When Tyrone “Fly Ty” Williams, founder of Cold Chillin’ records speaks about Rap’s embryonic days he often says that many early M.C.s were no more than frustrated singers. Some crews could barely hold a note, while others like the Crash Crew and The Furious 5, (specifically Rahiem), were talented singers that could and did flourish when given proper training. But there was one crew that rhymed and sang with equal skill; and they eventually became one of the premiere R&B groups of the 1980s.

The Force M.C.s formed in 1981 with Mercury, Stevie D and D.J. Dr. Rock. Stevie D was also a member of The Fantastic LDs with his brother T.C.D., his uncle Jessie D. and his other brother Khalil.

“One part of me was rapping with Mercury who taught me how to rhyme and D.J. Dr. Rock, and the other was singing with The LDs on the Staten Island Ferry. Our last name was Lundy and Jessie’s last name was Daniels and that’s how we came up with L.D.s – 'Lundy & Daniel,'” says Stevie D. It was Jessie’s idea to sing for money on the ferry after seeing a country singer on the ferry raking in a nice bit of change. The group sang songs by The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and even Elvis Presley and collected a respectable amount of money in the process. 

The Force M.C.'s played in the circuit of early New York Hip Hop clubs including Harlem World where they had a legendary battle with The Cold Crush Brothers. Stevie D says that the promoter billed it as a battle, but he didn’t tell the Cold Crush Brothers, so the Cold Crush came, performed and left. The Force M.C.’s were also in the M.C. contest that became the legendary Kool Moe Dee vs Busy Bee battle at Harlem World as well. “People didn’t really take us seriously so it really took us awhile to get a buzz," says Stevie D. "They would always tell us that Staten Island isn’t part of New York and they would clown us because we had to take the ferry to get to the city”. 

Stevie also talked of the uphill battle to find their place in the small but growing world of early 80s Hip Hop. “I remember Doug E. Fresh called himself 'Dougie Doug' originally. We were really close because we both really struggled for respect early, but ended up making hit records later. I’m not sure who did the beat box first, but my uncle Jessie was doing it really early at Harlem World and the crowd went bananas adds Stevie. Jessie was a drummer following in the footsteps of one of his uncles. He kept drum patterns in his head, and when the group went acapella which they did often, Jessie would do the Human Beat Box. He dubbed himself The Human Linn Drum. Though the group had a hard time finding their niche, any live recording from that time period will reveal that they were a well-oiled machine with routines that used interpolations from Gilligan’s Island and other popular television programs and Dr. Rock provided a dope sound bed for their performances. 

Radio legend Mr. Magic of WHBI (where the Force M.C.’s appeared early with the World’s Famous Supreme Team) and WBLS happened to see the group performing on the ferry one day and offered to take them to Tommy Boy records to meet the labels founder and CEO Tom Silverman. Trisco Pearson of the Staten Island R&B group The Cook Corporation happened to be on the ferry the day that the group was headed to Tommy Boy and he had just left Cook Corporation. Because Trisco was close with T.C.D. they invited him to come with them to the audition. Khalil had just converted to Islam and was no longer interested in singing. Once Tommy heard the group and their tandem style of Rap and doo-wop-styled harmonizing, he signed them and suggested a name change to M.D.’s since M.C.’s would have suggested that they only rapped. Tom said that "MD" could be an acronym for "Musical Diversity."

The Force M.D.’s debut album Love Letters dropped in 1984, which perfectly coincided with the Sugar Hill records house bands departure from that label not too long before. Drummer Keith Leblanc, bass player Doug Wimbish, vocal coach Craig Derry, guitar player Skip McDonald and the Chops Horns all contributed to the album. Leblanc’s drum programming can be heard prominently on songs like “Itchin’ For A Scratch”,” Forgive Me Girl” and the lead single “Let Me Love You”, while Doug Wimbish’s unmistakable bass cuts through the classic ballad “Tears." Those songs comprised an album that those who were growing up with Hip-Hop and their parents could enjoy. 

