For 702, returning to the songs that made the group known is not simply a nostalgia exercise. LeMisha Fields and Meelah Williams are singing music from the group’s formative years while carrying losses that have fundamentally changed what those records mean to them.
The group’s debut album, No Doubt, was released by Motown and Biv 10 Records on October 8, 1996. Its songs emerged from a period when the members were balancing school and studio time, and when the concerns inside songs such as “Get It Together” could be understood primarily through the eyes of teenagers. Three decades later, Fields and Williams are mothers, and their relationship to that material has been reshaped by love, heartbreak and bereavement.
Fields has said continuing to sing is a way to honor her late sister, Irish Grinstead, rather than remain trapped in grief. It is a decision that recognizes both the difficulty of performing after an irreplaceable personal and professional loss and the importance of preserving the work Irish helped create.
“She would want us to continue and live out the legacy of 702. It’s a bittersweet kind of thing,” Fields said.
That bittersweetness is central to the current 702 story. The group’s catalogue is still music for audiences to dance to, sing along with and pass down, but it is also a living record of family members and collaborators whose roles cannot be separated from the group’s identity.
Remembering Irish and Orish Grinstead
Irish Grinstead died in September 2023 at age 43. For Fields, the loss was both familial and artistic: Irish was her sister, someone she grew up with, and a voice beside her onstage as 702 built its career.
The family had already endured the death of Irish’s twin sister, Orish Grinstead, in April 2008. Orish, who was 27, was a founding member of 702. The history matters when considering what “legacy” means here. It is not merely the continued visibility of a familiar group name or a run through old hits. It encompasses the contributions of members whose voices and presence helped establish the group from the beginning.
In this context, carrying on does not erase absence. It makes absence part of the meaning of the performance. Fields and Williams remain connected to a body of work made by a larger creative and family unit, while acknowledging that the unit has changed profoundly.
“Get It Together” Has Gained New Meaning
“Get It Together” offers perhaps the clearest example of how a song can remain the same recording while its meaning changes for the people who made it. The track was released on No Doubt and reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, taking 702 far beyond its Las Vegas roots.
Its original frame is a relationship in trouble: an R&B song about emotional distance and the desire to repair what has gone wrong. Williams has explained that she no longer hears it only as the breakup song she knew as a young performer. Experiences of love, loss and heartbreak have expanded its emotional weight.
That is a familiar quality of enduring pop music, but it is especially pronounced when artists themselves revisit songs over decades. A lyric written for romantic conflict can acquire associations with family, memory and perseverance. The composition has not been rewritten; the listener has. In 702’s case, the singers returning to it are no longer the teenagers who originally divided their time between classwork and recording sessions.
For fans, that shift also helps explain why anniversary performances can be more than a recreation of an earlier era. The arrangement or set list may center on established material, but the emotional context is current. A song can carry its chart history, its original narrative and the lived experience of the people performing it now.
The Debut Album’s Place in 702’s Story
No Doubt remains the foundation of the music Fields and Williams are performing as the group marks 30 years. The album went gold and included the major hits that introduced the group to a national audience.
Alongside “Get It Together,” “Steelo” was a defining song from that debut. Missy Elliott appeared on the track. Donell Jones and The Characters also contributed to the album, placing 702’s early work within a network of R&B and hip-hop talent that helped shape the record’s sound and reach.
The distinction between an album release and a song’s later life is important. Chart placement documents the immediate impact of “Get It Together”; the gold certification recognizes the album’s commercial performance. Neither measure fully describes why a record persists. Longevity often comes from songs continuing to resonate across personal circumstances and generations, which is now happening for 702 in ways the members can see directly.
A Catalogue Reaching Younger Listeners
702’s music has also traveled through sampling. Summer Walker used “Get It Together” on “Body,” from her 2019 debut album Over It. A sample is a portion of an existing sound recording incorporated into a new song. It can introduce a previous generation’s music to listeners who may not have encountered the original track when it was first released.
That connection has practical significance beyond a nostalgic nod. It positions 702’s work inside a newer R&B conversation, where a familiar musical element can be recontextualized by another artist’s song and audience. A January 2021 video share from Walker’s label explicitly highlighted the connection to 702.
Williams has said that younger fans have told the group they discovered 702 through their parents. Taken together with the Walker sample, that points to two different routes by which a catalogue continues: family listening and creative reuse. One is personal transmission from parent to child; the other is an artist building new work with a recognizable piece of older music.
Sampling can be artistically meaningful, but it also comes with questions of credit and control. Those issues remain especially relevant as music platforms and companies explore systems around AI-assisted remixes; recent industry developments around artist choice in AI remixing show why the consent and recognition attached to reused music matter. In 702’s case, the known connection is specific: “Body” incorporates “Get It Together,” creating a clear bridge between two R&B eras.
Two Events Mark the Anniversary Moment
Fields and Williams are set to mark 30 years of 702 at On the Record at Park MGM on October 23. A skate night at Skate Rock City follows on October 24.
The Las Vegas setting is fitting for a group whose success carried it beyond its hometown while leaving that origin central to its story. These events frame the anniversary around gathering and performance rather than treating the milestone as a distant archival date. The songs are being sung in the present by artists who have lived with their consequences, memories and changing meanings.
There is no simple way to convert grief into a celebratory anniversary. Fields’ description of the path forward as bittersweet is more accurate than a neat comeback narrative. 702’s early music is associated with youthful ambition, chart success and a gold album. Its present-day performances also hold the memory of Irish and Orish Grinstead, the bond of family, and the decision to keep a shared legacy alive.
For Fields and Williams, continuing means allowing the music to say more now than it could when it was new. “Get It Together” still belongs to its original moment, but it now reflects the lives of the women singing it, the members they remember and the listeners discovering it decades later.
