Lopes created the girl group Blaque, an acronym for Believe, Life, Achieving, Quest, Unity and Everything, as "an outlet" for Reed. The group included singers Shamari Fears and Brandi Williams; Lopes described Reed as the rapper and writer of the trio. Reed and Fears were school friends, and worked together on other music projects including an urban country group. They had met Williams during an audition for Lopes' production company Left Eye Productions. Reed was 19 when Left Eye Productions signed the trio. Lopes mentored and managed the trio and media outlets identified Reed as Lopes' protégé. Reed explained Blaque's sound and style: "The vibe we want to get across that we're universal. We're not just urban and R&B." According to "Billboard", Blaque's music contains elements of R&B, pop music, and rap music. Jean-Claude Olivier of Trackmasters said that Blaque was more pop in comparison to TLC. Blaque first appeared as a group during a cameo appearance in the music videos for the remix of Lil' Kim's 1997 single "Not Tonight" and Jermaine Dupri's 1998 song "Someday at Christmas". In 1999, they performed as the opening act for NSYNC's NSYNC in Concert and TLC's FanMail Tour.