“I played drums or programmed all the drums on that album and I even got a writers credit on a few songs," says Leblanc. "Which I never got at Sugar Hill. I used the Linn drum on all of those songs. I did 'Malcolm X No Sell Out' at Tommy Boy and when Tom signed The Force M.D.s, his wife Robin Halprin was working with them on the music, but it wasn’t funky. She was just laying the basis of what they would sing and write to. Tom wasn’t pleased with how the music was going so I offered to bring in the band that used to be the Sugar Hill house band and things went from there.”

Silverman dressed the group in varsity sweaters emblazoned with the letter F reminiscent of doo-wop group Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers. In fact, with this album, The Force M.D.'s were christened the inventors of “doo-wop Hip-Hop”. The close proximity to Tommy Boy’s stable of producers and Rap and Electro artists put the groups music into Tommy Boy mega mixes and motion picture soundtracks for Hip Hop related movies. The inclusion of “Let me Love You” in Michael Holman’s pilot for "Graffiti Rock" (a dance show billed as Hip Hop’s version of "Soul Train") helped add further legitimacy to the group in Hip-Hop circles. And “Itchin For A Scratch” saved the movie Rappin’.

The groups sophomore album “Chillin”’ was much lighter on Hip Hop with the exception of “Force M.D.’s Meet The Fat Boys." Songs like “Here I Go Again”, “One Plus One” and the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced “Tender Love” from the Krush Groove soundtrack were a lot more mature sonically than songs from the previous album, and the group had become a force to reckon with in R&B earning the reputation of excellent live performers.

“The Force MDs were hot on the charts with 'Here I Go Again,' 'Tender Love,' 'Tears' and 'Forgive Me Girl,'" proclaims Mark Green, the Force M.D.'s road manager for New Edition’s 1986 All For Love Tour. "These guys had harmony, dance moves and acrobatics which proved to be tough competition for New Edition. They left the crowd in a frenzy every night as they toppled over New Edition while singing 'Tender Love' and leaving them in 'Tears.'” 

Stevie echoes Mark’s memory of the tour. “The newspapers were writing that we were outshining them every night. Think about it. Have you ever seen them stop and go acapella? We are the main reason that they added Johnny Gill. We had too many elements, man: Trisco with the baritone, T.C. with the falsetto. To me, Johnny sounded a little too advanced for [New Edition]. When they worked with Jimmy and Terry they were trying to get something like 'Tender Love.' But the closest they came was 'Can You Stand The Rain.'”

“Tender Love” is by far the most popular Force M.D.'s song, but there was some question whether it would be a hit initially. “Jessie was literally crying because there were no drums in the song. Jimmy and Terry had to keep assuring him that it didn’t need drums, but Jessie didn’t think that it would work,” says Stevie between giggles.

Known for their acapella harmonizing, the group caught the attention of the Material Girl herself as she was promoting her 1987 movie Who’s That Girl and ran into the group at one of her after parties. After witnessing their harmonizing, she invited them on the European leg of her tour that summer.

By 1987 and the release of their third album Touch & Go they were now a quartet, as Jessie D left the group to take care of some personal issues. “Love Is A House” was the albums biggest song, the groups 3rd top ten song on Billboard’s Black Singles chart and it peaked at number 1 for 2 weeks in 1987. “Touch & Go” and “Couldn’t Care Less” were also hits on this album which was their most mature at this point.

In 1990 the group released the new jack swing-inspired Step To Me, their fourth album. “Are You Really Real” and “Somebody’s Crying” were minor hits, but by 1990, Teddy Riley and the new jack groups connected to him were dominating R&B. In 1995, The Force M.D.'s released their first album that wasn’t distributed by Tommy Boy records. Moments in Time, released on Itchiban, saw the return of Jessie D and Khalil, but the absence of Trisco and Mercury, who passed away on March 9th 1995. With Mercury’s death, we would start to see the passings of group members that would ultimately leave Stevie D in a position similar to Otis Williams of the legendary Temptations. On January 18th 1998 T.C.D. died of Lou Gherigs disease after fighting it for two years. On September 16, 2016, Trisco Pearson passed; and on January 5, 2022, Jessie D left us.

The Force M.D.'s were a major force in modern R&B and their songs still reverberate in the worlds of Hip Hop and R&B. The spirit of The Force M.D.'s is still alive today as Stevie, Khalil and Zieme hold the flag high.