CRAVE

The members of local singing group CRAVE are plotting a course to put Pittsburgh on the HipHop R&B radar and make 2006 their year.
In the near future, CRAVE’S debut CD, “DEMBOYZ,” will be released by Meanstreet Entertainment. The disc features Lil Flip and includes the groups first hit single, “7& UP,” which has reached the #1 position on WAMO’s Phat 9 @ 9 Countdown.
“The song basically explains itself,” explains group member Reese. “You don’t have to be a dime-piece to get attention, seven and up on the scale is cool, too. It’s not necessary to try to become a perfect 10 all the time. Just be yourself.”
The trio- Mandell, Manny , Reese- took first place during 106.7 WAMO'S talent contest.
Mandell, a.k.a. The Jonezes, recalls the experience that helped catapult the group into future stardom.
“It was funny because we didn’t actually enter the contest until the day before the deadline,” he said, “but it just worked out that we got the chance to enter the contest and blessed with the success we had.”
With the win under their belts, the former high school classmates were certain they had found their destiny.
They derived their name from the phrase: Capturing and Ruling All Vivid Emotions.
Since its formation, CRAVE has opened and co-headlined shows with such acts like Jadakiss, LL Cool J, Lil Moe, Jaheim, J Kwon, Trey songz, Sammie and Pretty Ricky. “Right now we’re just blessed,” Manny, a.k.a. “ER,” the opportunity of you doing what you want in life and being happy doesn’t come often, but when it does, it’s a true blessing.”
- By Abdul Al-Nakhil - New Pittsburgh Courier

They’ve already topped the charts at WAMO’s 4 Play @ 4 with “7 & UP,” a heartfelt ode to girls whose score would fall between a 7 and a 10.
“I’m not saying that you got to be the baddest chick,” they sing, “just got to give me more than a 4, 5 or 6/Cause anything less just isn’t enough/I need somebody that’s a 7 & UP.”
Now, the members of local Hiphop R&B group CRAVE are looking to take it national with the release on Meanstreet Entertainment of
”Demboyz,” their first full-length effort.
And Kode Wred on-air personality who’s also the music director at WAMO, thinks they just might pull it off. They scaled both WAMO countdowns, the 4 Play @ 4 and the Top 9 @ 9, after all, which doesn’t happen every day with local talent.
As Kode Wred says, “This is the first, to be honest with you. Compounded by all the requests we’re getting, this may be the one. I had the opportunity to see a show of theirs, and I was blown away. I was thinking this may be the group that Pittsburgh has been looking for to actually blow up and have other people start looking at Pittsburgh.”
WAMO put “7 & UP” in rotation after it won the make it or break it segment n the Hit Squad. There’s a second single from the album, “Real Chik,” in rotation now.
As Kode Wred says, “They’ve had close to 600 spins on each song…People are actually calling. I’ve never seen anything like this for a local group. I feel that CRAVE has it. I really do.”
It helps he says, that CRAVE doesn’t sound like the rest of the groups on the radio.
“It’s unlike anything you’re hearing,” he says. “They’re taking R & B aesthetic and putting their own twist to it. Which doesn’t mean you won’t find any hip-hop cameos on “Demboyz.” Southern rapper Lil’ Flip, whose hits include “Whats my name,” dropped by the studio to make quest appearance on “Can’t stick it out.”
As Mandell “Dell” Loman recalls the experience of cutting tracks with Lil’ Flip, “He was cool. No problems. It was a real inspiring opportunity to work with a national artist.”
Meanstreet CEO Big D worked out the details, including a possible CRAVE appearance on a future Lil’Flip recording.
As Loman, one of the three CRAVE vocalists, explains, “We traded off. He did something for us. We did something for him. We put some vocals on one of the jams he recorded.”
There are no rappers in CRAVE, whose name is short for Capturing and Ruling All Vivid Emotions. “There might be a certain time in a giving song,” Loman explains, “where me might play around where one member of the group might have a part he’s talking through or something like that. But we’re singers.”
The group has been singing together for four or five years, says Emmanuel “Manny” Deanda. “It started as a little thing we did just hanging out. And one day, we just put it together.”
Deanda points to Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Musiq Soulchild and Usher as artists whose music has inspired what does in CRAVE, then adds, “We definitely pay attention to what’s going on in the music industry and incorporate that into our styles.”
They also pay attention to what’s going on in local sports. They cut “Steelers IS Hot Now” in time for the playoffs. And the group’s Pitt Panthers anthem has been played at all the Panther’s hone basketball games.
As for “7 & UP,” the trios local breakthrough, they recently cut a Canadian version.
“We brought in a girl who’s a model in Canada and also a female rapper,” says Deanda. “We flew her out here and she did two eight bar versus in French, and MC Eiht did two eight bar versus you know, so we can get those market, too. So everything’s moving along.”
The lyrics to the single, says Maurice “Reese” Walker, are based on the idea that “you don’t really have to be the perfect girl. Just be yourself and we’ll be satisfied. If you could at least be a seven. What we’re saying is just be yourself. And look good.”
So don’t come around here looking like a four, then? “Yeah, exactly,” Reese says with a laugh. “Don’t be a four.”
Ed Masley can be reached at emasley@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1865
- By Ed Masley-Pittsburgh Post Gazzette

