Arrested Development making minor comeback

By Cortney Harding

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Way back in 1992, hip-hop act Arrested Development reached No. 7 on The Billboard 200 with its debut, "3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of." The album has sold 2.7 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and earned the group a best new artist Grammy Award.

But after 1994 follow-up "Zingalamaduni" shifted just 157,000 units, Arrested Development virtually disappeared for more than a decade.

Until April, that is, when the group digitally released a new effort, "Since the Last Time." The album came out October 30 on CD via frontman Speech's label, Vagabond.

Combined sales are fewer than 2,000 copies (nearly all of them digital), according to SoundScan, but manager Jay Wilson isn't worried.

"This is really a slow-burn record," he says. "We're not on a major. We can't take it to pop radio, so we have to work through other channels to make sure people know it's out there." Wilson is banking on hardcore fans who loved the band back in the '90s to pick up copies and spread the word to their friends.

Getting the word out about its political and social values was one of the main reasons Arrested Development decided to regroup in the first place, Speech explains. "We felt like we left a void in hip-hop that no one had filled," he says. He admits the band is in a somewhat unique position, coming back from such a long hiatus.

"We're a legendary band, but there are a lot of young people who have never really heard us," he says. "But our audience is huge; we have supporters who are 18 and supporters who are 70. We're hoping to reach out to the thinking people and generate a swell of excitement about our message."

Reuters/Billboard