Wanya Morris on responding to Chili’s resurfaced Boyz II Men comments: ‘I had time’

Boyz II Men joined New Edition for their first official interview together and opened up about their perception in the industry.

When Wanya Morris fired off a recent response to a clip resurfacing (as they’re wont to do) from 2018 of TLC’s Chili recalling the large egos of members of a boy band known for “harmonizing,” it’s because he had time.

During an appearance on the “Breakfast Club” on Thursday, October 30, which also marked the first official interview shared between Boyz II Men and New Edition, the 52-year-old R&B legend explained why he responded in a social media exchange that shocked fans. 

Amid reports of Boyz II Men and New Edition finally touring together for the first time, a clip of Chili discussing the ’90s boy group and their supposed egos back in the day started to make the rounds again. In the clip, Chili vaguely alludes to a “harmonizing” boy band, which many have taken to mean Boyz II Men, and how they let their ego get in the way of further collaborating with music icon Babyface. 

When co-host Loren Lorosa asked Morris why he even bothered to address something he knew wasn’t true, he said, “Because I got time.” 

The singer revealed he was home recovering from an injured knee, lounging on the couch watching cartoons and playing video games, when he saw the post start to jump off. 

“I saw that sh—, and I said, ‘Hmm, this will be fun,’” he said of responding. “And guess what it was. It was very fun because I got a chance to let the people who really cared on that page know that it was a lie.”  

The topic arose towards the end of their appearance, after Boyz II Men were asked about their rumored biopic. The group assured the hosts that the biopic was no rumor and was in development. Though given the misconceptions already swirling about them, they are taking their time to get the story right. 

“We’re still in the embryonic stages of it, still trying to get things together because we want to make sure that the story is told the right way because there are a lot of things by design that we have not said,” Shawn Stockman said. “There’s a lot of things that’s been mentioned about the group and said about the group and things of that nature.” 

Morris interjected to clarify that it’s not as if Boyz II Men were these demure choir boys who responded perfectly in every scenario. Coming up in the industry, they were under a lot of different influences and pressure, including from older icons like Prince, who told them to be wary of being taken advantage of.  

“So we developed a chip,” he added. “We started looking at everybody like, ‘Oh, no, you’re not gonna do this to us. You’re not gonna do this to us.’ So when they hear our voices, because we were so silent because everybody else was doing it for us, now, we’re a—holes.”