| Denzil Foster was born in 1962 and
greatly influenced by the Philly soul of the day. Thomas McElroy grew
up in house that was filled with jazz, partly because his father was
a jazz piano player. Foster and McElroy met eachother at Oakland, CA's
Laney College on a basketball court. Both were enrolled in college:
McElroy at San Francisco State, Foster at U.S.C. In the early '80s,
the two saw that the popularity of R&B was declining and decided to
reinvigorate the genre by adding rap beats. After hooking up with producer
Jay King, they had several releases on the independent Triangle label
before the formula yielded hits like the three-million selling "Rumours"
by the Timex Social Club and Club Noveau's number one hit "Lean on Me."
Coming with a concept for a vocal group, Foster & McElroy assembled
En Vogue. The group had several number one R&B hits: "Hold On," "Lies,"
"My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It),"You Don't Have to Worry," and
"Don't Let Go (Love)." They had two platinum LPs, Born to Sing and EV3,
and one triple-platinum album, Funky Divas The hit production duo of
Foster & McElroy has also hits with , Tony!, Toni! Tone'!, and Silk-E.
They had their own recording career as both Foster & McElroy (the Top
Ten R&B hit "Dr. Soul" with M.C. Lyte and the Atlantic album Fm2) and
Fmob (the smash "Runaway Love" with En Voque |