Fired up by watching veteran performers such as James Brown and Otis Redding at New York's legendary Apollo Theater as a child, the Julliard School-trained Larry Blackmon developed the idea for Cameo while playing with a succession of New York funk bands. Cameo evolved from the 13-piece New York City Players, a hard-core funk band dedicated to opposing the disco craze sweeping Manhattan and the country. Signed to Chocolate City Records in 1976, Cameo was always controlled by Blackmon, who acted as producer on their first record date and every one to follow. Their early albums were mostly Parliament and Ohio Players-influenced funk, going mostly unnoticed until 1979's hit single "I Just Want to Be" assaulted the charts.

By 1982, Blackmon knew the era of the big funk band was over, paring down Cameo's then-nine pieces to just five--himself, Leftenant, Jenkins, Singleton, and Johnson--moving the group to Atlanta and starting his Atlanta Artists label years before L.