#TBT – IS B2K COMING BACK???????????

On the teaser for next week’s Love and Hip Hop Hollywood episode Fizz alluded to the fact that it may be time for B2K to come back (Reunion tour, maybe??). J BOOG HIMSELF is even going to make an appearance so they can chat about it. Which got me thinking:

Black boy bands from the early 2000s are everything honey.

They remind me of a simpler time. A time filled with tropical punch Capri Suns, MySpace top 5s, and obsessively voting online for my favorite artist(s) to appear on 106 & Park.

Multiple black boy bands over the course of the early 2000s peaked my interest, but by far the two I loved the most was B2K and B5.

B2K: 

B5: 

B2K came first. I vaguely remember the infatuation that I had for them. I was a little bit too young at the time to really go insane over them, but I remember thinking Omarion and J Boog were so daggone fine. This leads to my love for Omarion throughout his solo career, but we can save that for another post.

You Got Served is a classic. Even though it’s admittedly cheesy and low-budget it breathes the 2000s era. From the fashion to the tech it’s all in there like a time capsule. I’ll always adore that movie (and the chance to gawk over young Omarion and Marques Houston).

But B5, oh B5. I remember my obsessive love well. In the beginning, I remember bringing a Word Up! magazine (remember those?) to my 5th-grade class and fawning over B5. All of girls were talking about our favorites, and I picked out the youngest one with freckles: Bryan.

(By the way, he’s married! It breaks my little 12-year-old heart, but I’ll let it go ONLY because they’re super cute together. Check out this video from his bae’s YouTube channel!)

I spent the next two or three years in a crazed hysteria over B5.

I wrote endless amounts of fanfiction on a now defunct forum breeding5.com. It’s where I began to craft my creative writing chops, writing some of the worst, cliched, craziest stuff I’ve ever written in my life.

I remember going to a specific B5 concert in my city that sent me into a state of silent frenzy. All I could do was stare and proclaim that I loved them over and over again like they could even hear ya girl. I was in a trace like Madame Zeroni herself put a spell on me.

It was just a lot. I was so in love with B5 y’all. It was incredible how deep I was in it. I even convinced my dad to buy me this random 30 minute documentary on their life off of Amazon.

But anyway, I hold a special place in my heart for boy bands like B2K and B5. That’s why I don’t shine away from others that came after them, like Mindless Behavior. I respect how they capture that lightning in a bottle of talent and give a generation of girls (and boys) something to look up to.

And if B2K is actually going to have a reunion tour, ya girl is gonna be the first one in line to secure a ticket.

Are y’all aware of a unknown boy band that needs attention? Let me know. I’d love to see how the new generation is killing the game. Also, are they any boy-bands from your childhood that you wish would come back? 

All my love,

Nia Simone xoxo

PS. Here’s a couple of my favorite songs from my fave boy bands: