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Thursday, October 8, 2009

History I Want My SWV

Posted by Dean Fawkes on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 5:34 PM

Ask yourself!

What's you stand on, say, Salt 'N' Pepa? En Vogue?

What about Queen Latifah, TLC, or Destiny's Child?

And then ask yourself: how did you never hear about SWV?

New York City's Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George, Leanne "Lelee" Lyons, and Cheryl "Coko" Clemons debuted as SWV in 1992 with the album It's About Time. Although their name has always stood for Sisters With Voices, they were originally going to go by TLC after each of the bandmembers, but lost the title to the other girl-group of the same name because they were just two weeks too late.

Throughout the '90s, SWV would work with The Neptunes, Puff Daddy, Lil' Kim, Redman, Foxy Brown, and Missy Elliott, but they never topped the guest-free triple-platinum It's About Time, particularly its singles.

"Downtown" and "I'm So Into You", the latter recently covered by Leona Lewis, skip like afternoon-on-the-stoop stones on the water of girl-group R&B, while the crisp and casual ballad emotions of "Weak" work like a sober follow-up to Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love Of All," which is a compliment you jerks.

And then there's "Right Here."

Most people apparently know the remixed version, which incorporated Michael Jackson's "Human Nature". But dear lord! The original!

Absolute '90s girl-group gem worthy of holograms.

How did we miss this?

So ashamed.

Comments (19) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Thanks, Pat Bateman.

Do yourself a favor and look up Groove Theory and Zhane. I'll gladly read a 500 word essay on the latter.

Posted by dznqbit on October 8, 2009 at 6:15 PM

I Looovvvveee SWV, thanks for the post!

Posted by TripleX on October 8, 2009 at 7:40 PM

SWV were all over the top 40. How did you never hear them? It's not like you've just uncovered the lost Nick Drake record here.

Posted by Casual_Observer on October 8, 2009 at 8:01 PM

I definitely had that SWV tape, along with my TLC and Salt n' Pepa.

Posted by bunnypuncher

on October 9, 2009 at 12:31 AM

seattle factiod: coko clemons = ish butler's bm

Posted by yadig on October 9, 2009 at 4:27 AM

I remember having a little group of girl friends that knew all the words to that album and we spent all recess singing on the swings. Good times.

Posted by marsgirl

on October 9, 2009 at 7:17 AM

My Sister had a SWV tape. It spent a lot of time in my tape player instead of hers. I liked it then. I think I appreciate it even more now.

Posted by charliesmith on October 9, 2009 at 9:13 AM

Sorry to anyone who has seen this, but if you are like me, it's worth watching again:

An animated .gif tribute to Coko's nails:
http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/200…

Posted by cosby

on October 9, 2009 at 9:38 AM

I agree with #3, those videos were inescapable if you had MTV in the early 90's. I remember thinking they all had freaky, long faces. I'm assuming Mr. Fawkes is in his early 20's?

Posted by dt1378 on October 9, 2009 at 9:39 AM

who is "we"? i've been listening to SWV since i was 7

Posted by JoJoPotato on October 9, 2009 at 10:54 AM

SWV are the shit. I STILL listen to them on a regular basis because I'm hip like that.

Posted by qwerty on October 9, 2009 at 11:04 AM

My brother works Right Here into his DJ set when he can.

Posted by Grrr on October 9, 2009 at 11:34 AM

I LOVE SWV.

ALWAYS.

i'll never forget buying my first DJ Topspin tape @ Orpheum and he'd blended "You're The One" with Goodie MOb's "Soul Food"..perfect

Posted by Larry Mizell, Jr. on October 9, 2009 at 1:41 PM

@8 - Some of those nails .gifs are freaky as fuck.

PS - I'm downloading It's About Time right now. Can't wait to listen to this shit again!

Posted by bunnypuncher

on October 10, 2009 at 4:27 AM

I'm pretty sure they won a grammy for the best use of fencing gear and dragon claws in a video. Also, not to beat a dead horse, but they were hardly obscure. They ruled R&B flavored radio for about a year. I always thought they were delicious - just the right amount of grit in the sugar. Perfect antidote for the corporate stylings of groups like EnVogue.

Posted by darington on October 10, 2009 at 4:15 PM

never noticed how much they danced like Treach in their videos. Love that.

Posted by darington on October 10, 2009 at 4:19 PM

sisters with voices is really lame name for a group. it's like "guitars with strings" or "people with faces." losing out on TLC is no excuse. this is why no one remembers them.

Posted by blip on October 12, 2009 at 4:53 PM

What are you all talking about swv had tons of hits and amoung the black communtiy the are a legend. We cam thank swv for putting mega girl groups out like destiny's child swv really push for them when no one heard of a destiny's child. New artist well not so new, any more alicia keys gave them a trubute on bet awards and new aristist keri hilson does also in performances swv lead singer has went on to gospel music but has runited with them and they have been doing shows every where and one of them had her own reality show. And also was on savivour last season .and swv is coming back out with a studio album sometime in2010. So before u say no one remembers them or their name was stupid . Their stupid name got them multi album sales and a star on the walk of fame what has your name gotton you

Posted by toreal4313 on December 30, 2009 at 7:34 AM

dose swv hoes were fly as hell! i remember all dem bitches back den thort dey was swv tryna act all sassy and look sex but noone could pull it off like sisters with voices...en vogue were sexy but in a conservative way...tlc were more costumy like outfits but swv really appealed to the ghetto...the street couldnt get enough...they hit pretty hard when they came out and they were sooo ghetto fabulous...had attitudes and evrything - they were the best...and they were real products of the ghetto...

Posted by Drake68 on March 28, 2011 at 1:14 AM