Foster & McElroy
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Foster & McElroy is the production team behind the tracks by En Vogue and Tony! Toni! Toné!, among others. Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy were members of the disco-based act Club Nouveau on the Love,Life and Pain album. They first banded together when they met each other on a basketball court at California's Laney college. Each of them was enrolled at a different Californian college though. McElroy went to San Franscisco State, while Foster attended U.S.C. The two noticed that the fire of r&b/soulin general was dying out by the mid-'80s, so they chose to rekindle the categories by making hip-hop rhythms a plus for them(which was exactly what everyone else was doing). They headed to the independent record label, Triangle, where several singles were released before joining forces with Jay King to form Club Nouveau, and prior to Timex Social Club's "Rumors" becoming a major hit in 1986. Foster & McElroy found the time to record at least one album,FM2 in 1989. With songs on there like "Around The World In 80 Beats" and "Dr. Soul" (a top ten r&b hit featuring pop rap artist MC Lyte), they gained moderate success.Probably the most notable group that they ever produced for is En Vogue. They came up with the notion of a modern-day version of The Supremes among other previous girl groups. Especially, one that welded soulful singing and tunes with rap-style lyrics and hip-hop beats. Concluding that fact, after Foster & McElroy studied girl groups of the past, they held auditions to start up the new group. They found their ladies:Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones, Dawn Robinson, and Terry Ellis did a couple of songs on the FM2 cd before recording their own debut album Born To Sing in 1990, which went platinum, as did 1997's EV3. Their triple-platinum album is 1992's Funky Divas.