B2K

Beats,

Rhymes

& Life

|Mileage, music + visual from B2K.

B2K

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE

REWOUND: 2OO2

Why'd You Leave Me On Christmas, music from B2K.

Find more B2Kat KAOS - and discover more artists in the index at the bottom of the page.

B2K

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
R E W O U N D: 2 0 0 2
W  H  E  R  E     W  O  R  D  S     F  A  I  L    ,     M  U  S  I  C     S  P  E  A  K  S

Between their self-titled debut and their second album, B2K found time to deliver a Christmas album, Santa Hooked Me Up (hopefully not a reference to manager Chris Stokes). The festive Why'd You Leave Me on Christmas was the only single released from the album.

B2K

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE
R E W O U N D: 2 0 0 2
W  H  E  R  E     W  O  R  D  S     F  A  I  L    ,     M  U  S  I  C     S  P  E  A  K  S

Long before the Raz B sex abuse allegations - and #MeToo - Chris Stokes cashed in on Christmas had his sexiest decorative baubles drop a Christmas album. Here's the lead single. Uh huh...

Santa Hooked Me Up is out now.

The Young Ones

Raz B has made fresh allegations about what went on during his time in B2K. But the real story is what this episode tells us about America's sinister obsession with youth.

R

emember that Noah's Arc digisode, where Noah has a confession? Noah, Ricky, Alex and Chance have been talking about hot men in hip-hop, and a shamefaced Noah pipes up, "You know what I'm kind of embarrassed to admit?" The guys look warily at him - is Noah going to admit he's a closet snow queen? But - phew! - no, it's not that (anything but that): "I'm starting to feel the young ones, like Omarion."

If Raz B is to be believed, Noah wasn't the only one feeling "the young ones". B2K manager Chris Stokes was feeling them too - Raz B alleges - and all of the boys in B2K were feeling each other.

Allegations of sex abuse in B2K (formed in 2001, and disbanded in 2004) first exploded onto the Net over Christmas in 2007, and Raz B's descriptions of what went on have only become more graphic: "Me and Boog was in a room together. Chris Stokes put us in a room together and made us do stuff together." And if you were wondering just what they were doing, Raz spells it out in no uncertain terms: "My truth is the fact that Chris Stokes had me and Jarrell Houston [J Boog] in a room sucking each other's dicks."

Were Raz B and his bandmates molested? Were they the victims of a paedophile? Or just teens experimenting, as sexually active teenage boys are wont to do? If Chris Stokes did manipulate the boys, putting them in rooms and making them do things with each other, could it be that he was just doing what everyone who watched those B2K music videos wanted to do?

B2K's Gots Ta Be video has a 16-year-old Raz-B seductively caressing his baby smooth chest. It's saying, "You want this. Come and get get. Come and take it." By what definition is it right to put a commercially sexualised 16-year-old boy on the world stage for the greedy consumption of a global audience; not just of fellow teens, but adults too?

America is in the thrall of youth, more than any other Western nation. And in America, youth equals sex, and the younger, the closer to barely legal, the better. The guys in that Noah's Arc webisode recoil at Noah's confession (they actually all get up and leave) because it's all a bit near the knuckle: Noah's admitting America's dirty little secret, that, in fact, it's all about "the young ones". But who decides when "the young ones" go from being cute kids to sex objects?

From their debut video, Uh Huh in 2001 (when the boys were 15), B2K were marketed as sexual playthings, ostensibly for teenage girls, but with a sly wink to a much older audience. Adults too could privately fantasise about the pretty young things. B2K: sexy, sexually ripe, barely legal boy toys for the mass market! What a hoot!

A close friend recently remarked upon the extreme fetishisation of high school in America; for Americans, it seems to be the absolute defining life experience, or so pop culture would have it. Look at Glee - wholesome, supposedly - but chock full of attractive, sexy kids; it's producers are saying to us, "Look, but don't touch! That would be so wrong - but hot!"

Is American pop culture merely legitimised, socially acceptable paedophilia for the masses? B2K, the kids in Glee, and Britney Spears in her school uniform are all portrayed - and marketed - essentially as sexually desirable children. And here's the rub: mainstream America condemns homosexuality, linking it to paedophilia at every opportunity, but the truth is its condemnation is merely a smokescreen for the wider American public's own obsession with "the young ones".

The public can't wait for that moment when the child star transforms - seemingly overnight - into an intoxicating, lust-crazed sex bomb (Britney, Bow Wow, Lil Romeo). Willow Smith's mentors must be ticking the days off the calendar for when they can get away with selling the fantasy of taking her virginity - if the current marketing doesn't already do that. I've heard a few critics call her Whip Your Hair video a "paedophile's delight".