PITTSBURGH R&B SENSATION CRAVE is seeking a female who’s at least 7: Six and under need not apply. Before you conclude that this trio consists of three R. Kellys-in-training, please understand that these numerals reference not the age, but rather the quality of woman. According to CRAVE, “Throughout all genres of entertainment, a superfluous stress is cast over each and every woman/young lady to look like the impractical perfect female.”
The statement from its press kit goes on to say how the group encountered the conditions that lead to self-destruction for girls trying to become a “Dime-piece” – a perfect 10. “It’s an honorable concept, even if it still triple-crushes the self-esteem of any girl regarded, or self-regarded, as a 1.5.

ONCE YOU’VE SEEN THE HUGE VAN ROLLING DAILY THROUGH THE CITY WITH THE LARGER-THAN-LIFE PHOTO OF CRAVE WRAPPED AROUND IT, THEN YOU UNDERSTAND THE HUNGER.
So what exactly does constitute, for CRAVE, a “7 & Up”? This is a song, after all, that won unprecedented spins on local urban radio stations WAMO and KISS – propelled by thousands of call-ins by mostly female listeners. Perhaps the answer can be found in CRAVE’s second single, “Real Chik,” which broke records for the number on spins for a local group on the
Pittsburgh FM stations – the same records CRAVE set with “7 & Up.”
“Real Chik” was written as an answer to Destiny’s Child song, “Soldier,” which sets the bar in its lyrics: “If his status ain’t hood/I ain’t checkin’ for him/better be street if he’s lookin at me.”
Allow CRAVE to retort: In “Real Chik” they sing, “Would you fight for me? (Where the real chiks at?) / Would you lie for me? (Where the real chiks at?) / Would you ride for me ? (Where they at?)”
If the content of these songs, and others like their mix-tape cuts “Get Me a Nut,” “Taste your Candy” and “Hoe,” seem a little frank and provocative, that’s by design. CRAVE stands for Capturing and Ruling All Vivid Emotions. That well-worded press kit explains that the objective is to “seek out the hidden emotions that lie dormant in all humanity.”
Yeah, that sounds really cool, in a Freudian sense, but the challenge is how three young black males – Manny Deanda, Dell Loman and Reece Walker who are just from around the way really stand out among hundreds of hip-hop acts from Pittsburgh set on being the first to blow. How does a group like CRAVE earn attention?
Well, first it captures the popular formula: bench-pressed to def, wife-beater – and Tim’ed-up image; write songs that would sweat a lady-ness out of any dignified gal; and have Donald trump-caliber, Diddy-like visibility. It’s what made groups like Jodeci, Dru Hill and Pretty Ricky – R & B groups that double as hip-hop acts – gain notice when R & B as a genre was quickly going the route of disco. Once R & B picked up rock ‘n’ roll sensibilities – but in a good way – it earned itself a life extention.
CRAVE would have been foolish, I guess to not follow suite, especially if it wanted spins and performances in this town, which for local hip hop are about as rare as sun.
“CRAVE isn’t satisfied with just satisfying their neighborhood,” says Emmai Alaquiva, who runs Ya Momz House recording studio in East Liberty. “They want to satisfy the whole country – the globe even, and you gotta respect that.”
It’s gotten CRAVE somewhere.
There’s a French –language version of “7 & Up,” which is earning spins in Canada, featuring a female Canadian rapper names Ice Dydy.
DJ GQ who hosts a popular morning show at WAMO, says it’s highly unusual for so many people to call their station requesting a local band “by name and song title.”
“Although they haven’t officially made it, they carry themselves as if they’re already a national group,” he says.
Already, they’ve recorded with national mainstream acts such as Lil’ Flip, and MC Eiht, and have opened for Boyz II Men, J Kwon and LL Cool J. Once you’ve seen the huge van rolling through the city with a larger-than-life photo of CRAVE wrapped around it, then you understand the hunger: to seek out the hidden audience for hip-hop R & B that lies dormant in all of Pittsburgh and beyond. Would you ride for them? (Where the real fans at?)
- By Brentin Mock-Pittsburgh City Paper

Old school R&B… a classical harmony you just don’t hear today…” describes Anand “Big D.” Thakur, manager and driving force behind the success of CRAVE, Pittsburgh’s hottest R&B group. Big D. is the owner of Meanstreet Entertainment, a man with vision, not to mention an ear for talent. Many Pittsburghers first heard CRAVE when they participated in the recent PLEASE (Pittsburgh Lends Emergency & Saving Efforts)concert at the Mellon Arena benefiting Katrina relief, but the trio has been performing for four years, ever since they got together to perform in a WAMO-FM sponsored talent show. It was there that Big D. saw their potential and hooked up to promote them.

