Boomerang Week: Toni Braxton - Love Shoulda Brought You Home (1992)

And now we come to arguably the centrepiece of the whole album. L.A. & Babyface wanted a Whitney Houston-style female vocalist to be the figurehead of their then recently-launched LaFace records label and boy, did they get one. Formerly of gospel supergroup The Braxtons, her début album is a stonker, with not only this track, but also classics like Another Sad Love Song and Breathe Again.
Love Shoulda Brought You Home was the first solo single by Braxton. Written by Babyface, Daryl Simmons, and Bo Watson, it served as the follow-up release to Give U My Heart, the duet with Babyface. The two songs were initially submitted to Anita Baker, but due to her impending pregnancy she had to decline. The single became a top forty hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and her second consecutive top five hit on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. One year later, the song was included on her eponymous debut album, Toni Braxton.
The title is an allusion from a line in Boomerang; in the film, Halle Berry's character, Angela Lewis, angrily tells her man, Marcus Graham (Eddie Murphy), after he spent the night with another woman, "Love should've brought your ass home last night." The music video, directed by Ralph Ziman, showed an angry Braxton, fed up with her boyfriend and testifying that if he really cared, then love should have brought him home last night.
As an aside, she found true worldwide success with tracks from her second album Secrets, with You're Makin' Me High and the Diane Warren-penned Un-Break My Heart, a version of which she did at her live concert at Wembley Arena, a concert which I had the distinct privilege of attending. She dedicated her rendition of the Un-Break My Heart to the recently deceased Princess Of Wales, and sang it to imagery of Diana on the giant video screen behind her.
Now I'm no Daily Express reader, but even I had a lump in my throat at that point.

Boomerang Week: Johnny Gill- There You Go (1992)

I saw Johnny Gill live at Wembley Arena in 1991 as a 'warm-up' act to Janet Jackson on her Rhythm Nation world tour. So much for a warm-up act; he threatened to steal the show, so good was his vocal performance. Amongst other songs at the concert, he did a near 17 minute version (you read that right) of' My My My , paying homage to Teddy Pendergrass' Love TKO and Marvin's Lets Get It On along the way - WOW. It was recorded and released as the B-side to Wrap My Body Tight, so I'm one of the many thousands of fans screaming in the background!
He also took over from Bobby Brown as the main vocalist in New Edition at about the same time; NE didn't miss Bobby for one moment with JG on board. If anything, with Johnny's distinctive vocals, New Editions' sound matured; tracks like Can You Stand The Rain and Boys To Men (note spelling) attest to that.
There You Go is a typically slick LA & Babyface produced ballad, good enough to have been included onto any of his albums; it was initially exclusive to the soundtrack - he did a similar trick on two other soundtracks -  I'm Still Waiting on New Jack City and Let's Just Run Away on Mo' Money. Both the latter track and There You Go were included on a later re-release of his 1993 album, Provocative.

Boomerang Week: Kenny Vaughan and the Art of Love - Feels Like Heaven (1992)

Yet another gem from the Boomerang OST; well, not quite. This is the full four minute version of Feels Like Heaven (the version used was only two minutes); shades of Take 6 with the accapella vocals. Again, we think that this could have made waves in the charts had it been released and had the right airplay.
I defy a modern act, reliant on Autotune to sound good to do vocals like this.

Boomerang Week: Shanice Wilson - Don't Wanna Love You (1992)

Remember the track I Love Your Smile? Well, Shanice had a pretty decent R&B career back then, and tracks like this show you why. Produced by L.A. & Babyface, Don't Wanna Love You was never released but is strong enough to have held it's own in the charts.

Boomerang Week: A Tribe Called Quest - Hot Sex (1992)

ATCQ don't get the props they deserve in 2012; a shame, as they are one of the great lyrical hip-hop acts.
Formed in 1985, members are Q-Tip (Kamaal Fareed), Phife Dawg aka Phife Diggy (Malik Taylor), and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 1991. Along with De La Soul, the group was a central part of the Native Tongues Posse (that also included the Jungle Brothers and De La Soul), and enjoyed the most commercial success out of all the groups to emerge from that collective. Many of their songs, such as Bonita Applebum, Can I Kick It?, I Left My Wallet in El Segundo, Scenario, Check the Rhime, Jazz (We've Got), Award Tour and Electric Relaxation are classics.
They released five albums between 1990 and 1998 and then disbanded that year, as they wanted to persue solo careers. In 2006, they reunited and toured the US, and released The Lost Tribes, a compilation of unreleased and rare material. The group are pioneers of alternative hip-hop music and have undoubtedly helped to pave the way for innovative hip-hop artists.
Now you've seen the video, you're no doubt thinking why is Q-tip wearing a burn mask? I've found two different explanations.
The first one is (incredibly) that he was beaten up by Teddy Riley and crew over the line:
"strictly hardcore tracks, not a new jack swing" in the song We Got the Jazz. The injuries he incurred couldn't be covered by make-up, hence the mask. More of an urban myth, to be honest, and anyway,  It wasn't even 'Tip's line, but Phife's.
Another much more plausible (and accepted) explanation is Q-Tip didn't want to do a video for the song and that Paramount Pictures (the film's studio) and Jive Records (ATCQ's label) consented the group's availability against their wishes, so he wore the mask as a protest.