In the seven years since 112 released their gospel-tinged debut, the R&B/hip-hop ensemble has grown up a bit. Case in point, 112 have named their fourth album Hot and Wet and will allow you to read into it as you will.

"We just titled it that because our songs are hot and it's just a very sexy album, man," says Q, one quarter of the platinum hip-hop/soul crew. "Basically we leave it to your interpretation. Wherever your mind is at that time, that's what it means. You could think something sexual, whatever."

Hot, the follow-up to 2001's Part III, is due September 23rd, and will be 112's first release for Def Jam. Their signing followed a tough contract re-negotiation after Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and his Bad Boy Entertainment, which signed the band, parted with Universal. "It's a Def Jam, Bad Boy collaboration," Q says. "We have a joke that we're so major, we gotta have two labels behind us."

The first single will be "Na Na Na," which features a guest appearance by dancehall star Super Cat. "It's like hip-hop mixed with the Dirty South mixed with dancehall," Q says of the cut. "We call it 'dirty hall.' It's a very sexy song about being at a club and you see this girl and you just basically wanna get with her. And she's got you so baffled that all you can say is, "Na na na na.'" Another track, "Everyday," chronicles the group's growth from wide-eyed kids who signed a bad contract to the present, where they hope to put across a genuine image. "This industry makes you feel like you gotta live up to the status," he says. "Five-karat earrings and drive a Bentley in the video, even if it isn't yours. If it's about keeping it real, then the young kids should know that you gotta work for everything. Those videos aren't how everybody's living."

As has long been the case with 112, the vast majority of the album was conceived and produced in-house, with fourteen of fifteen songs written by the group, and ten tracks produced by Daron, Marvin, Q and Mike. "They cut the check, and we went to Nashville for two months and we banged it out every day," Q says. "112 is like a rock band. We go into the basement and come out two months later with an album. That's rare these days, but who's better to say what we want than us."

ANDREW DANSBY
(June 20, 2003)