There are two artists who share this page. 1) The Reggae and Ska Minneapolis-St.Paul band 2) The New Jack Swing band 1. The Rude Boys are a Minneapolis-St. Paul band formed in 1980 by Bob Pates, Chris Johnson, Dan Lapinsky, Jim Corcoran and Peter Nelson. Roger Lynn joined the band several years later. Heavily influenced by reggae and ska, the Rude Boys played a wide variety of reggae, blues, rock and pop-flavored tunes. They were known for remaking unusual songs in the reggae mold. These included the Lieber & Spector hit "Spanish Harlem" on which Peter Nelson lead with an accordian, as an added eclectic touch. Often, the band would break into a reggae rhythm on one chorus or verse in the middle of a song. They usually closed out a night of music by performing a capella, singing a blend of "Home on the Range" and the "Banana Boat Song". 2. Band members Larry Marcus (a cousin of B.B. King), Melvin Sephus, and brothers Edward Lee Banks and Joe Little III were discovered by Gerald Levert, who got them signed to Atlantic Records. The band's 1990 debut LP, Rude Awakening, included the single "Written All Over Your Face", which made it to #1 R&B and #16 on the pop chart, as well as "Heaven", which was a top ten R&B hit. The group would score a second number one R&B hit from this album in 1990, "Are You Lonely for Me," written by Joe Little and Tony Nicholas. The Rude Boys also toured that year with Levert. The album itself was just one spot below the Billboard R&B top 10 spot, where it sat comfortably at #11 in the spring of 1990. They followed up their debut album with Rude House in 1992, which included the singles "My Kinda Girl" (an underground new jack hit that peaked at number 2 on the Billboards R&B chart) & "Go Ahead & Cry." The album sold a little under 250,000 units. Joe Little went on to do a solo album up under Atlantic Records entitled Puttin It Down in 1994, and it sold a little over 250,000. The Rude Boys follow-up album without Little Rude As Ever sold even less) with Dwight Thompson a fellow Cleveland native as his replacement. The group did reunite again. The talks started after they performed at their mentor Gerald Levert's funeral. All four original members performed. Larry Marcus, who had already decided to pursue a gospel career, has not continued performing with the Rude Boys since then. The remaining trio of Joe Little III, Edward "Buddy" Banks, and Marcus Sephus decided to move on without him and have been performing shows in the US and working on a new album. Joe Little (a.k.a. Casino Joe) released a solo mix cd entitled Joe Little R&B Mix Cd 2008. The group decided to add Dwight Thompson, who originally filled in for Little on Rude As Ever, back to the group, making it a quartet once again. Thompson had previously replaced Gerald Levert in Levert, but he returned to the Rude Boys not long after. He was replaced by singer Blaq Rose in Levert, and was released from the Rude boys yet again.In 2010 Joe Little obtained a new solo recording deal with Majestee/Universal. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.