If you were a tween or teen in the 1990s, you were probably playing songs by Al B. Sure! in heavy rotation. The sexy singer from “Money-Earning Mount Vernon” gave up a chance to play college football to pursue a career in music – and we’re certainly glad he did! His debut solo album, “In Effect Mode,” launched his career into the stratosphere with hits like “Night and Day,” “Off On Your Own Girl,” and “Rescue Me,” and we’re pretty sure it helped a lot of single light-skinned brothers’ game.
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But in the late 2010s and early 2020s, things took a turn for the singer with a series of life-changing events, including the passing of his ex-girlfriend and mother of his son, Kim Porter, as well as a life-threatening health scare of his own. The singer has hinted for years that there is more to the story about those events than what we think, even suggesting that rapper-producer Sean “Diddy” Combs may have played a role. But just when we thought we were going to get all of the deets in a revealing memoir this year, it was announced that the release is being postponed until 2050!
Since there’s no way we can’t wait 25 years for the book, we thought we’d look at what we do know about Al B. Sure!’s journey to stardom.
Money-Earning Mount Vernon
Before he was Al B. Sure!, he was Albert Joseph Brown III, born on June 4, 1968, in Boston, Massachusetts. His family relocated to Mount Vernon, New York, a city in Westchester County, just north of the Bronx. Although it’s no bigger than four square miles, other legendary entertainers, including Dick Clark and Denzel Washington call Mount Vernon home – something long-time friend and Al B. Sure! collaborator DJ Eddie F from Heavy D. & The Boyz says helped fuel his drive for success.
“I think we had a lot of inspiration. We grew up with a lot of legends,” he said in an interview with Fox 26 Houston. “That excellence was kind of put out there as an image for us to emulate.
A Football Star
A standout football player in high school, Brown earned a scholarship opportunity to play at the University of Iowa. But he turned it down to pursue a music career. One of his high school teammates and good friends, rapper Heavy D would be a key player in making his dream come true, paving the way for him become the first R&B artist signed to Andre Harrell’s new label, Uptown Records.
Meeting Quincy Jones
With his new contract in place, Al B. Sure! started working on his first album, with help from his cousin, Kyle West, a then-teenage Teddy Riley and DJ Eddie F. Around the same time, he entered the Sony Innovators Talent Search and was chosen as the winner by none other than legendary hitmaker Quincy Jones.
In Effect Mode
On May 3, 1988, Al B Sure! dropped his first album, “In Effect Mode,” on Uptown Records, while Warner Bros. handled distribution. His breakout hit was the sexy slow jam “Night and Day,” which rose all the way to number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and took the top spot in the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
In an interview with Okayplayer, Kyle West said that although the hook and the melody for the track Teddy Riley and Andre Harrell called “the Michael Jackson song,” the lyrics for the verses came together right before they were getting ready to record.
“He wrote them on a napkin when we were sitting and eating at McDonald’s. Once we returned back to the studio, he put down the verses and that completed the song,” he said.
“Off On Your Own Girl”
Don’t get it twisted: Al B. Sure! wasn’t just about singing ballads. The “In Effect Mode” album also produced the upbeat hit, “Off On Your Own Girl,” which gave him another number one single on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart.
The song and the music video, that was on constant rotation on BET, solidified him as one of the kings of the New Jack Swing sound, along with Keith Sweat, Guy and Bobby Brown. He was also one of the few guys who could look sexy AF in a denim on denim look.
Meeting Kim Porter
Al B. Sure met model Kim Porter in 1988 when he was introduced to her by mutual friend Andre Harrell at one of Sure!’s shows. Things got serious quickly and the two were married in 1989. Their son, Quincy Brown, who was named for Quincy Jones, was born shortly after in 1991. But unfortunately, the pair split that same year.
Kim’s Passing
Kim Porter went on to have a high-profile relationship with Diddy in the early 1990s. The two had four children together, and Diddy happily accepted Quincy, Porter’s son with Al B. Sure! into their blended family.
