Denzil Foster was born in 1962 and his childhood was greatly influenced by the Philly soul of that time. Thomas McElroy grew up with jazz music, as his father was a jazz piano player. Foster and McElroy met each other at Oakland, CA's Laney College on a basketball court. They were both enrolled in college: McElroy at San Francisco State and Foster at U.S.C. In the beginning of the 1980's, the two saw that the popularity of r&b was declining and decided to reinvigorate the genre by adding rap beats. They hooked up with producer Jay King and released several singles on the independent Triangle label, before the formula yielded hits like the three-million selling "Rumours" by the Timex Social Club and Club Noveau's number one hit "Lean on Me". After that success, Fosetr & McElroy assembled the band En Vogue. The group was very successful and had several number one r&b hits, including "Hold On", "Lies", "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)", "You Don't Have to Worry" and "Don't Let Go (Love)". En Vogue had two platinum albums, "Born to Sing" and "EV3" and one triple-platinum album, called "Funky Divas". Foster & McElroy also produced songs for Tony!, Toni! Tone'! and Silk-E. They also had their own recording career. Using their own names Foster McElroy, they had a top 10 r&b hit with "Dr. Soul". With M.C. Lyte, the Atlantic album Fm2 and Fmob had the hit "Runaway Love" which featured En Voque.

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D i s c o g r a p h y

Gotta be a better way	1989
Dr. Soul	1989
Around the world in 80 beats	1989
FM 2	1989