Jodeci Celebrate ‘The Show, The Afterparty, The Hotel’ With Reissue

R&B trailblazers Jodeci’s original trilogy of albums concluded with 1995’s Platinum-certified The Show, The Afterparty, The Hotel. To celebrate the album’s 30th anniversary, the group is pressing it to vinyl again for the first time since its original release. The 2LP black vinyl release is housed in a standard capacity jacket mirroring the original tracklist.

The Show, The Afterparty, The Hotel sent Jodeci’s original run out on a high note. The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and became the third straight Jodeci album to soar to the top of Billboard’s Top R&B albums chart. In addition to its success on the album charts, it yielded three high-charting tracks on the Hot 100, including “Freek’n You,” “Get On Up,” and the iconic wedding ballad “Love U 4 Life.” The latter song’s music video is officially premiering on Jodeci’s YouTube channel in honor of the new reissue.

Emerging as one of the definitive R&B acts of the new jack swing era, Jodeci brought a hard edge to the genre, forgoing the look favored by many in the genre in favor of a hip-hop-informed presentation involving baseball caps, sports jerseys, and military boots. The then-unconventional styling fueled Jodeci’s reputation as the “bad boys of R&B”—an antithesis to smooth, clean-cut acts like Boyz II Men.

But it wasn’t just about the clothes. Jodeci pushed the limits of R&B with the often raw and deeply sexual content of their music, never more than on The Show, The Afterparty, The Hotel. The album’s erotic qualities come through in the lyrics but also the music itself, which takes cues from producer Devante Swing’s hero Prince. Also behind the boards was a young Timbaland, who was just beginning to carve out his place as one of the most visionary producers in music history.

“Although Jodeci could skillfully craft floor-fillers, they were in a league of their own when it came to slow jams,” Rashad Grove wrote in a look back at the album. “Songs such as the smooth ‘S-More,’ which was co-written by Missy Elliott, the decadence of ‘Pump It Back,’ and the seductive, West-Coast inspired ‘Can We Flo?’ are essential Jodeci deep cuts that exemplify the essence of 90s R&B.”

Order Jodeci’s The Show, The Afterparty, The Hotel on vinyl now.