“Once you’re a hit, people don’t care what color you are. “We wanted the music to stand on its own,” Calderon said. The radio stations never knew about its racial makeup since, as standard procedure on a first single, publicity photos weren’t sent out. The group’s multiraciality never had a chance to be a factor because its first single, “I Wanna Sex You Up,” was an instant hit. We just wanted some label to take us as is.” Some labels wanted to sign us but first they wanted to make all these changes. They were just thinking that it might be harder for a mixed group to get started. “I don’t think it was racism on their part. “They thought we were too tough to market,” Abrams explained. When they were searching for a record deal in New York a few years ago, some record companies never got used to the idea. It takes some people a while to get used to this multiracial thing.” It’s a very narrow way of thinking but we’ve gotten used to it. “They figure only black people can sound like we sound. “The first time people see us they often assume Kevin is the lead singer because he’s black,” Abrams said with a laugh. Sam Watters is Anglo-American, Abrams is part American Indian and Calderon is Mexican-American. It’s a thoroughly black sound, but only one member, Kevin Thornton, is black. Color Me Badd material sounds like old O’Jays and Stylistic songs updated with hip-hop rhythms. Along with Boyz II Men and Jodeci, Color Me Badd is leading the surge of young, soul-oriented vocal groups to the top of the charts.Ĭolor Me Badd’s style is street-corner a cappella meets hip-hop-or, as the group itself has labeled it, doo wop hip-hop. Judging the commercial potential of singles apparently isn’t one of the group’s strengths-but singing is. However, as rookie artists who were making their first single, they didn’t have any say in that crucial final mix. From their complaints, you’d think they had been removed from the creative process-but they weren’t. The final product simply wasn’t what they’d expected. “I didn’t like the beat and I thought our vocals could have been much better.”
“The song had so much potential that they didn’t bring out,” Calderon griped. His Color Me Badd colleague Mark Calderon, who looks like George Michael, was squirming a bit, too. Mild-mannered and pleasant up to that point during a recent interview in Beverly Hills, Abrams started wincing at those memories. Recalling the first time he heard the final mix of the song from the “New Jack City” soundtrack on Giant Records, Bryan Abrams said, “We were almost in tears-it didn’t sound good to us.” “I Wanna Sex You Up,” the racy Top 5 single that launched the career of the vocal quartet Color Me Badd last year, recently took a severe bashing-from members of Color Me Badd.