, with seemingly zero reservations, delivered one of history’s most unfortunate rap verses. Here, have a look!
That is an eight line sex crime with a beat you can dance to. And I can’t believe that it took a mere 33 years for that “I need a body bag” line to catch my attention. Did he kill that girl? I guess that could be slang for a condom but he just said he needs a condom in the line before it. Why say it again, you know?
Whether the adolescent in question survived this encounter or not, I’m genuinely surprised that there was zero backlash over a verse like that, even with it coming out at the point in history that it did. Sure, it was a different time, but not so different that people brushed off (all) child sex crimes in music.
Case in point, the year before “Do Me” was released, rapper Big Daddy Kane (real name: Big Daddy Kane) dropped a single called “I Get the Job Done.” It’s a song all about how good he is at fuckin’, which makes this line all the more unfortunate.
There are a multitude of problems with that last line, but I think we can all agree that the part about eight-year-olds is the most alarming.
Clearly, someone somewhere said something to Big Daddy Kane about this, because the next year he released a song called “Cause I Can Do It Right” (also about how he fucks real good) that included this bit.
Granted, assuming Ronnie DeVoe’s backstage friend trended more toward the higher end of the “adolescent” spectrum, there’s a chance what he confessed to isn’t even a crime at all…
…which makes the Big Daddy Kane line a whole different kind of felony. Maybe that’s why he backtracked and BBD did not?
Whatever the case, to say BBD didn’t backtrack on this stance is a huge understatement. Their next album, 1993’s kinda underrated Hootie Mack, included a song called “Lovely” that, to their credit, is NOT about sex with a minor.
But it IS about how they all really really WANT to have sex with a minor.
Don’t worry, they understand the legal ramifications and, as such, decide to do the noble thing and call that girl the absolute second she turns 18.
But in the meantime, they’ll keep in touch.
I think we have a word for that!
The most shocking thing about this song, though? These maniacs performed it on Soul Train!
On the bright side, at least no “action took place” on this song. A heroic display of restraint, indeed!
Now, with all of that said, it would be unfair of me to not point out that Ronnie DeVoe does have a somewhat valid defense when it comes to that “backstage, underage” verse in that he at least didn’t write it.
Unfortunately, that just means we get to add the name of another far more beloved celebrity into this scandalous mix.
As mentioned in the last BBD article (and probably in the next few also), the group worked with a production team called The Bomb Squad on their first album. The lyrics in question were written by a young up-and-coming rapper who was part of The Bomb Squad stable at the time. That rapper’s name was…Trevor Smith. Not familiar? That’s because you probably know him better by the stage name he eventually took.
That’s right. All that stuff about trying to land some underage strange backstage was written by a young-but-still-too-old-to-rap-about-that Busta Rhymes. That’s according to a 2019 interview with BBD vocalist Ricky Bell.
The stuff about the “Do Me” verse starts around the 2:29 mark. Bell says Busta Rhymes came to the studio one day, got on the mic, and did that verse. As soon as he did, Ronnie DeVoe said he wanted to use it.
So I guess this was just a completely innocent misunderstanding this whole time! Either that, or Busta Rhymes and Ronnie DeVoe have something really awful in common.