Blackstreet

Blackstreet, often stylized as BLACKstreet, is an American R&B group founded in 1991 by Teddy Riley, the architect and member of the new jack swing R&B trio Guy (band), Guy background vocalist Chauncey Black, a Patterson, New Jersey native, and Teddy Riley's co-producer, Thomas Taliaferro, after the breakup of Guy. Riley & Hannibal set out to find two more members to complete the new group. Once they returned to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where Riley set up shop and built a new recording studio, Future Recording Studios, they had their members. Levi Little, another Patterson, New Jersey native, and Joseph Stonestreet, a Cincinnati, Ohio, native, who Riley met while both were on the west coast in Los Angeles through mutual friends. Originally, the group was to be named Stonestreet, but thought the group should be more unified and decided to take Hannibal's nickname, Black, and the last part of Stonestreet's last name, Street, and became Blackstreet. The original members of Blackstreet were Teddy Riley, Chauncey Black, Levi Little, and Joseph Stonestreet. Stonestreet was replaced, however, by Dave Hollister before they began work on their self-titled debut album. As of 2013, the current members are Teddy Riley, Dave Hollister, Sherman "J-Stylz" Tinsdale, Glenn Adams (aka Lenny Harold), and Monte Mitchell (aka Tony Tyler), and is now known as Bs2 as they cannot completely use the Blackstreet moniker since Hannibal owns the name. The group is noted for doing the dance move, "The Lean," at concerts.

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