Miami’s own, Pretty Ricky, is back after being holed up in the studio for the last few months after the success of their platinum certified debut, Bluestars. The new single, “On the Hotline,” is an interpolation of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex” and it’s already getting major airplay on various stations in Miami. The group plans to give the ladies even more sexually charged lyrics on their laest album, Late Night Special, due in stores in January. They will join Ne-Yo, Omarion and others for the Scream Tour 5, which hits Miami on December 15th. As the four brothers prepare for the tour and the release of their new album, I spoke with them to get an inside look at their various upcoming projects.
Marcus Washington (MW): Talk about the first single “On the Hotline” from your new album Late Night Special.
Slick ‘Em: The first single, “On the Hotline,” is basically talking about what every young female out there visualizes when they on the phone with Pretty Ricky. They call us up and they want to talk about taking their granny panties off and putting a thong on and stuff like that. We’re the voices behind the music.
MW: What can listeners expect from the group’s sophomore album?
Pleasue: We produced and wrote majority of the album. We worked with a couple of other producers, but nobody outrageous like Timbalands or Scott Storches. We tried to make sure we did everything ourselves so nobody can come back and say, ‘We’re the reason Pretty Ricky is successful.’ Our first album went platinum, we sold three million ringtones and we did everything basically on our own, so we didn’t want to take away that. We want to make sure that everybody out there understands that Pretty Ricky is an entity that can survive on our own. We went in the studio by ourselves before Atlantic Records called us, we cut the album and dropped it on the table. All the ladies know what they can expect from this Pretty Ricky album. It’s similar to the first album style wise, but the music has matured.
MW: What do you say to the parents who feel the group’s lyrics are too sexually charged?
Baby Blue: To all the parents out there that think the boys a little crazy, ya’ll know ya’ll were a little crazy back in the day too. We ain’t nothing but the new school New Edition and new school Jodeci. They can go right to Wal-Mart and get the super duper clean version, strictly for the kids. What we did with the last album and with this album, we cut two albums. A lot of parents don’t know that, they fuss that their kids got the dirty version, but they don’t know we cut two versions. If you see your kids walking around with a dirty version, it’s your fault.
MW: After the success of your debut album, how did the group prepare for this album?
Spectacular: When we go in the studio, we go in with a mind frame that we’re trying to make hit records -we’re making records that our fans love. So when we walk in the studio, we bring the candles, we bring the incense and the fog machine and we just get into Pretty Ricky mode. We had Circle House Studios booked out for about six months straight. When it comes down to the studio, we don’t play any games. We’ve been around the world and we’re giving it to the ladies. They are going to realize who exactly Pretty Ricky is with this album.
MW: If each group member could be summed up, what would each group be labeled?
Baby Blue: I’ll break the group down. You got Spectacular -he’s the sexy appeal of the group. Pleasure -he’s the cool member of the group. He’s the singer of the group. I mean he’s a crooner, he’s singing his heart out on this album. Baby Blue and Slick ‘Em -we the freaky deeky rappers of the album. Spectacular is a rapper too, but he just does his sex appeal thing. You might catch him on a record just talking on that thing like he’s DeVante [from Jodeci]. But these are the individual personalities, that when put together and shake it up, you get Pretty Ricky.
MW: What makes Pretty Ricky stand out in today’s music?
Baby Blue: It’s four personalities that make up Pretty Ricky and in the marketplace, to be honest with you, it ain’t really no other groups out there that’s on the scene like that. I can say for our group, all the ladies out there that know our group, know all of our names. A lot of these other groups, all you know, is that one name of the group. And most of the artists out here are Hollywood, but we Hollyhood. We keep it real with the folk and we ain’t scared to talk to anybody. We let all the girls come up to us, we shake hands, kiss babies, whatever. We give back to the community. When Katrina was going down, we supported all the folks that weren’t doing too good. When we were touring, we gave away all our clothes on the tour bus to the Katrina victims. Thanksgiving coming up, we’re doing Thanksgiving turkey giveaways. We make sure we give back to the community and I think that’s what makes us different -we are in touch with our people.
MW: You all will also be on the Scream Tour 5. What can fans expect when ya’ll step foot in the American Airlines Arena in your hometown?
Pleasue: We are going to give them 110 percent. Our show is a full intensified show, so they can expect to get their monies worth. They are going to get their socks blown off. I ain’t going to give too many details about the show cause we want to surprise them, but it’s real tasteful. The mommas can pull up to the show, drop their kids off and come back and get them later.
MW: Where do ya’ll see yourselves in the next five years?
Baby Blue: In the next five years, we want to be on the moon. We want to be on top of the world. We in this game for longevity. We’re young black entrepreneurs and you know it’s hard out here for any man to make it in the entertainment industry and we’re striving to make it.
MW: Where can fans go to stay up to date with what the group is doing?
Slick ‘Em: Pretty Ricky love the ladies and the ladies love Pretty Ricky. If they want more info on the boys, they can hit us up on www.prettyricky.com. They can also contact us at www.myspace.com/prettyricky and all the boy’s pages are on there. Whenever they want to talk, they can hit us on our hotline number at (954) 476-3655. Sprint hooked us up with some cellphones so we can talk on the hotline with our fans whenever we got free time.
Marcus Washington can be contacted at m.washington2@umiami.edu.