When two Massachusetts politicos got into a friendly Twitter disagreement about the relative merits of New Edition and New Kids on the Block, they probably didn’t expect Donnie Wahlberg himself to weigh in.

The lighthearted spat began when Boston City Councilor (and candidate to represent Massachusetts’s 7th Congressional District) Ayanna Pressley tweeted that taking her daughter to her first-ever concert, to see Taylor Swift at Gillette Stadium, reminded Pressley of her own first concert, a New Edition show.

“Cora attended her first concert, #TaylorSwift & it was epic,” Pressley wrote on Twitter. “She lost her voice from screaming. [That feeling when] you recall your 1st concert #swoon #NewEdition I lost my voice too. Still do when I see them in concert.”

Cora attended her first concert, #TaylorSwift & it was epic. She lost her voice from screaming. TFW when you recall your 1st concert #swoon #NewEdition I lost my voice too. Still do when I see them in concert @44yo #candygirl4life — Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) July 28, 2018


After former Deval Patrick Communications Director Jesse Mermell threw her support behind NKOTB, Pressley contended that “there would literally BE no #NKTOB without #NewEdition.”

And that’s about when NKOTB member Wahlberg himself joined the Twitter thread. In fact, Wahlberg went even further, saying that NKOTB, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Justin Timberlake, Marky Mark, and Boyz II Men wouldn’t exist without New Edition, before adding, “want a few more?”

So there you have it: For any ’80s and ’90s kids from Boston who used to get into debates about the boy band from Dorchester versus the R&B group from Roxbury, even Donnie Wahlberg gives New Edition his props.