702 Bring “Steelo” to Nickelodeon’s All That in Peak ’90s R&B Fashion

Performance Choice: 702 Bring “Steelo” Straight to Nickelodeon

Today’s “Performance Choice of the Day” features R&B legends 702 strutting their breakout hit jammer, “Steelo.”

Live on Nickelodeon’s sketch-comedy series All That. Circa 1996. Peak Saturday-night-kid-TV energy meeting thee smoothest corner of ’90s R&B.

Released in 1996 as the lead single from their debut album No Doubt, “Steelo” announced 702 with exactly the kind of confidence the title promised. The track featured Missy Elliott, sampled The Police’s “Voices Inside My Head,” and pushed the Las Vegas trio into the national R&B conversation.

Billboard had “Steelo” climbing into the upper reaches of the R&B chart that fall, and the single would go on to become a gold-certified breakout for the group. But seeing it performed on All That hits differently now because Nickelodeon was quietly giving hip-hop and R&B acts a national TV stage at a time when those performance slots were disappearing elsewhere.

That was part of thee magic of All That. One minute you had Good Burger chaos and sketch comedy, the next you had acts like Brandy, Blackstreet, A Tribe Called Quest, SWV — and 702 — performing for an entire generation of kids who probably did not realize they were getting a pretty serious music education in between laughs.

And “Steelo” had legs. A reworked version later became the theme song for Nickelodeon’s Cousin Skeeter, giving 702 another little piece of Nick history beyond this performance.

But right here? It is three young women, a breakout jammer and that unmistakable 1996 R&B polish. Simple. Sharp. Still thee steelo.

Watch 702 Perform “Steelo” Live on Nickelodeon’s All That

702 perform their breakout single “Steelo” during Season 3 of Nickelodeon’s All That, part of the show’s run of major R&B and hip-hop musical guests.

Sources: Billboard; Nickelodeon / All That.