Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya

Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya is the fourth studio album by Boyz II Men, released in August 2000 on Universal Records, named after the four members' first names in a move to a more personal artistic identity, and the first album to underperform commercially, reflecting the changed R&B landscape in which neo-soul, hip-hop-influenced R&B, and the new jack swing successor genres had reduced the commercial space for traditional a cappella harmony groups. The group wrote or co-produced several tracks; 'Pass You By,' 'The Color of Love,' and the title track were among the principal songs. The album debuted at number twenty on the Billboard 200 with 154,000 first-week sales, a significant commercial decline, and is certified platinum in the United States. Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya demonstrated that the ballad-harmony commercial cycle that had sustained the first three albums was not indefinitely renewable in the early 2000s market. The album nonetheless contains some of the group's strongest vocal performances of the post-peak period, and its commercial underperformance reflects market conditions rather than any significant decline in the quality of the vocal craft that had made the group famous.