Arrested Development hits it big one more time

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

NBC’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” is a bona fide hit and Arrested Development, the hip hop group fronted by Fayetteville resident Speech, were the big winners from the first episode. While the program has been a smash hit with viewers and has recently been renewed, it has also brought a lot of attention to the group, more than Speech and the rest of Arrested Development ever could have hoped for.

Arrested Development appeared last year on “Amish in the City” last year and the producers of the show really liked the group and wanted to work with them again. When “Hit Me Baby One More Time” came about, the producers called the group and after deliberating for awhile, Arrested Development decided to take a chance and do the show.

“We had some reservations,” said Speech. “We wanted to be presented in the right light and not disrespected.”

The show presented Arrested Development and the rest of the acts on the first episode in a very positive light and the group did the rest of the heavy lifting, performing their hit “Tennessee” and then a cover of Los Lonely Boys’ “Heaven.” They were selected as the studio audience’s favorite act of the evening and also won the internet voting after the show aired. Records sales of Arrested Development’s albums went through the roof after the show aired and the hits on the web site climbed from around 14,000 hits a day to 89,000 hits a day.

Speech and the rest of the group were grateful for the exposure to U.S. audiences. The group has maintained popularity overseas over the past few years but since the show aired there has been interest from record labels, additional tour dates in the U.S. added to their schedule and plans to release their cover of “Heaven” as a single this summer. As the winners of the show, $20,000 was donated to the charity of their choice and the group selected UNICEF for relief in Sudan.

Overall, the experience has been fun for Arrested Development. They enjoyed the camaraderie between the acts backstage and are looking forward to performing again.

“It was like a live VH1 Behind the Music back stage,” said Speech, who said that the atmosphere wasn’t competitive at all but rather fun with a really good energy.

“Hit Me Baby One More Time airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on NBC. For more information on Arrested Development, visit www.lifemusik.com.