CRAVE is an acronym for Capturing & Ruling All Vivid Emotions. Often compared to Boyz II Men, their music strives to uplift and motivate, and people of all ages are craving their tight harmonies and catchy songs. CRAVE is composed of the trio’s (tenor) Mandell Loman a.k.a. The Jonezes, (baritone) Maurice Walker, a.k.a. Lil Hollywood, and Manny Deanda, a.k.a. E.R., lead vocalist and songwriter- all Pittsburgh-born, raised and proud. Mandell and Maurice made their on screen debut while in high school, appearing as street corner crooners in the locally filmed movie “The Temptations.”

CRAVE has toured as far away as Miami and New York City, has opened for such notables as LL Cool J and Bobby Valentino, has appeared in a commercial with P. Diddy, sung the National Anthem for their Hometown Pirates, and recently been on the Joey Porter Show. Thanks in part to regular airplay from WAMO-FM, they have officially sold out of the first run of their debut release “DEMBOYZ” and are currently awaiting its reissue.

CRAVE was voted favorite R&B group in 106.7 WAMO-FM’s Heritage Award and the CD’s two hot singles “7& Up” and “Real Chik” are among the station’s most requested songs. According to Big D., “They’re Ready,” referring to the possibility of getting signed to a major label.

CRAVE is part of a great line-up of music to in Groove Productions Holiday Bling Tour concert at Carnegie Music Hall. For more info about upcoming appearances and song samples, please visit www.myspace.com/thecraveinpittsburgh or www.cravedemboyz.com

Maree Gallagher Contact her at 412-977-6935 or mare@themonthlypost.com


- The Monthly Music Post - By Maree Gallagher

#50. CRAVE.
Crave has topped the WAMO charts not once but twice - first with "7&up," then "Real Chik." WAMO music diredtor Kode Wred said, "This is a first, to be honest with you. Compounded by all the request we're getting, this may be the one. I had the opportunity to see a show of theirs, and I was blown away. I was thinking this may be the group that Pittsburgh has been looking for to actually blow up and have other people start looking at Pittsburgh. "Both songs can be found on the R&B trio's debut full-length "Demboyz," which features a cameo by Southern rapper Lil Flip. - Pittsburgh Post Gazette

When Miami boy band Pretty Ricky headlined last week’s Holiday Bling Tour at the Carnegie Music Hall, the members of the group likes what they saw in the opening act – Meanstreet Recording Artists CRAVE – to the point of inviting the local trio back to share the spotlight at the end of their performance.
“They’re some talented young men,” says Baby Blue. “They remind me of us when we all first got started.”
A recent guest on “The Joey Porter Show.” Pittsburgh’s CRAVE is riding high on local radio. A third straight single, Ask For It By Name,” from the debut, “Demboyz,” is in regular daytime rotation at WAMO-FM.
Baby Blue would like to help the band go national: “I’m just looking forward to seeing more from them,” he says, “and seeing if we can help the boys a little bit, maybe sign em to Bluestar Entertainment, our record label. It’s all in the making… We’re just discussing some things.”
Among those things they’ve been discussing would be Pretty Ricky taking CRAVE out as an opener.
“Right now, we’re working on our album,” Baby Blue says. “So as soon as we’re done with our album, we’re gonna go back out on tour, and them boys is gonna be in line.”
Asked what impressed him most about the trio, he says, “Just their style. They ain’t scared. They’re talented. They can sing real good. They’ve got some nice records. And they’re humble. That’s the most important part. If your humble, it’s all gonna come to you. All you gotta do it be patient”.
Ed Masley can be reached at emasley@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1865.
- By Ed Masley-Pittsburgh Post Gazette

By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Miami boy band Pretty Ricky headlined last week's winter jam at the Carnegie Music Hall, the members of the group liked what they saw in the opening act -- Meanstreet Recording artists CRAVE -- to the point of inviting the local trio back to share the spotlight at the end of their performance.

"They're some talented young men," says Baby Blue. "They remind me of us when we all first got started."

A recent guest on "The Joey Porter Show," Pittsburgh's CRAVE is riding high on local radio. A third straight single, "Ask for It by Name," from 2006's debut, "Demboyz," is in regular daytime rotation at WAMO-FM.

Baby Blue would like to help the band go national: "I'm just looking forward to seeing more from them," he says, "and seeing if we can help the boys a little bit, maybe sign 'em to Bluestar Entertainment, our record label. It's all in the making. ... We're just discussing some things."

Among those things they've been discussing would be Pretty Ricky taking CRAVE out as an opener.

"Right now, we're working on our album," Baby Blue says. "So as soon as we're done with our album, we're gonna go back out on tour, and them boys is gonna be in line."

Asked what impressed him most about the trio, he says, "Just their style. They ain't scared. They're talented. They can sing real good. They've got some nice records. And they're humble. That's the most important part. If you're humble, it's all gonna come to you. All you gotta do is be patient."



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(Ed Masley can be reached at emasley@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1865.) - Pittsburgh Post Gazette