The question of what happened in B2K remains, but one thing is clear: the music industry, and the boy's families, took four young boys and prostituted them for big bucks. There's a name for that: child abuse.

B2K - NAKED!

I'VE SPENT TODAY (Friday) doing other things. Like, er, scraping off wallpaper, watching multiple episodes of Prisoner (women in prison, and one of the few decent things to come out of Australia), and tonight, the last season of The Wire (I can't actually cope with the excitement. I'm on episode 4: first Butchie, now Proposition Joe... this beef between Omar and Marlo is getting uglier by the minute). As a result, I haven't been online reading and researching, except to moderate comments here. One of those comments was left by Mr. Jones, whose blog is Surrealistically Speaking, which is pretty damn good. It's one of those blogs where the tone and content just sits right. (Mr. Jones is an Americanite, but I swear his banner features a TfL bus. Mr. Jones, if you're reading this, that is a TfL bus, isn't it? Not that there's anything wrong with that. My banner features CocoDorm, and sadly I'm not there either.) What was this article supposed to be about? Oh yeah, B2K nekkidness. Remember the Raz-B/Chris Stokes episode of Christmas Eve '07? Of course you do. Well, Raz-B can now be seen naked. And I mean naked. Full tit and minge, as Edina out of Absolutely Fabulous once said, although we're not talking minge here, we're talking dick. It's not a bad piece, Raz-B. We're not talking Jovonnie here, but it's nothing to be ashamed of. Except the cum shot. Yikes. Cum only looks good when it's thick, white and in mid-air. Not a grim murky slick around the head. That just looks nasty. If you want to see the pictures you'll have to head over to Surrealistically Speaking. We don't do nudity here at ka-ostheory... Previously - B2K Elsewhere - I Blame YOU Chris Stokes!: Raz-B (formerly of B2K) Leaks Naked Pics

B2K: Raz-B Retracts Apology

Ricardo Thornton, Raz-B's brother, has spoken out in an interview with The New Urban blog, saying: "I just got off the phone with DeMario (Raz B), and the apology tape is not real! Chris had people force Raz to read a script and coerced him into taking money. I talked to DeMario and the money will be returned. We want this done right. We're putting this message out there for all of the innocent kids who get abused and are then forced to be silent."

Sure enough, the apology video has disappeared from youtube.

Thornton goes on to allege that Chris Stokes and Marques Houston are lovers, and that Stokes promised to take care of young artists if they took part in gay sex acts with one another.

Read the full interview here.

B2K: Sex, Lies, Videotape

The depressing, ghastly saga that is the B2K sex scandal has taken a new twist. Raz-B has appeared in another clip, which appeared on Boxing Day, in which he says "some tapes that were leaked without my authority, and I just wanna say that those allegations are not true with Chris Stokes and Marques Houston and I apologise for any hurt this may cause."

Now, I'm no expert in body language or the rest of it, but Raz-B's performance here is about as convincing and natural as Michael Jackson's face. Why is the amatuer footage recorded out in a suburban street? Why is it suddenly cut short? And why does Raz-B look like somebody (a former manager, for example) has a gun to his head?

Whilst Raz-B is backing down from the allegations, his brother certainly isn't, vowing to go on Oprah or anyone else that will have him. Omarion has also weighed in, saying: "I want to be on the record as saying that 'Raz B' Thorton and Ricardo Thorton are lying regarding Chris Stokes. Chris is a father figure to myself, and many others in the industry. He's guided us, helped raised us and is nothing more than an inspiration and someone I respect to and look up to. I have spent countless hours, days, weeks and months with the man since the age of 5 and have never once seen him behave inappropriately. He's married to my aunt and I know this man very well. I stand behind him with no question whatsoever. I have grown up around Chris and this is crazy to me. These people have damaged me, and my reputation and I won't stand silent and will do all within my means to speak the truth about this matter."

Hmm - I wonder how many PR people it took to write that statement...?

Follow the story in more detail at the jolly good blog WhatsTheT.

B2K

"I didn't like it, my ass hurt," Raz-B says in an explosive Christmas Eve video.

The footage, from the forthcoming reality series Life After B2K, shows the former member of B2K discussing sex acts that allegedly took place between members of B2K and their former manager Chris Stokes, and suggests that the boys were encouraged to have sex with each other, and with various industry people. Marques Houston is also implicated.

Raz-B - real name De'Mario Monte Thornton - also says, somewhat bizarrely, "Me going on Noah's Arc was an expression of what I've been through."

The news that sex is the favourite currency in show biz, and that managers and agents use their positions to get what they want from hungry young artists, isn't a big revelation. But what is shocking is the very public disclosure of a gay sex scandal involving some of the urban music scene's biggest names.

No doubt we'll be hearing a lot more about this...