Studio Album · No. 4
Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya Songwriting Credits by Boyz II Men
Produced by Babyface, Bryan-Michael Cox, Jermaine Dupri, Rodney Jerkins
Holds writing credit on 12 of 14 tracks
Authorship Breakdown 12 / 14 documented
Scored across the 14 tracks with documented writers, by whether Boyz II Men carries a lyricist or composer credit.
Share of the 14 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.
By the Numbers
Named after the first names of all four members (Nathan Morris, Michael McCary, Shawn Stockman, and Wanya Morris), this was Boyz II Men's only release on Universal Records. Produced by Kevin "Shekspere" Briggs, Shep Crawford, Jazz Nixon, and Mervyn Warren, among others, the album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 and achieved RIAA Gold certification. Two singles were released but both performed below chart expectations. The album marked the point where the group's commercial dominance had definitively passed, their Motown-era releases had achieved Platinum and multi-Platinum certifications as a matter of routine; Gold was now the ceiling.
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.