3rd Storee is an American R&B group that was active in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Their debut single, "If Ever", peaked at No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart in June 1999. The group was best known in the mid-1990s for their gold-certified single "If Ever" and "Party Tonight" featuring Treach of the hip-hop duo, Naughty By Nature and RL of NEXT^[1] as well as their mature second iteration of the group appearance on the Rodney Jerkins produced single and music video "Get With Me" feat. Joe Budden.

Career

3rd Storee was formed during 1997 in South Central Los Angeles. The original line up consisted of members Kevonté, Lil' Man, D'Smoove and Jay-R. As a quartet they almost immediately made a breakthrough when they were signed to Edmonds Entertainment, and put on tour with Britney Spears. Owing to the success of the tour, 3rd Storee was then invited to open for 'N Sync on a national US tour, before visiting Europe for the first time during 1998, without even releasing an album.

In 1998 "If Ever" was released and peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart. A second single "Party Tonight" was released in 1999 and their debut album was never released. A few years later band member Lil' Man left the group and the group continued to seek to replace and add a new member.

2001, led 3rd Storee to sign with Def Soul Records and R&B solo vocalist J'Son joined the band along with newcomer Gavyn Rhones, The group then released their second album titled Get With Me in 2002, and the lead single and music video of the same name was promoted across the media. The single also featured Joe Budden who provided rap verses. "Get With Me" placed at No. 71 on the Billboard Hip-Hop/R&B Single Sales Chart for one week. Another track on the album titled "I'm Sorry" was featured on the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack. In 2003, 3rd Storee appeared as actors on the dance film Honey and also provided the theme song ("Honey" featuring clipse) for the soundtrack. The group also made a cameo appearance in an episode of the animated series The Proud Family. In 2004, 3rd storee eventually signed under J. Records after a brief hiatus initially renaming the group as '360' before switching their name to S5 (Storee 5). At this time they released a promotional single titled "Ooh That Ass" produced by The Underdogs.

In 2005, Kevontay made his departure from the group and 3rd Storee attempted on a new venture with J. Records under a new band name titled Chapter 4. The band Chapter 4 only consists four out of six of the 3rd Storee members: Gavyn as lead vocalist, D-Smoove, Jay-R and J'Son. They released a four-track promotional EP album sampler along with a music video for their lead single "Fool With U", which Omarion later covered.

Kevontay Jackson, a member of 3rd Storee who went on to TV fame

After the short lived journey with Chapter 4, the band members decided to take a break from recording as a group and went on the different avenues. Kevontay became an actor and appeared in various television shows and films, but is most known playing the role of Jerome on the comedy series Everybody Hates Chris. In 2016, he was a featured actor on the web series "Spook Hunters" from Bullz Eye Entertainment and appeared in the 2018 TV film biopic Whitney, portraying the gangbanger who killed Bobby Brown's brother-in-law Steven Sealy. While Jay-R continued to write and produce songs for other artists. Past 3rd Storee bandmate Lil' Man, now known as K. Young, went on the continue his solo career. Dante Clark (D-Smoove) briefly acted in guest appearance roles on Boston Public & City Guys. He later became a production manager/coordinator for various television shows. J'son continued entertainment going under the name Jay Sonic and became an actor and done voice overs for commercials. Gavyn became a solo artist and was featured on various artist music, he also vocal produced for Keyshia Cole album 11:11. He also toured with many acts as well as serving as a temporary lead singer with The Gap Band.

In a summer 2017 interview on YouTube with Black Hollywood Live, Kevontay discussed he would hope a 3rd Storee reunion would happen. He was in doubt about an attempt to start a solo career, but it did not come to happen, however he did started rapping. In the meanwhile he expressed he rather be more behind the scenes with entertainment with future projects as well as develop an animated series.^[2]

In a fall 2017 social media post, Jay-R hinted a reunion of the original 3rd Storee members with a recent photo of all 4 bandmates together, citing "Don't Forget, we're coming!!!", with the hashtags explaining that "nothing can break their bond".

In May 2018, the original four members (K. Young/Lil' Man, Jay-R, Kevontay and D-Smoove) released their new independent single "Leave Ur Man" featuring Bad Lucc (of Dubb Union) on internet streaming services. This is K-Young's return since his departure from the group in 2000.

3rd Storee has since returned along with all five members from their second album (Get With Me, including members J'son and Gavyn) releasing another independent single in December 2019. The soulful ballad titled "Get Back to Love Again" made way into internet music streaming services. However, there has not been any confirmation if K. young is part of the band or provides his vocals on the track. So far, there is still no word whether the group plan on releasing an album.

Members and lineup chronology

• Kevontay (Born Kevontay Jackson)
• Lil' Man AKA K-Young (Born Kenneth Pratt)
• D'Smoove (Born Dante Clark)
• Jay-R (Born Barry Reed Jr)
• Gavyn (Born Gavyn Rhone)
• J'Son (Born Jason Tyrel Thomas)

Discography

References