September 16, 2026
Andrew Nelles/USA Today via Reuters Connect
Boyz II Men, seen above performing at the Grand Ole Opry, will play the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts with the Philly Pops on Friday.
With 64 million records sold, Boyz II Men holds the distinction of being the bestselling R&B group of all time. But if you ask the guys, their music defies every label.
"Boyz II Men is kind of in its own genre," founding member Nathan Morris said. "It's not new jack swing or soul or whatever. Our background comes from urban music, the streets, classical music. It comes from all over the place. So it's just a combination of four guys creating a sound that they enjoy and presenting it to the world."
The group will bring this undefined sound back to their hometown for a concert at the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts on Friday with the Philly Pops. It's their second performance in the city in just two months after singing during the fifth inning of the MLB All-Star Game in July. And they'll be making another appearance, in painted form, through a Mural Arts project in the works near their alma mater, the High School for Creative and Performing Arts.
CAPA is a now legendary incubator of musical talent. It's where the current and past members of Boyz II Men all met, attending class at the same time as Questlove and Black Thought of the Roots. Jazmine Sullivan, Christian McBride and Leslie Odom Jr. have also walked its halls. But the way Morris tells it, he was never supposed to be there.
"My goal was not to go to (CAPA)," he explained. "I didn't want to go and sing and be famous and be in a band. I wanted to play sports. I wanted to play professional football. (But) my parents and my music teacher thought that that's where I should be. I guess musically, they thought I had something to offer."
It was a fair assumption. Morris took music classes at every school he attended, playing the trumpet, French horn and trombone when he wasn't singing. But as he grew older, he "didn't take music that seriously," he said, fixating instead on football as his future. Lucky for Boyz II Men fans, CAPA didn't have a team, so he joined the emerging group out of boredom.
The band, originally called Unique Attraction, was an early hit at the school's Valentine's Day concert and annual talent show. The boys beat out an early version of the Roots to win the latter showcase, a victory that drummer/emcee Questlove still contests to this day. In an interview with the Huffington Post, he said Boyz II Men would "cheat" with glitter, smoke, flowers and top hats.
"Well, I mean, we're still singing the way we do, so I think that might have a little something to do with it, too," Morris said.
After graduation, the group changed their name and signed a deal with Motown Records for their debut album "Cooleyhighharmony." It was a nine-time platinum-certified hit. The band would later beat a record set by Elvis Presley when "End of the Road," the song they contributed to the "Boomerang" movie soundtrack, spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
For their first six albums, Boyz II Men was a quartet comprised of Morris, Shawn Stockman, Wanyá Morris and Michael McCary. But after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, McCary left the group in 2003. The guys still refer to their "fourth member" all these years later, emphasizing McCary's importance to their story in conversation and tributes to the band. Morris said his inclusion was one of the few notes they offered to Mural Arts about the planned Boyz II Men mural at 1122 Broad St., the unveiling of which is set for next spring. McCary will also be a part of the group's forthcoming docuseries, announced in 2024.
That project has been slow-going, Morris said, because of all the ground they have to cover. While the group has always been loud and proud about their roots — just consider their first single "Motownphilly" — he believes many fans in the city still don't know their whole story.
"There are people in Philly who think we went to a college, that we were Ivy League school guys and we were far from that," Morris said. "Knowing how we grew up. Some of our parents weren't, I wouldn't say they did the greatest of parenting. They had different situations going on with their lives at the time. Some of our reasons for being in the group was an escape. There's a lot of stuff we really dig into."
Morris admits he's not as in touch with his hometown as he used to be. When he returns, he's usually working or visiting family — and they often want to head down the shore to Atlantic City. (Morris's games of choice are poker and Highlander slots.) But he was impressed with how Philly withstood its crazed summer trifecta of the World Cup, semiquincentennial and MLB All-Star Game, the latter of which he saw up close.
"(The energy) was definitely different," he said. "There was definitely a spotlight on the city, and I think they represented it very well."
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