On Thursday, April 20, the Universal Hip-Hop Museum celebrated the 40th Anniversary of seminal R&B act New Edition’s professional debut in the industry.
New Edition rose to prominence and dominance in the 1980’s as teens and became the blueprint for Pop and R&B boy acts. They offered a unique mixture of traditional R&B and also incorporated Hip-Hop in their youth-oriented music. The original group lineup comprised of Ronnie DeVoe, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Bobby Brown, and lead singer Ralph Tresvant. When Brown left the group in 1985 to go solo, Johnny Gill joined their ranks. The group is one of the greatest ever.
During a pre-show interview, complete with about 30 specially selected NE for Lifers, the museum enlisted AllHipHop’s Nikki Duncan-Smith (Kershaw St. Jawnson) for an intimate conversation about their connection to Hip-Hop culture.
In the back of the group were posters from various historic venues like Skatin’ Palace (950 Soundview Ave.) dated Apr. 23, 1983, The Disco Fever on Friday, Apr. 29, 1983, and the Bond International Casino on Friday, Mar. 11, 1983.
The group donated six sequin blazers to be included in the museum’s archive.
In attendance at this private event were some pioneers like The Force MDs and Doctor Ice from UTFO and Whodini, who toured with the group.
Heavy hitters like Stephen Hill, Big Jeff, Mark Green, Charlie Mack, Bimmy Antney, and more were in the building. The host of the event was Fred “Bugsy” Buggs of 107.5 WBLS.
