Remember when Cicely Tyson gave birth to baby “Kunta Kinte” in Roots? Well we had NO idea he was a member of a popular 80’s R&B group that was flooding the airwaves and had several #1 hits back in the day! Flip the page to see who he is.
Baby “Kunta Kinte” was played by Tajh Abdulsamad, from the 80’s R&B group, The Boys! Remember them? They were 4 brothers (literally) who were singing “Dial My Heart” and had all of the pre-teen girls going crazy over them. Tahj (the one one circled in the above photo) is the third born among his brothers and he was born in ’76, a year before Roots was released.
So Tajh has been in front of the camera ever since he stepped out of the womb…literally! Now this was news to all of us over here at ILOSM, but just like the old school saying goes- “We learn something new everyday.”
By the way, have you seen and heard Tajh lately? Him all grown up nah! Check him out below, his music is off the hook too.
Tajh now goes by the name of Crown and the brotha’s music is solid. He’s 39 years old now. I’ve gotta admit that at first glance, it was difficult NOT to see Tajh as that lil’ chubby faced dude in the videos from back in the day. If it’s like that for you too, don’t sweat it, after a couple seconds your eyes get adjusted to the grown up Tajh.
Check out a couple of his songs below…you might be pleasantly surprised. It’s ALL the way different from The Boys music.
Crown (Tahj)- Comfortable
Tajh explained to I LOVE OLD SCHOOL MUSIC how he and his brothers ended up living in the Motherland:
“We stepped away from the limelight in the mid nineties because we wanted to grow spiritually and discover the true meaning of life and our purpose in it, as well as to explore and experience “normal life” because we had been working in show business ever since we were small boys and we yearned to develop normal genuine relationships that weren’t based on our fame and success.
Around 1998 a friend named Olimatta Taal (who was one of the lead organizers of “The Roots Homecoming Festival” which is held in Gambia every other year) invited us to come perform at the festival. We were looking forward to this trip because at the time we were already culturally conscious, and we had been having conversations while working with Akon at our home studio in Atlanta about how nice Africa was, and he would tell us about some of the lesser-known aspects of Africa, and we were intrigued.
They flew us over and we performed at the festival. Afterwards, we sat in the hotel discussing how nice it was in Gambia, and sometime during that conversation we decide to stay in the country, so we called home to our parents and informed them of our decision to stay in Africa and not use our return plane tickets. We requested that they ship all of our studio equipment, clothes, and other items over to us, so that we could set up a studio in Africa and begin producing local talent. Our parents supported us in our decission and my father flew over with our gear and other important items.
We rented a beautiful compound for a year and opened our studio and began working with the locals. We stayed for four years producing and developing music, studying and immersing ourselves in the culture, and connecting with the people. After four years, we came back to the states. Myself [Tajh] and Bilal settled back in Atlanta, Khiry in L.A., and after staying in L.A. for a little while Hakim returned to Gambia to live. We purchased a family home there and re-opened “Sunland (Studio) Africa” where Hakim continues to live and work from to this day. All four brothers consider Africa home, as well as Atlanta, and Los Angeles. We are all still involved in writing and producing music and other media content.- Tahj”
The Boys new name is Suns of Light and they’ve dropped 4 albums, which they sell independently. Hakim dropped a solo project and Tajh released two of his own.
It would be good to get to see these cats still grinding and releasing grown folks music now, but y’all know how we do ILOSM fam,’ we love to go back and reminisce, so for old times sake, let’s check out a couple Old School videos from The Boys…
The Boys- Dial My Heart
For more info on Tahj and his music check him out on Instagram.
They were the cause of my first cassette tape purchase along with The Jets. Never had a boy band crush like them since. Great to see them blossoming into their destiny in such an amazing way!
They were the cause of my first cassette tape purchase along with The Jets. Never had a boy band crush like them since. Great to see them blossoming into their destiny in such an amazing way!
The Boys were a 90’s group
The Boys were a 90’s group
Wow!! I remember them.
Wow!! I remember them.
That’s really old news. They talked about that in interviews back in the day.
That’s really old news. They talked about that in interviews back in the day.
Excellent piece of trivia. I think I remember that a couple of the brothers (if not all) were actors.
Excellent piece of trivia. I think I remember that a couple of the brothers (if not all) were actors.
Glad they didn’t succumb to drugs, crime, etc. Nice music.
Glad they didn’t succumb to drugs, crime, etc. Nice music.