DESCRIPTION:
Lead singer Tony Thompson died June 1st 2007.

Hi-Five is an American R&B quintet based out of Waco, Texas who had a #1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in the early 1990s with "I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)". After a sole Top 10 follow-up single, the group disappeared from the radar. Hi Five was formed in 1990, and consisted of the late Tony Thompson, Roderick "Pooh" Clark, Marcus Sanders, Russell Neal, and Toriano Easley. Easley was later replaced by Treston Irby

Hi-Five was signed to Jive Records and released their first album, Hi-Five, in 1990. The album went multi-platinum and was produced by award-winning hitmaker Teddy Riley; it included such singles as "I Just Can't Handle It", "I Can't Wait Another Minute", and their biggest hit to date, "I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)", which went to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The group enjoyed mainstream success and received comparisons to many of their R&B counterparts, namely New Edition.

Hi-Five's second LP, Keep It Goin' On, came out in 1992. Though not as successful as their debut effort, several tracks from this album, including "She's Playing Hard To Get" and the R. Kelly-penned "Quality Time" got major airplay. Shortly after this album was released, Roderick "Pooh" Clark was involved in a near-fatal automobile accident. In 1993, Hi-Five emerged with a third album, Faithful, which featured the songs "Unconditional Love" and "Never Should Have Let You Go".

After Hi-Five disbanded around 1994, Thompson released a solo album, Sexsational. He scored a minor hit with "I Wanna Love Like That".

In 2005, Thompson re-incarnated Hi-Five with four new members, one of whom is his younger brother, Jordan. Their new album The Return was released in 2006 on Thompson's independent label, N'Depth. In 2006, Hi-Five did an interview with radio jock Wendy Williams. In the interview, Wendy stated that she heard someone in the group had a heroin problem. She asked Tony was it him, or any other person in the group, he said 'It's not anyone in this group.' During the interview, Treston phoned Wendy yelling about the rights to the name Hi-Five. Treston didn't want the group to use the name, and was suing the group for it. However, the lawsuit was dropped. Tony also confirmed to Wendy that he was the only one in the group singing lead and background vocals. Nobody else sung in the group. He told Wendy that she could ask the CEO of Jive Records if she didn't believe him. [1]

Tony Thompson died of freebasing herion (as it has been confirmed through autopsy results) not speedballing as previously reported, on June 1, 2007 at age 31 in his hometown of Waco, Texas. The official autopsy was released to the public on June 28, 2007.

Original Hi-Five member Toriano Easley was recently released from jail after serving 15 years for attempted murder which was why he was replaced in the group by Treston Irby.

Treston Irby became a security guard in Connecticut.