If you love Tevin Campbell, Lil Johnny, or Quindon Tarver, then you will love the sounds of Jerome Childers. Remember when Jerome Childers was signed to Bad Boy Records back in the day from 1996 to 1998? That is when Jerome Childers went under the name of Jerome. He was a Bad Boy protege under tutelage of Puff Daddy in 1996. (A child protege at that who was 11.) He wrote songs, produced, and sang on many hooks during his time on Bad Boy. Jerome is most memorable for his singing though. (He produced for Bad Boy Records and Puff Daddy from 1996 to 2000.) Jerome has some amazing singing talent with these ballads on his debut album Jerome – Too Old For Me.

Producers who contributed their production and sound were Mario Winans, D-Dot, Heavy D, and Teddy Riley. Heck even the Puff Daddy sound can be heard throughout the album. Heavy D and Teddy Riley production sounds really stand out on this amazing album! You can hear Mario Winans work all over this album.

Too Old For Me was the buzz single that led Jerome to have popularity in the spotlight for a short period of time. Too Old For Me has a catchy beat that is still considered memorable to this day. Production for this song was top notch with no flaw. The production was flawless. Some of you may remember that the soulful single was accompanied by a music video which had featured cameos of Puff Daddy, Keisha of Total, LOX, and NORE of course.

Too Old For Me was about Jerome hitting on a girl that was clearly too old for him. However he sees that love and romance have no age limit.

When Jerome first saw her, he wanted to become a man. Each and everyday he sits and dreams of holding her hand. Jerome told all his boys how he felt for her. When they laid their eyes on her, they laughed. They say she is just too old for him. However Jerome refuses to believe this and sees no age limit on love and romance.

Come Around My Way is a short and sweet song written by Jerome himself. The song lasts more than 2 minutes. Keisha was a song about a girl Jerome used to know. Keisha was a girl from around the way in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.

Come Around My Way could have been chosen as another buzz single. Puff Daddy dropped the ball here by not doing so. Who knows what Puffy was thinking. Not making Come Around My Way a single was one of Puffy’s dumbest business decisions ever made. He did not even give the song a chance to become a single.

Dear Yvette was a secret romantic relationship Jerome had with this girl named Yvette. They kept their relationship strictly on the down low away from everyone else.

Jerome can think of younger days when he used to dream about cotton candy in a movie. Playin’ around like a little kid’s supposed to. Then he met her. Jerome met this girl named Yvette. Ooh how she moved him. He is curious and wants to know if he has a chance with her for a shot at romance. He wonders if Yvette can keep a secret. So he asks her, “Dear Yvette, can you keep a secret?” He never felt this way before. It must be true love. Jerome has got a thing for Yvette.

He tells his friends he’ll catch them later on the rebound because they don’t know how deep his love and admiration for Yvette is. He can’t believe that he is feeling the way he does. He’ll do anything to get a little close to her

How Could You Leave is a heartbreak hotel type of song dealing with a relationship where the girlfriend leaves Jerome for someone else to be her new boyfriend. The song mainly revolves around a broken relationship. Betrayal and heartbreak are the themes for this song. After all it’s hard being a young boy in love. He wonders how his girlfriend could leave him for someone else when she was the one for him.

Despite having a buzz single under the most prestigiously known record label of the era, the Jerome – Too Old For Me album never saw an official release as a retail album but instead as an album sampler released as a promo across the United States and Canada. Promo copies of this do exist in limited quantities. The buzz single did not exceed to meet the expectations Bad Boy Records was hoping for in order to become a chart topping success.

To clear out the air from any rumors, Jerome Childers was not caught in the dressing room masturbating to a picture of Keisha from Total during the recording session for the Too Old For Me music video. That’s total bullshit. Nor was Jerome fired by Puff Daddy or Mase as some people would believe.

But the real reason why the Too Old For Me album did not see a proper release is because Jerome fell ill with a certain kind of unpredictable sickness which affected his vocal chords. That led him to be released from his recording contract with Bad Boy Records. Also the album failed to produce any chart topping singles. After awhile he went back to producing for Bad Boy until 2000 when he left the label and moved back to Akron, Ohio.

Puberty is another key factor that led to his downfall with Bad Boy Records. His vocals kept changing which made it hard to difficult for him to hit certain notes at different pitches. He could not sing certain notes or octaves with his vocal range as he used to.

Luckily for us, Jerome Childers has bounced back onto the music scene writing, singing, and producing as an independent artist. You can listen to his music on MySpace or purchase a physical copy of his albums through email or CDBaby. He has since released a few albums of his own away from Bad Boy Records. Now he is back to writing and producing.

I rate this album 5/5*****!!