702 - Pootie Tangin'

About "Pootie Tangin'"

702 (pronounced "seven-oh-two") is an American girl group, with its final and most known line-up consisting of Kameelah Williams, and sisters Irish and LeMisha Grinstead. Formed in 1996, the group was named after the area code of their hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The group was originally a quartet featuring the Grinstead sisters born in Houston, Texas: LeMisha (born June 10, 1978), identical twins Orish (June 2, 1980 – April 20, 2008) and Irish (June 2, 1980 – September 16, 2023), with Amelia Childs. They debuted as a guest performers on Subway's 1994 single, "This Lil' Game We Play". Amelia and Orish were removed from the group due to manager Michael Bivins not favoring their voices, and both of whom were replaced by classmates Tiffany Villarreal (who departed from the group prior to recording) and Kameelah Williams (born March 8, 1978, in Las Vegas, Nevada). Continuing as a trio, they were signed by Motown and released their 1996 debut single, "Steelo" (featuring Missy Elliott) to commercial success, peaking within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100.

702's debut studio album, No Doubt (1996), tepidly entered the Billboard 200, but received gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and spawned their second top 40 single "All I Want", as well as their first top ten single, "Get It Together". Their second album, 702 (1999), spawned the single "Where My Girls At?", for which they became best known as it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. For undisclosed conflicting personal reasons with the record label, Kameelah Williams distanced herself from the Grinstead sisters after the release of that album, and was replaced by Cree La'More, a solo singer who Irish and LeMisha personally picked to join the group. The new line-up released the 2001 single, "Pootie Tangin'" for the namesake film soundtrack, though shortly after this, Kameelah Williams returned to the group, and for undisclosed reasons, Cree La'More left the ensemble.

With the return of Kameelah Williams, they released their third album Star (2003) which failed to produce any charting singles. The group then disbanded in 2006. Orish Grinstead died on April 20, 2008, at age 27. The group’s remaining members reunited once more in 2017, and appeared at the 2017 Soul Train Music Awards. Irish Grinstead died on September 16, 2023, at the age of 43.