The 411 are a UK R&B trio comprising of vocalists Carolyn Owlett (b. England), Tisha Martin (b. Jamaica), and Tanya Boniface (b. Surrey, England). The 411 can trace its formation back to when Martin and Boniface met while singing backing vocals for UK soul vocalist Lemar. They were encouraged to assemble their own group by a representative of Sony Records and, with the addition of Owlett and Tanya Furlonger, 411 was formed at the start of 2003. The trio’s name was chosen from rap slang and out of respect to Mary J. Blige’s urban classic, What’s The 411? The group wrote the majority of the material on their debut album themselves, with US star Ashanti contributing one track, ‘No Excuses’. Rapper Ghostface Killah guested on the UK Top 5 hit ‘On My Knees’, which managed to introduce a storyline about domestic violence into the upper regions of the charts in the summer of 2004. The follow-up, ‘Dumb’, was also a UK Top 5 hit and preceded the release of Between The Sheets in November.