Ronnie DeVoe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ronnie DeVoe, aka R.D., (born Ronald Boyd DeVoe, Jr. on November 17, 1967 in Roxbury, Massachusetts) is one of the members of the R&B sextet New Edition.
DeVoe was the last member to join the group after being brought in by his uncle (the group's choreographer) Brooke Payne. In 1982, the group took second place at a talent show. Their performance caught the eye of music impresario Maurice Starr who decided to manage the boys and signed them to his Streetwise record label.
DeVoe, and fellow New Edition members Michael Bivins, Bobby Brown, Ricky Bell and Ralph Tresvant, were the biggest teen group for the better half of the mid-1980s, almost achieving the success of their role models, The Jackson 5. In 1990, Devoe, along with Bivins and Bell, broke away from the group to form the hip-hop group Bell Biv DeVoe. His raps on songs like "Poison", "Do Me" and "I Thought It Was Me" helped make the songs big hits and their debut album sold more than 5 million copies. While the group went on to release two more albums, all three members rejoined New Edition for the album and reunion tour Home Again in 1996. On February 17, 1997, Ronnie was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky after he was found drinking in a hotel hallway, loitering, and eventually insulting and scuffling with officers who came to calm him down. He was charged with resisting arrest, assault on a police officer, alcohol intoxication, and inciting a riot.
DeVoe still performs and records with New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe. He is an owner of a RE/MAX Real Estate agency in Atlanta, Georgia and he is currently married to Shamari Fears of the R&B group Blaque since March of 2006. Tristan Wilds & Lil Zane are rumored to play a teenage and early -mid twenties version of Devoe in the Untitled New Edition Biopic which is scheduled for release either this year or early 2009. Tristan Wilds would play Devoe from 1979 -1986 while Lil Zane would portray Devoe as an adult.
|
||||||||||||||
