Joe Public

The 90’s were the age of the boy bands. There was Boyz II Men, 112, Jagged Edge, N'Sync , Hi-5, and Backstreet Boys. Although those were the most popular groups there were many similar and less known Boy bands such as Coming of Age, Joe Public, Subway and Az Yet.  These gentlemen made beautiful love songs and then disappeared into the unknown.

However, my favorite of the one hit wonders was Joe Public. They had a awesome song about a important moral lesson “Live and Learn”.  This “New Jack Swing” group from Buffalo New York were signed to Columbia Records.  Their self titled  album debuted in 1992, their single “Live and Learn” made #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.  


In a time where every boy bands was exclusively making love songs, Joe Public thought  outside of the box and made songs about making good decisions and accepting consequences.  The band also provided their own instruments for an original sound. Joe Public was the first R&B group to be featured on MTV’s Unplugged series and hosted the “NBA Jams Music Video” which was a VHS promotional release for the video game NBA Jams.

So what ever happen to Joe Public?  Your guess is as good as mine,  but they did continue to do work behind the scenes. The group wrote “Keep it coming” for Keith Sweat and a few songs for R.&.B. singer Tyrese . As a band they have played backup for during the 90’s for Boyz II Men and Shanice. 

Hopefully the guys, Kevin Scott the keyboardist Jake Carter the Percussionist and drummer J Dwight Wyatt the lead guitarist J.R. Sayles are still in the music scene either behind the music playing instruments or writing songs. But either way they left a great music legacy with positive words, writing their own music, and playing their own instruments. This isn’t common today since most artist now rely on auto-tune, voice synthesizers and sampled beats or lyrics.