Forty years in music is more than an anniversary. It is a collection of records, relationships, lessons, losses and moments that somehow survive long after the industry has moved on to its next trend.
For the Force MDs, the journey began in Staten Island, New York, long before “Tender Love” became an R&B classic. During an exclusive conversation with Black Beat Magazine, Stevie, Khalil and Zieme reflected on where it all started, their place in the early evolution of R&B and hip-hop, touring with New Edition, working with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, difficult lessons about the record business and the family legacy they continue to carry today.
With their 40th Anniversary celebration at Sony Hall in Manhattan on August 31 and additional performances being developed, the Force MDs aren’t simply looking back. Four decades later, they’re still moving forward.
From the Staten Island Ferry
Some of the Force MDs’ earliest stages weren’t stages at all.
The group recalled performing aboard the Staten Island Ferry, entertaining passengers with music that could range from Frank Sinatra to The Jackson Five. It was an unusually diverse musical education and one that required them to learn quickly how to capture an audience.
Back home, their talent had already earned them a neighborhood nickname: “the local Jacksons.”
The comparison reflected their family chemistry, harmonies and performance ability, but the Force MDs would eventually develop an identity entirely their own.
Their Staten Island beginnings also placed them directly inside a culture that was changing music.
The Force MDs became known nationally for R&B, but their history is equally connected to early hip-hop. During the interview, they discussed their pioneering involvement with freestyling and human beatboxing, elements of the culture that were still developing around them.
The group could sing traditional harmonies, freestyle and create rhythms vocally. That combination helped them bridge musical worlds before the marriage between hip-hop and R&B became an industry standard.
They weren’t outsiders borrowing from hip-hop.
Creating Music That Lasts
For the Force MDs, one of the most important lessons of their 40-year journey is the value of making music that can outlive its release date.
Few examples demonstrate that better than “Tender Love.”
Produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the record became a signature Force MDs song and remains one of the most recognizable R&B slow jams of its generation.
But “Tender Love” is only part of the story. Records including “Love Is a House,” “Here I Go Again” and “Touch and Go” helped establish a catalog that could move between romance, soul and the street-influenced energy surrounding contemporary R&B.
The group emphasized the importance of timeless music, something their own career has allowed them to experience firsthand.
Forty years later, fans aren’t simply remembering when the songs were released. They are remembering where they were, who they were with and what those records meant in their own lives.
That is the difference between having a hit and building a legacy.
Touring With New Edition
The journey also put the Force MDs alongside another group that would become part of R&B history: New Edition.
The Force MDs reflected on touring with New Edition and the friendship that developed between the groups during those years.
More importantly, that friendship still exists today.
The road can create unusual bonds. Young artists experience success, pressure, travel and the realities of the entertainment industry together, often while trying to understand everything happening around them.
For the Force MDs and New Edition, the relationship survived long after the tour buses stopped traveling together.
Decades later, that connection remains an important part of the memories surrounding their careers.
A Full-Circle Moment With Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
One of the group’s most interesting current projects reconnects them with two people forever linked to their history.
After working with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on “Tender Love,” the Force MDs recently found themselves recording in connection with the legendary production team again.
The group shared that they participated alongside several other artists in a Tony Robbins project connected to an effort to feed one million families.
For the Force MDs, reconnecting musically with Jam and Lewis four decades later represents a remarkable full-circle moment.
It also reinforces that the group is not simply celebrating its past.
They are still recording, collaborating and finding opportunities for their music to serve a purpose beyond entertainment.
The Business Lessons Behind the Success
The Force MDs were equally candid about the parts of the music business young artists don’t always understand when their careers begin.
One lesson centered on legal representation and record contracts.
The group discussed learning that having an entertainment lawyer negotiate a contract does not necessarily guarantee that the resulting agreement will be in an artist’s best interest.
Entertainment attorneys can have professional relationships with many parties in the industry, including record companies. For artists, that makes understanding who is representing whom, and whether any potential conflicts exist, extremely important.
