20 years ago today, 112 released their self-titled debut album in 1996. I've long been a fan of group's hits, as well as their albums. Part III was one of my favorite albums of the 2000s, and Pleasure & Pain was the first thing I ever reviewed for Stylus. That was the last record they released together, over a decade ago, and since then all four members of the group have released solo albums, although only the group's most recognizable vocalist, Marvin "Slim" Scandrick, had much solo success. His "So Fly" is up there with some of the group's best, and I enjoyed some songs on his solo album Re-Fueled earlier this year. But the group started performing together again in 2012, and are currently performing their biggest hits on the Bad Boy Reunion Tour alongside Puff and the rest of the old crew. Their singles include incredible songs like "Anywhere" and "Peaches & Cream," but I wanted to look back a bit on the less heralded corners of their catalog for their 20th anniversary.

112 Deep Album Cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. 112 Intro
2. In Love With You
3. Never Mind
4. Caught Up
5. My Mistakes
6. The Only One featuring Lil Kim
7. Everyday
8. Missing You
9. Whatcha Gonna Do featuring MJG
10. Now That We're Done
11. Don't Hate Me featuring Twista
12. Intro
13. Pleasure & Pain
14. I Can't Believe featuring Faith Evans
15. Stay With Me
16. Sexy You (Interlude)
17. It's Goin' Down 2Nite featuring T.I.
18. I Think
19. Last To Know
20. Say Yes

Tracks 2, 10, 13, 14 and 16 from 112 (1996)
Tracks 3, 6, 9 and 15 from Room 112 (1998)
Tracks 1, 4, 8, 11 and 18 from Part III (2001)
Tracks 7, 17 and 20 from Hot & Wet (2003)
Tracks 5, 12 and 19 from Pleasure & Pain (2005)

There are nearly 20 interludes and intro tracks spread across 112's albums, and most of them are these extravagant one or two-minute productions with harmony arrangements. Pleasure & Pain was named after a deep cut from their first album, and the album intro was kind of an interpolation of that song, so it was cool to finally put them together in a playlist. Since 112's last album, there's been scant little in the way of male R&B groups -- the short-lived success of Pretty Ricky and Day26, a few forgotten Jagged Edge albums, and Jodeci and Dru Hill reunion albums, but 112 has only toured. And I really miss hearing those kinds of harmonies all the time, it's a sound that's really lacking in R&B these days, you don't even get many solo artists overdubbing lots of harmonies. There's a lot of great songs here, Daron Jones and the rest of 112 wrote most of their material and a lot of the production was by Bad Boy's incredible in-house team.

Previous playlists in the Deep Album Cuts series:
Vol. 1: Brandy
Vol. 2: Whitney Houston
Vol. 3: Madonna
Vol. 4: My Chemical Romance
Vol. 5: Brad Paisley
Vol. 6: George Jones
Vol. 7: The Doors
Vol. 8: Jay-Z
Vol. 9: Robin Thicke
Vol. 10: R. Kelly
Vol. 11: Fall Out Boy
Vol. 12: TLC
Vol. 13: Pink
Vol. 14: Queen
Vol. 15: Steely Dan
Vol. 16: Trick Daddy
Vol. 17: Paramore
Vol. 18: Elton John
Vol. 19: Missy Elliott
Vol. 20: Mariah Carey
Vol. 21: The Pretenders
Vol. 22: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Vol. 23: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Vol. 24: Foo Fighters
Vol. 25: Counting Crows
Vol. 26: T.I.
Vol. 27: Jackson Browne
Vol. 28: Usher
Vol. 29: Mary J. Blige
Vol. 30: The Black Crowes
Vol. 31: Ne-Yo
Vol. 32: Blink-182
Vol. 33: One Direction
Vol. 34: Kelly Clarkson
Vol. 35: The B-52's
Vol. 36: Ludacris
Vol. 37: They Might Be Giants
Vol. 38: T-Pain
Vol. 39: Snoop Dogg
Vol. 40: Ciara
Vol. 41: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Vol. 42: Dwight Yoakam
Vol. 43: Demi Lovato
Vol. 44: Prince
Vol. 45: Duran Duran
Vol. 46: Rihanna
Vol. 47: Janet Jackson
Vol. 48: Sara Bareilles
Vol. 49: Motley Crue
Vol. 50: The Who
Vol. 51: Coldplay
Vol. 52: Alicia Keys
Vol. 53: Stone Temple Pilots
Vol. 54: David Bowie
Vol. 55: The Eagles
Vol. 56: The Beatles
Vol. 57: Beyonce
Vol. 58: Beanie Sigel
Vol. 59: A Tribe Called Quest
Vol. 60: Cheap Trick
Vol. 61: Guns N' Roses
Vol. 62: The Posies
Vol. 63: The Time
Vol. 64: Gucci Mane
Vol. 65: Violent Femmes
Vol. 66: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vol. 67: Maxwell
Vol. 68: Parliament-Funkadelic
Vol. 69: Chevelle
Vol. 70: Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
Vol. 71: Fantasia
Vol. 72: Heart
Vol. 73: Pitbull
Vol. 74: Nas
Vol. 75: Monica
Vol. 76: The Cars

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 9:20 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.