- The cover of Kima, Keisha & Pam
Hyde Park’s the Promontory has been hosting some of the finest shows in town, partly thanks to the ingenious bookings of jack-of-all-trades (and Reader writer) Jake Austen. One such performance takes place this Saturday, when 90s R&B trio Total plays two shows at the south-side concert hall. Members Kima Raynor, Keisha Spivey, and Pamela Long were the biggest R&B act on Sean “Puffy” Combs‘s initial Bad Boy Records roster, making their debut on two of Notorious B.I.G.’s most famous singles, “Juicy” and both versions of “One More Chance” (Long also sang the chorus on “Hypnotize,” which means her voice is currently taking space somewhere in your subconscious). They released two albums in the 90s before splitting up, 1996’s sharp self-titled release and 1998’s sort-of-self-titled Kima, Keisha & Pam. But the best work the group ever did on their own wasn’t on either of these two albums, but rather in between them: the 1997 single “What About Us,” which was relegated to the hard-to-find Soul Food soundtrack.
