Virginia Beach Honors R&B Group Blackstreet With Street Sign

NJG NewsWire
VIRGINIA BEACH

Virginia Beach City Council recently approved a unanimous resolution to add the name BLACKstreet Blvd. under the existing sign for Beasley Drive. Beasley Drive will retain its name. 

Mayor Bobby Dyer and Councilwoman Amelia Ross-Hammond read the resolution aloud: “Blackstreet played a central role in defining the R&B and hip-hop crossover era, helping reshape the sound of mainstream music at a critical moment in its evolution. Their influence continues to be reflected across generations of artists and remains embedded in today’s global music landscape.”

The R&B group was launched in Harlem in the early 1990s but has deep roots in Virginia Beach.

Chauncey “Black” Hannibal, Levi Little, Mark Middleton and Eric Williams posed with one of the new signs after the resolution was approved.

“First of all, I would like to say I would never have thought 30-plus years later that this would be happening for Blackstreet,” Hannibal told council members.

Hannibal and Riley, who founded the group, reflected on their lives in Virginia Beach. 

“Virginia Beach has always been great to us,” said Hannibal, who lived in Ashbrook Apartments located near Beasley Drive. You may recall their chart-climbing hits included a 1994 debut album that was recorded with Riley’s former Future Recording Studios in Virginia Beach and featured songs that reached high on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts: “Booti Call,” “Before I Let You Go” and “Joy.”

The group dropped a 1996 album, “Another Level.”  It earned a Grammy for “No Diggity.” Featuring Dr. Dre, “No Diggity” spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It has had up more than 1 billion streams on Spotify.