Fool-Proof Strategies For The Perfect Group Photo, As Demonstrated By Jagged Edge

Your Instagram will thank you.

This is Jagged Edge, the veteran R&B quartet responsible for such late '90s and '00s baby-making standards as "Let's Get Married," "I Gotta Be," and "Where The Party At."

Jagged Edge.

Principal players in Jermaine Dupri's once-mighty So So Def crew, Brandon and Brian Casey, Richard Wingo and Kyle Norman have sold over eight million albums and been nominated for a Grammy in a career spanning 17 years. The group's eighth and latest album, J.E. Heartbreak II, released last month, is both a sequel to its 2000 double-platinum sophomore LP J.E. Heartbreak and an ode to the kind of purist R&B that its members feel has been lost in translation as popular music becomes increasingly hybridized.

"A lot of R&B artists out now want to appeal to a hip-hop audience — it's almost like they're making hip-hop songs with melody," says lead singer/songwriter Brandon Casey. "There's nothing wrong with that, but the point of Rhythm and Blues is the emotion. If you take the emotion out of it, it's not Rhythm and Blues. We wanted to put the emotion back into it."

In the tradition of timeless R&B groups like The Temptations, Four Tops, New Edition, and Boyz II Men, Jagged Edge has mastered one delicate art form that has eluded lay people for generations: The Group Photo.

Columbia

Columbia

Columbia

Exhibits A, B, and C.

On a recent trip to the BuzzFeed offices, we had the group members give us four of their go-to poses, each of which is easy enough to be replicated in a mild, sweaty panic as a stranger holds your iPhone after an ironic-but-totally-fun trip to Six Flags.

1. The Diamond Formation

David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

Level of Difficulty: 3 out of 5.

Notes: For a group of four arranged in three rows (1,2,1). The crouch of the person in front has a neutralizing effect on any troublesome height differentials.

2. The Mt. Rushmore

David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

Level of Difficulty: 1 out of 5.

Notes: The mean-mugger's favorite. A simple and classic line-up for when nobody is fuckin' with your clique.

3. The Welcome Wagon

David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

Level of Difficulty: 2 out of 5
Notes: The open arms say "cool but accessible" while the shoulder lean drives the mesage home: "You know you want to sit with us."

4. The Freestyle

David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

Level of Difficulty: 3 out of 5

Notes: The trick here is to bring out the individual essence of each member of your crew while still presenting as a unit. Bonus points for dynamic arrangement.