Looking for a mellow fellow like Devoe

Bell Biv Devoe.

Me and my brother loved these guys. When we first heard this song, it was on Mtv. I remember we stayed glued to the tv for like three days, waiting to record this video. On a freaking vcr.

When we finally captured this little gem, we watched the video over and over and over until we had their moves and lyrics down. We were like Bell Biv Devoe lite. Extremely lite.

The only thing was, there was just the two of us. We had to take turns being Devoe.

Then, it was like God answered our prayers. He must've wanted us to become 11 and 9 year old rappers.
Our cousin Jeremiah came to stay the summer with us. He became Devoe.


We all used to giggle at the line "Never trust a big butt and a smile".


The three of us practiced our routine so much that we needed a bigger venue. We needed appreciation. We needed an audience.

We'd performed for my mom several times, but after watching us two or three times every day (and somehow managing to hold in her laughter) she just wasn't blown away by our awesome moves and singing skills.

One day, Mom had to go run some errands for her husband. He stayed out in the garage, fixing something, and we decided to run through our routine one more time.
As soon as we started that haggard ass vcr tape, someone knocked on the door.
It was a friend of my mom's.

Like sharks that had just smelled blood, we told her mom would be back 'soon'.

And while she was waiting, why, we would just entertain her...

We entertained her several times.

She was a good sport about it, and somehow kept most of her laughter inside. When she did laugh, we just assumed she was laughing at that one line we always did.

When the Bell Biv Devoe tape finally got eaten by the vcr, my mom laughed as she was digging out the shiny spools of tape. By then, me and my brother had moved on to bigger and better things. Like, the air guitar.