The year was 1996. That’s when R&B group 702 was introduced on the scene, courtesy of New Edition’s Michael Bivins. After several notable hits, including “Steelo”, “Get It Together and their biggest “Where My Girls At?”, former lead singer Meelah decided to step out and is now finally ready to begin her solo career. AllHipHop.com caught up with Meelah to talk new music, working with her partner, Musiq Soulchild, and why 702 just couldn’t seem to “get it together”: AllHipHop.com: What’s been going on? Meelah: Life has been going on since 702’s last album, which was in 2003, which I cannot believe was almost 10 years ago. We all just kind of went our own ways and did our own things, and I chose to keep hustling at this music thing. I ended up working with other artists, doing featured backgrounds, writing. I took a break to have a child, who just turned three. I have a son, so I’m a mommy now, but all the while I was definitely still in and out of the music industry. Just more-so behind the scenes. I’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to still be able to have that as my livelihood. Now, I’m ready to get back out there; I’m so ready to get back in front where I feel I belong, and do my thing. I’ve been in the studio currently recording solo material, and it’s really coming along great, I’m super excited. AllHipHop.com: Why did you decide now. It’s been about 16 years since 702’s debut, almost 10 years since the last album. Why now? Meelah: I feel like the industry has definitely changed immensely since 702 was first introduced on the scene. I think there’s just such a great opportunity these days, with social media and technology and iTunes. All this new stuff that allows you as an artist to just really get out there, promote yourself and do your thing. Why not take advantage? Also, because I really strongly feel in my heart, it’s just wide open. There’s a lane for R&B music, or R&B soul artists who are true vocalists. Those of us that came up in the game when it wasn’t about imagery. It wasn’t about selling sex. It wasn’t about getting raunchy and just having to be naked as a female artist. It was really about the music and the vocals. I’m a vocalist, I’m a singer, I’m a true singer. I’ve always been heavily into great music, great singing, as a child. I’ve always loved that, even before 702. The love of music has always been my passion. I just don’t feel right just sitting down on it. I feel like it’s a God-given gift and blessing, and I feel like it’s my purpose to keep it going. AllHipHop.com: Right, so you think we haven’t heard the best of Meelah? Meelah: Absolutely not! I think what you heard was a very young, gifted, but very green Meelah that was blessed with the opportunity to be a part of something that was great. I do feel that there’s even greater to come. I know that there’s even greater to come. I definitely feel like the world has yet to see Meelah at her full potential. AllHipHop.com: Now, when “Where My Girls At?” came out, Destiny’s Child was out, Total was out, K-Ci & JoJo – it was a good time. And then all of a sudden, things stopped. Even though “Where My Girls At?” was the hottest track. Meelah: Yeah. “Where My Girls At?” was huge. It was on the Top 100 for like 40-plus weeks; it did a special job. Unfortunately, after “Where My Girls At?”, I feel like MoTown dropped the ball. [laughs]. Straight up. I don’t know what happened. It was just like a lack of promotion after that. Because “Where My Girls At?” was doing so well and great on its own, the label just got excited, and I guess they were expecting the momentum to just continue, but we still needed that support. It didn’t happen for us that way. They released “You Don’t Know” as the second single. That song had auto-tune on it, so, we did the whole auto-tune thing before it even became.. AllHipHop.com: Right! Before T-Pain was out… Meelah: Yeah! Before it became this infamous it-thing of the millenium. Actually, that song was huge overseas. Every time I travel overseas, people always mention that record. They love that record over in London. They dropped “You Don’t Know” second, we did a video for it, but there was no proper support. Things just kind of unraveled, slowly but surely. We even had a third single, but by that time it was completely dead. AllHipHop.com: Had y’all broken up at that point? Meelah: No, this was still the second album, we were still together, but the label had kind’ve fallen off in terms of in terms of living up to their end of the bargain. I’ll be honest, internally, we started going through some things as a group. That never helps anything. By this time, we were on a high, but we just didn’t know what happened with all those other singles. We just took a little break, a two-year break, and then we went back in and then we came back with another record. It took some time, but we came back out with a third album. AllHipHop.com: Star? Meelah: Yeah. Star, which pretty much bombed before it even came out. AllHipHop.com: Noooo. Meelah: There was definitely no support for that one. That one had zero support whatsoever, no promotion, no marketing, nothing, hardly. Very minimal. AllHipHop.com: And that became the last record. Meelah: We had some issues after the second album. We had some business issues, managerial issues, that we couldn’t agree on that ultimately led to our demise. There had already been some underlying issues amongst us, within the group. There was a lot of animosity and a lot of tension, and I think eventually […]