Supergroups are not usually a good idea. Over-burdened with expectation and riven by rampant egos, the sum is rarely better than the collective parts. The newest manifestation of supergroupism stands a better chance though - the collective members of US act Lucy Pearl all have the prerequisite multimillion, record-selling background, but none of them is carrying any real celebrity baggage. They're musicians more than magazine covers.
It also helps that Lucy Pearl make the sort of music that is currently dominating the charts and radio. In the hip-hop corner, there's Ali Shaheed Muhammad from the ground-breaking, critically acclaimed group, A Tribe Called Quest; in the sultry and sexy R 'n' B corner, there's Dawn Robinson, onetime singer with the all-girl band En Vogue; and in the soul/funk corner, there's Raphael Saadiq of the impossibly hip outfit, Tony Toni Tone.
Together, they produce a sound that's as tough and urban as it gets, leavened though by poptastic touches and some loose-limbed funk. Having already done the business in the US, they're now on an European campaign and impressing all and sundry with their sassy panache and kick-ass live gigs. Think Macy Gray backed by Snoop Doggy Dogg's rap crew and you're getting the picture.
"We're not a supergroup" says Raphael, the group's multi-instrumentalist, "if we have a choice in what term is used, we prefer `dream team' or something like that," he laughs. "Although the three of us were all very successful in our previous groups, we still wanted to do something together, we all admired each other's work. I first met Ali (the group's DJ and producer) when he came into remix a Tony Toni Tone track and I approached him with the idea - then we just needed to get a vocalist."
Initially, Raphael wanted a male vocalist, but after listening to rough demos of early Lucy Pearl material, he realised a female vocalist would work much better. "We knew Dawn from her work with En Vogue, who were then a hugely popular group, and we had heard she was a bit unhappy about her lack of creative input into that group - they were sort of a girl band and they didn't really want her writing her own songs for them, so she jumped when we asked her to join up." Robinson was about to be launched as a major solo star but, at the last minute, pulled the plug to answer Raphael's call. "My solo deal was all in the place and I was very excited about it," she says, "the label I was signed to told me I could guest on a Lucy Pearl single, but no way could I do a whole album with them. I walked away from the deal to join the band full-time. I don't like being told what to do."
What attracted Robinson to the group was the fact they would write and produce all their own material, which she wasn't allowed to do with En Vogue. "We weren't allowed a say in anything. We were given songs to record and told who would sing what part. I literally had to beg to get one of my own songs considered." Despite selling millions of records, Robinson says she earned next to nothing from her En Vogue days. "No one believes me when I tell them that, because we were everywhere, but it's true. All the money went to the producers and songwriters. We were always working with whatever big name happened to be hip at the time. People saw us on TV and on magazine covers and thought we were these big, rich stars, but we weren't."
When all three first went in to the studio, they gelled instantly and recorded their album in a fraction of the time it would have taken with their previous bands. "The music just started coming so quickly" says Muhammed. "I'm used to taking a year to make a record but we had songs finished on the first day! As a DJ, I hadn't worked with a lot of music that is actually played as it would be live, but that new experience inspired me. I suppose I had been through a lot of groundbreaking work with A Tribe Called Quest and wanted to continue in that tradition."
SOMETHING of an understatement - A Tribe Called Quest were responsible for changing the course of hip-hop music. Alongside the very talented rapper, QTip, Muhammed was responsible for first bringing R 'n' B and jazz into the hip-hop fold,on the album Beats, Rhymes and Life, which remains a classic of its genre. Not only does Q-Tip guest on the Lucy Pearl album, but so does Snoop Doggy Dogg. Do people coming to see Lucy Pearl now expect to hear A Tribe Called Quest Mark 11? "We certainly draw from that same sort of audience and we even do a cover of Bonita Applebum in the live shows, but I think what we're doing now is more a sort of Sly and the Family Stone sound".
The group's eponymous album, following their DIY ethos, is out on their own label, Pookie Records, which is managed by Saadiq, who says the freedom they now have in terms of song selection and production is a welcome relief: "It's the luxury of making the music we want to make, taking from that energy we have together and knowing that we have final say over most everything. Also, I think working with the label, we've become a lot more open-minded about different forms of music out there. Like now you have the whole Gogo scene in certain parts of the US and over in Britain there's UK Garage. So we're trying to be more freeform in what we're doing now, taking from our own different musical backgrounds and being aware of what's going on around us."
It's something that pays off on the album - Lucy Pearl create a sort of old-skool soul sound that has flashes of Chic-style disco, some laid-back hip-hop grooves and contemporary R 'n' B touches. It's what you'd expect from three of black music's most influential figures, and a bit more besides.
Lucy Pearl is on Pookie/Virgin Records. The new single, Don't Mess With My Man is released this week.
