Home Again (New Edition album)

After the successful 1988 album, Heart Break, the lineup of New Edition: Ralph Tresvant, Johnny Gill, Ricky Bell, Ronnie DeVoe, and Michael Bivins decided to go on hiatus as a group in order to pursue separate interests. With the exception of a surprise reunion of all six New Edition members performing at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1990, and song and music video for Bell Biv DeVoe's 1991 single "Word to the Mutha!" (which featured Brown, Gill, and Tresvant), the group largely went their separate ways for the first half of the 1990s.

Upon the advice of producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Bell, Bivins and DeVoe formed their own trio, Bell Biv DeVoe. Their album Poison, released in 1990, sold over three million copies. The same year, Johnny Gill—who had had a solo career before joining New Edition—revived it with his multi-platinum self-titled album. Also in 1990, Ralph Tresvant released his long-awaited solo debut album, which too went multi-platinum. In the mix, Bobby Brown, whose 1988 album, Don't Be Cruel, had sold over eight million copies, continued his success with the triple-platinum Bobby album in 1992. By this point, the group members were becoming as known for their side projects as they were as New Edition. Though when pressed by fans and journalists, the now fragmented band mates intermittently assured that they had planned to reunite to record another New Edition album, years passed before such plans were put into action, leaving their fans to wonder if their 1988 album, Heart Break, was in fact the group's swan song.

However, by 1995, many of New Edition's subsequent solo projects were not as successful as their first ventures. Meanwhile, the year had been notable for Bobby Brown—who'd gained more media attention not for his music, but for his tumultuous marriage to Whitney Houston, and various troubles with the law. The same year, Bell, Bivins, DeVoe, Gill, and Tresvant decided to come together and begin production on the long-awaited, long-promised sixth New Edition album. Despite his notorious reputation and worldwide tabloid fodder, the group invited Brown (who had not been featured on a New Edition album since 1985's All for Love) back to join them, to which he agreed.

New Edition's first new album in eight years, Home Again, was released in September 1996—debuting at number one on both the Billboard Top 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop album chart. The first single, "Hit Me Off", peaked at number one on the R&B chart and reached number three on the pop chart. Another top ten hit, "I'm Still in Love With You" was released toward years end. Other hits include: "You Don't Have to Worry" and "One More Day". Another song "Shop Around" was not released as a single, but still found moderate airplay on R&B stations. Home Again went on to be certified double platinum, with sales of over two million, and became the group's greatest commercial success. In the UK, the album peaked at number 22 on the Albums Chart and spawned two top 20 singles in "Hit Me Off" and "Something About You".[4] The group originally recorded twenty songs for the project.

However, their reunion tour was tainted by some of the members' egos. One evening as Brown extended his solo set, Ronnie DeVoe attempted to pull Brown off the stage. Eventually, Brown responded by dropping his microphone and a fist fight between the two ensued. This led to both members' security guards confronting each other, gun play was brought in, and the concert was halted. Bivins and Brown left the tour early, while DeVoe, Bell, Gill and Tresvant finished out the rest of the tour as a quartet. Brown later admitted during an interview that he was intoxicated during the tour.