Raised in extremely religious Pentecostal families, K-Ci and JoJo - then known as Little Cedric & the Hailey Singers - originally performed and recorded as a gospel group, releasing three albums; "Jesus Saves", "I'm Alright Now", and "God's Blessings". K-Ci would later draw comparisons to Michael Jackson during his gospel career. Separately, Mr. Dalvin and DeVanté Swing performed and toured in their own family's gospel group, where the duos later made acquaintances through relationships the members were in at the time. In a 2011 interview, Dalvin stated, "there was this girl gospel group called UNITY and then the Don DeGrate Delegation, which Devanté and I played in. So we met some of the girls from UNITY and was dating K-Ci before we even met [and she would always tell us that we need to meet K-Ci and JoJo." A short time after meeting, the brothers started living together after leaving their families to pursue musical careers.