Boyz II Men is making a country album.
The “Motownphilly” veteran vocal trio has signed with Warner Records, a Nashville based major label, and will be recording a country project with plans to release it next year.
That might seem like a surprising career move for the trio of Shawn Stockman, Nathan Morris, and Wanya Morris. Boyz II Men is billed as the best-selling R&B group of all time, based on the success of the band’s 1991 debut Cooleyhighharmony and its 1994 successor II, which sold over 20 millions copies between them.
Veteran mainstream R&B and hip-hop artists, as well as rock acts, however, have been courting the massive American country audience for decades now. It reaches back to Ray Charles in the 1960s to acts like Nelly, LL Cool J, and Darius Rucker in recent years. And, of course, Beyoncé, who collaborated with Black country artists such as Shaboozey and Brittney Spencer on Cowboy Carter.
“We love the genre so much, and at this point in our career we felt like it was the perfect time to dip our toes,” Stockman told the Nashville Tennessean. “We’ve always been enamored with the storytelling component of country music and how they actually put those stories to melody. … It was a learning experience.”
Despite being “in the business for three decades,” he said the band will “forever be students of music and we’ll always be open to learn and to appreciate different styles.”
The Philly trio already has a country history. In 2019, the band teamed with bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers on “Be Still Mores.” That same year, it recorded an updated version of “Motownphilly” with country singer Brett Young. In 2025, the group performed at the Barefoot Country Festival in Wildwood and were joined by Eagles offensive lineman Landon Dickerson for a version of “Fly, Eagles, Fly.”
And earlier this year, the trio — which sang the national anthem at the Sixers home opener last week — teamed with country-pop band Lady A on the single “I Love The One.” And at a July 4 celebration in Nashville this year, the members sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
“We’ve reached our tentacles out over many years and dabbled in other types of music, but R&B is the root of who we are,” Morris told the Tennessean. “And I think that’s why it’s so easy for us to fall in love with country music because the melodies are similar. The meanings are similar. The feelings are similar. So, it’s almost like we feel at home doing it.”
The Boyz II Men country album — as yet untitled — is due in 2027.