The original bad girls of R&B, Total was the first girl group signed to Bad Boy Records

Throughout the years of R&B music, girl groups have survived the test of time from The Supremes to En Vogue. Some may have broken up, while others remain to stay together & reunite.  Three girls from New Jersey, Kima Raynor, Keisha Spivey,and Pamela Long stood out as they flipped the script on R&B as they wasn’t your typical girl group as they were influenced by hip hop music and they didn’t wear dresses. Before their mainstream debut, they appeared on rapper The Notorious BIG‘s debut single, “Juicy” off his debut album Ready To Die. Bad Boy Records was founded by Sean Diddy Combs and they made history as they became the first girl group signed to the label alongside fellow singer & New Jersey native Faith Evans.

The group released their debut single, “Can’t You See” featuring The Notorious BIG that appeared on the New Jersey Drive movie soundtrack and also their debut album, Total. From the album, the group released two more singles, “Kissing You” and “No More Else” featuring female rappers and Source Magazine cover girls Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, andDa Brat. They even collaborated with other artists like LL Cool J on his single, “Lougin (Who Do You Love)” off his album Mr. Smith, fellow labelmate Ma$e on his single, “Tell Me What You Want”,from his debut album Harlem World and Foxy Brown on the single, “I Can’t” off her sophomore album Chyna Doll. The group released their second album, Kima Keisha And Pam and released the singles, “Trippin” featuring Source cover girl Missy Elliott and “Sitting Home”.

After the release of their sophomore album, the group announced that they are splitting up. Back in March, the group announced that they were getting back together despite not having member Keisha Spivey. This time around, they are not going to stop. I had the opportunity to sit down with the group as they talk about who they feeling now in r&b, despite not being on Bad Boy anymore, they still have love for Puff, they would consider doing a reality show one day, how they are excited for everybody to be back & reunited.

Here is what they said about the advice that they would give young girls who want to pursue a career in the industry:

“For me, my daughter for an example, she wants to sing & be a star. My thing first, I would tell her to get an education, work on your craft, open your business, know what you’re getting yourself into, and then move forward & do it”-Kima

“Not to sellout, if it don’t sell out just be yourself, be original be who you supposed to be and don’t tried to be the next I say this not to insult anybody in no type of way and she’s bad in her spot, everyone don’t tried to be the next Beyonce. Beyonce is Beyonce and there would never be another Beyonce. When you around that time you could have longevity. I said for example, SWV wasn’t trying to be TLC and we never tried to be SWV. I would tell them just be yourself and not the next person”-Pam

This group is an example of what it means to have longevity and being humble. Member Keisha Spivey is currently working on some new music. We’re glad to see them back

Matia is also from Jersey, just like Total, follow her on Twitter at @ms_hip_hop