Their experience provides a lesson that remains relevant today.
Artists need to understand the contracts they sign, not simply depend on someone else to tell them a deal is good.
That means understanding the terms that decide who actually owns and earns from the work:
- Masters & Ownership
- Publishing & Royalties
- Advances & Recoupment
- Term, Options & Obligations
- Independent Representation
It also means making certain the professional advising the artist is providing independent representation.
A record deal can change a life.
The wrong deal can change one too.
Remembering the Family They Lost
Celebrating four decades also means remembering the people who helped build the Force MDs but aren’t here to celebrate the milestone.
The group spoke about Trisco, a childhood friend whose relationship with them existed long before the success.
They remembered Mercury, whom they later discovered was actually their cousin.
They spoke about Uncle Jessie D.
And they remembered their brother TCD.
Family by Choice
To Be Their Cousin
Those losses reveal why the Force MDs story has always been bigger than a collection of singers making records together.
It is a family story.
Some relationships were created through blood. Others began through childhood friendships and became family over time.
Losing members therefore meant losing far more than voices from the group.
It meant losing pieces of a shared history.
Today, their names remain part of the legacy. Every anniversary and every retelling of the Force MDs story provides another opportunity to honor the people who helped create it.
Zieme and the Next Generation
Family also represents the future.
That continuation can be seen through Zieme, their nephew and their sister’s son, who is helping carry the musical legacy forward.
The group discussed Zieme’s involvement and his “Butter Smooth” project, representing another generation connected to the family’s musical history.
His presence makes the Force MDs’ 40th anniversary about more than preservation.
It is about succession.
For a group whose beginnings were rooted in family, there is something fitting about the next chapter being carried forward through family as well.
The music isn’t simply something younger generations can hear.
The history can now be passed directly from one generation to the next.
40 Years Comes Home to New York
The Force MDs will celebrate their milestone in the place where everything began.
Their 40th Anniversary show at Sony Hall in Manhattan on August 31 brings the journey full circle.
There is an almost perfect symmetry to it.
Young men from Staten Island once boarded the ferry and performed everything from Sinatra to The Jackson Five for commuters traveling toward Manhattan.
Forty years later, the Force MDs return to Manhattan as veterans whose own songs have become classics.
The Sony Hall celebration is also part of a larger anniversary run. The group discussed upcoming performances in Philadelphia and Delaware, with additional dates being developed as interest in the 40th anniversary continues.
For longtime fans, the shows offer an opportunity to revisit music attached to decades of memories.
For younger audiences, they offer something different: the chance to experience a group whose story sits at an important intersection between classic vocal harmony and early hip-hop culture.
The Force Continues
The Force MDs have watched the music industry transform around them.
They began in an era of record stores, radio and major-label gatekeepers. Today, artists can release music directly to listeners around the world.
But their conversation with Black Beat Magazine made clear that some things haven’t changed.
Great songs still matter.
Understanding the business still matters.
Relationships still matter.
And family still matters.
The Force MDs went from performing on the Staten Island Ferry and being known as “the local Jacksons” to becoming part of R&B and hip-hop history.
They helped bring freestyling and human beatboxing into their performances while building their identity as a vocal group.
They created timeless records, including “Tender Love.”
They toured with New Edition and built a friendship that remains decades later.
They worked with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and four decades later found themselves creatively connected again through a project aimed at helping feed one million families.
They learned difficult lessons about contracts and the importance of truly independent representation.
They endured the deaths of Trisco, Mercury, Uncle Jessie D and TCD, while continuing to carry their contributions forward.
And now Zieme represents another generation helping extend the family tradition.
That is what 40 years looks like.
Not simply survival.
When the Force MDs take the stage at Sony Hall on August 31, they won’t simply be celebrating the anniversary of a group.
They’ll be celebrating the journey of young men from Staten Island who became part of a musical culture that eventually traveled around the world.
The records remain.
The friendships remain.
The family remains.
And most importantly, the music remains.
Forty years later, the Force is still moving.