Editing New Edition (section)

===2002{{ndash}}2004: Return to the spotlight and New Edition under Bad Boy===
After their second wave of solo pursuits proved less than successful, New Edition reunited once more as a five-piece without Brown and began touring clubs, casinos, and small arenas in 2002; including appearing on ''The Tom Joyner Sky Show''. After having caught the attention of rapper/producer [[Sean Combs]], who was present at one of their shows, he signed the group to his [[Bad Boy Records]] label, after their long-term contract with MCA Records finally ended.

In the fall of 2004, New Edition's seventh studio album and Bad Boy debut, ''[[One Love (New Edition album)|One Love]]'', was released. Though the album debuted at number twelve on the Billboard 200, it had a steady descent from the chart. The lead-off single, "Hot 2Nite", underperformed; peaking at number thirty-five and number eighty-seven on the R&B and Pop singles charts, respectively. During production of the album, the group disagreed with Combs on its creative direction. In an interview, Bell revealed that Combs' had refused to pay New Edition's long time producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for a track that the group wanted on the album. Reportedly, Combs told the group they were over budget, despite their having used many of Bad Boy's in-house team of writers and producers on the album. Ultimately, the group asked to be released from their Bad Boy contract. Despite the messy divorce with Bad Boy, New Edition soldiered on and continued to tour.