Who doesn’t’ remember Str8 Ahead? They – Towilla “Tee” Lynn, Nikita Leone, Marzella “Pluke” Lewis and Debra Moton – were the fearless foursome that packed a powerful punch – with pretty looks to match – on the dance floor, backing Bell Biv DeVoe both in music videos and out on the road.
West Coast Styles recently caught up with 3/4 of the original BBD dancers to discuss their past, present and even future in and out of the biz…
What do you all feel has and will continue to be the key to your longevity?
Debra Moton: I think what we did in the ‘90’s was classic. It will never be duplicated. “Poison” is a song that is played at every party, and a new generation is now dancing to it with their parents and grandparents.
Do you all have any other outside / additional (future) aspirations, maybe even completely away from entertainment?
DM: Nikita is a chef, and loves to workout. Tee loves to workout, and is really into yoga. Pluke is an entrepreneur, and consults her clients on multiple business ventures. Debra [me] works in sports and entertainment, and has my new T-shirt line Authentic Black Culture.
To date, what has been your biggest career moment(s), at least thus far anyway?
DM: I would say that our biggest career moment was being a part of the iconic BBD era that literally changed the game. We changed the way R&B artists dressed and approached performances.
What’s an average day like for you all?
DM: I work for a non-profit organization as the Head of Sports and entertainment, whose mission is to make sure that children in underserved areas have brand-new athletic shoes.
Please discuss how you all interact with and respond to fans…
DM: We loved our fans. They gave us so much love. They would dress like us, wear their hair in a ponytail, and do all of our dances. We would talk to them and give them autographs. To this day if we tell people we were BBD dancers they get super excited.
What is y’all’s favorite part about this line of work? Y’all’s least favorite? And, why?
DM: The favorite part is traveling and hitting the stage. The least favorite is living out of a suitcase.
What advice would you all have for someone wanting to follow in y’all’s footsteps?
DM: Today is a different day. I would say go and take classes and try to get an agent. You really have to be ready for the auditions and do something to stand out.
Tell me y’all’s whole inception into dance — When did you all first become interested in it? And, how did it all begin for Str8 Ahead?
Nikita Leone: Debra, Pluke and Tee danced from a young age. In high school, Debra was a cheerleader, Pluke was on the drill team and Tee was a cheerleader as well. Nikita didn’t dance until high school. She was on drill team and cheerleading in high school. Str8 Ahead began at Paradise 24 nightclub in Hollywood, California, during a dance battle; from that battle, Rosie Perez put Debra, Tee, Pluke and Nikita and another female dancer together to battle East Coast dancers. The East / West Battle never took place, so Deb, Tee, Nikita and Pluke entered a contest at Paradise 24 and lost against GTI; male dance group who is known as the Pharcyde today.
Now y’all are natives of Los Angeles, CA, correct? So growing up in the ‘City of Angels,’ who all do you all consider to be your strongest influences?
NL: Yes, Tee is from Northern Cali, Debra and Pluke from Inglewood area and Nikita was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Cali at 10 years old. Our strongest influence in dance are Oaktown’s 3.5.7.
At what particular point in time did you all opt to pursue dance as a profession?
NL: From the Paradise 24 competition, Ronnie DeVoe and Michael Bivins were in attendance, and Ricky Bell reached out to Debra to see if we could dance to their new single called “Poison.” Deb said yes, and that’s where our professional dance career began.
Individually, what do each of you bring to Str8 Ahead; both personality-wise and professionally?
NL: Personality: Debra: Bossy. Tee: Chill. Pluke: Funny / Energetic. Nikita: Nice Professionally. Debra: creative choreographer. Tee: creative, smooth style, tomboyish dance style. Pluke: creative, accentuate head snaps and precision uniform sharp arms and hands. Nikita: big moves.
Where does the group’s moniker originally derive from?
NL: We were driving to compete in the Paradise 24, but didn’t have a name. We were wearing hard hats and construction uniforms, so we looked around for street signs that would fit – like yield, turn right, etcetera – we saw a sign that said Straight Ahead and it fit so we went with that and shortened it with the number 8. Str-8 Ahead!
What particular string of events actually led to your initial meeting up with Bell Biv and DeVoe, ultimately securing your spot as BBD’s backing dance troupe?
NL: As stated in the previous question…we were competing in a dance competition at Paradise 24, Ron and Mike Biv were in attendance, and Ricky Bell reached out to Debra to see if we could dance to the song “Poison.” She said yes! Then we met up with Brooke Payne so he could check us out. We showed him our routine and went hard! He asked us to do the routine again and we could barely do it! But he saw our potential and that’s all she wrote!
Sans Bell Biv DeVoe, what all exactly had / have y’all been up to, both personally and professionally speaking, during your hiatus as dancers?
NL: Went to culinary school. Met and married her husband and chef John – 22 years married – had 2 children and runs a successful catering and event planning company.
DM: Continued to do choreography for various artists and head of entertainment for the L.A. Sparks. Married.
Tee Lynn: After touring, I taught Hip Hop classes, then I had my daughter and began studying Program Management. While raising my daughter, I worked at Fortune 500’s as a Program Manager and dabbled in artist management, writing and producing.
Wasn’t there even plans in place for a Str8 Ahead album on a short lived MCA distributed label spearheaded by Rick and Ron? Why was that project ultimately shelved indefinitely?
TL: As BBD’s background dancers, we had our own fans. We started noticing people holding Str8 Ahead signs at concerts, wanting to meet the dancers, take pics with us, and get our autographs. People all over the world were emulating our style; how we dressed and danced. They also loved the way we could get the party jumping; our energy. So after touring with BBD in the early ‘90’s, we wanted to grow from being just the background dancers to being artists on the mic. Nikita could sing and the rest of us could rap. BBD and Brooke Payne also noticed we had our own following and they wanted to develop our talent. At this time, Mike had seen success with Biv10 Records and Ron / Rick were just starting their own production company called Mental Productions, both companies wanting to sign and develop Str8 Ahead. So, we needed to make a decision…do we go with Mike, who’s already established, or with Ron / Rick where we’d be their first signed artists. We wanted to go with Mike, but one day we were called into a meeting with all the guys and Brooke Payne where we were basically told by Brooke that we would be signing with Ron / Rick. For some reason, we just went along with the decision. From there, we went into the studio, recorded a couple songs which were hyped-up club bangers, something to dance to. We held auditions and selected approx. 10 dancers – girls and guys – to be in our videos. We rehearsed, but we never shot a video. Somewhere between recording our second and third songs, the relationship between Mental Productions and Str8 Ahead drifted apart. Around this time, BBD was preparing for more shows and our project just kind of got shelf’d. Hmm…where are those masters?! Hmm…vaguely remember a massive bonfire!
In having said that, how do you all classify your overall sound and / or style?
TL: Our overall sound / style was…fun, party, up-beat, Hip Hop. We wanted to level-up the Str8 Ahead brand as we moved into artist mode. Our style was colorful, sexy, tomboy, high-fashion, street which included baggy bottoms, chunky shoes / boots, sexy tops or baggy tops – like hockey jerseys – ponytails, etcetera. All four of us wearing ponytails was our signature look, which gave us even more uniformity.
Switching gears here, what exactly do you want people to get from y’all’s legacy?
TL: We’d want people to know that you can achieve your dreams through hard work, dedication, commitment and to never be afraid to break the rules!
If you all could collaborate with any one artist, living or dead, who would it be and why?
TL: I would’ve loved to collab with the King, Michael Jackson, the greatest entertainer of my time, arguably of all time.
If you all could play any venue in the world, which one would you choose and why?
TL: Not something we ever thought about.
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