Following a successful run as lead vocalist of the chart-topping R&B group Hi-Five, Tony Thompson scored a pair of hits as a solo act during the mid-1990s. He was born as "Anthony Ulysses Thompson, Jr." on September 2, 1975, in Waco, Texas. At 14 years old, he joined Hi-Five and signed with Jive Records, who released the band's self-titled debut album in 1990. "I Just Can't Handle It" and "I Can't Wait Another Minute" both became Top 10 hits on the R&B charts, but it was "I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)" — a crossover hit that topped both the Hot 100 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart — that pushed the album to platinum status. Hi-Five's 1992 release, Keep It Goin' On, went gold, but the group's popularity waned as the decade progressed, resulting in Hi-Five's breakup in 1994. Tony Thompson returned one year later with his solo debut, 1995's Sexsational, which charted at Number 17 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart and spawned the R&B hits "I Wanna Love Like That" and "Handle Our Business." When his solo career stalled during the subsequent years, Thompson reformed Hi-Five with new members and released the group's fourth album, The Return, in 2005. The record wasn't a hit, and Thompson passed away two years later, succumbing to a toxic amount of freon on July 1, 2007. He was 31 years old.
