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T.G.T VibeZ

Sixteen tracks from a supergroup of three established solo singers who decided, against all industry logic, to form a vocal group in 2013.

Tyrese Reveals That TGT Is Over, Ginuwine Responds

OneLove

TGT

TGT were Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank — three men with separate, substantial careers who spent years talking about forming a group and eventually did it. The album, Three Kings, arrived in 2013 and went to number one on the R&B chart.

The premise was explicitly nostalgic: a deliberate attempt to make the kind of male vocal group record that had essentially vanished from the market. Three leads, real harmony arrangements, ballads that take their time, and a complete indifference to what radio was playing.

The voices are genuinely complementary. Tyrese has the biggest instrument, Tank the most technically agile, and Ginuwine the most distinctive tone — and none of them is trying to win.

What to listen for

"Sex Never Felt Better" is the single and the most immediate thing here.

"Tearing It Down" and "Explode" are the two where the three-part harmony arrangement is clearest, and they are the reason the project existed.

"Lessons in Love" is the best-written song on the album and the most adult in its subject.

"I Need" and "Running Back" are the ballads where each singer gets a full verse, which is the old vocal-group structure done properly.

"Weekend Love" and "Our House" are the deep cuts, and "FYH" opens the set.

"No Fun" with Problem and "Take It Wrong" with Black-Ty — Tyrese's own rap alias — are the guest tracks.

The interludes are the group at its most relaxed and are worth keeping in sequence.

Go deeper

Three Kings (2013) is the album, and it is the whole of the catalogue — a single record, which makes it easy to assess on its own terms.

All three solo careers are worth exploring: Ginuwine's Ginuwine... the Bachelor is the essential one, a Timbaland production that is elsewhere on this blog. Tank is the most underrated singer and songwriter of the three, and Tyrese's Alter Ego is the most ambitious.

Why it works: three established solo singers forming a group is usually a vanity exercise, and this is not, because none of them is competing. The verses are shared out properly, the harmony parts are written rather than stacked, and the result is the kind of record the market had stopped making — which was the entire stated point.

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