Kwamé will forever be known for his hit “The Rhythm” and his fashionable polka-dot style. However, his other contributions deserve acknowledgment as well—most notably, lending bars to Bell Biv DeVoe’s smash hit, “Poison.” The inspiration to lend a hand stemmed from Kwamé’s disapproval of BBD’s demo version and his concern about members of New Edition forming offshoot groups instead of remaining intact.
“I was hanging out with Mike Bivins. It was me, Mike Bivins, and Dana Dane,” Kwamé says in an interview with Hip-Hop Wired. “Honestly, we were going to a club somewhere, and he put in a tape of the demo of ‘Poison.’ No disrespect—I love the record now—but when I heard the demo, I swear it was the worst thing I’d ever heard in my life. I was like, ‘Y’all are going to put this out?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, man. Me, Ronnie, and Ricky are going to do a group called BBD.’
“I’m like, ‘Who wants to see y’all through you? I want to see New Edition.’ All of this breaking up—Bobby [is] solo, Ralph is doing his thing—and then now y’all are trying to do this. Like, what happened to New Edition? So, that was my concern. I didn’t like to see groups break up.”
Because of the love and admiration Kwamé had for the trio, he decided to add some seasoning to the song.
Kwamé later adds, “Because I love ya’ll guys, I said, ‘Give me a napkin and a pen.’ And so, by the time we got to the club, I was like, ‘Here goes the rhyme.’ I showed him how to say the rhyme. And I never thought the record was going to come out, and the next thing you know—kablooey—‘Poison’ came out, I guess, a year and a half later.”
The bars Kwamé assisted with turned out to be Ronnie’s verse.
Kwamé’s sense of fashion may not have withstood the test of time; however, his writing skills certainly did.
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