Porter’s life was cut short when she tragically passed away in November 2018. According to the Los Angeles County Coroner, the cause of death was determined as lobar pneumonia. But Al B. Sure! has his doubts, even suggesting Combs may have had something to do with it.
In a 2024 Instagram post, he wrote:
“It is evident that her potential to expose the realities of her personal abuses, being drugged, the #SexTrafficking and #HumanTrafficking she was privy to, akin to the brave actions of Mrs. Cassie Ventura, posed a threat to those profiting from such heinous activities. In a nutshell, Kimberly was allegedly taken from us because she was set on course to accomplish what Mrs. Cassie Ventura did by ignited the Bon Fire which brings us here today with the avalanche that has brought [Satan] to their chambers.”
Al’s Health Scare
In 2022, Al B. Sure! was preparing for a musical comeback, when a health scare put his plans on hold. Sitting down with Fox 26 Houston, he said he was intubated, placed on a ventilator and received a liver transplant. He recalled the events that led to him spending two months in a coma.
“I started working and I lost all of the feeling on the left-hand side of my body, and I just collapsed,” he said.
Words of Warning
Sure! said he received warnings from Porter about how dangerous it could be for him to get on Diddy’s bad side. In an interview, Sure! said his ex “instructed” him to stay away from her and their son – for his own good.
“I was told that Puffy wasn’t too happy about anyone who had a relationship with Kimberly,” he said. “Being told ‘Please, don’t do that tough guy Mount Vernon s*t. You will get killed.”
But the singer maintains that the idea that Diddy is Quincy’s father is nothing more than a PR stunt.
“There’s no adoption. There’s no letter to my father and all that. All crafted by a publicist,” he said. “And if you haven’t noticed, his name is still Brown.”
A Disdain For Diddy
On The Art of Dialogue, Diddy’s former bodyguard Gene Deal said things fell apart between his former boss and Al B. Sure! when Diddy started dating Kim Porter. He said he doesn’t know if the Bad Boy Records founder was capable of causing harm to Al B. Sure!, but added that Sure! wouldn’t claim Diddy had something to do with his illness unless he had the evidence to support it.
“Either he gave him something, or sent something his way,” he said.
Come Home
Without question, Diddy and Quincy Brown were close. Diddy claimed he adopted Quincy, and the now-34-year-old is known to call him “Pops.” But as Diddy’s legal troubles mounted and his homes were raided, Al B. Sure! reached out to Quincy on social media, hoping he would lean on him during the difficult time.
“#LettertoMySon! Come Home. The [door] is wide open,” the”Nite and Day” singer wrote, in a March 28, 2024 Instagram post that included a picture of the two together. “You’re safe here son! I Love you, Popz, Your Biological.”
Book Deal
In May 2025, Al B Sure! scored a deal with publisher Simon & Schuster to share his story in a new memoir, “Do You Believe Me Now?” The book promised to be a juicy read, with the singer spilling tea on troubled rapper-producer Diddy, including a potential connection to Al’s 2022 coma.
According to a press release from the publisher, the book “reveals the untold story of his near-death health emergency, shocking ties to Sean Combs, romance with the late Kim Porter, and the extraordinary highs and life-threatening lows of being a pioneering New Jack Swing superstar.”
But Page Six reported on August 7 that the project has been put on hold until December 31, 2050, due to “creative differences” dealing with Diddy.
“Simon & Schuster wanted him to include more stuff about P. Diddy, but he didn’t really want to go there,” Sure’s lawyer Robert J. Hantman told the outlet.
Collateral Damage
Although Al B. Sure! has had his doubts about Sean “Diddy” Combs for years, he said in an interview that seeing him being behind bars is nothing to celebrate.
“There’s way too much collateral damage, in many, many ways,” he told Fox 5 New York. “Many people’s lives are affected, and in fact, a genre of music that I grew up with is ruined right now.”
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