VIBE’s investigative piece on Chris Stokes/B2K

If you were ever a fan of B2K this is a MUST read. I remember being such a die-hard B2K fan in junior high school, and their break up to me was sudden, quick and without any real explanation. The latest issue of VIBE magazine features a 9 page investigative piece entitled STOKED, giving perspectives from Chris Stokes, to Omarion, Raz-B, J Boog, Lil Fizz and everyone else who was involved or connected in the controversy some how. As you may know, some accusations were made in December that Chris Stokes sexually took advantage of the young boys of B2k. However, days after the video accusing Stokes was released, a video aired with Raz B saying it was not true.

Only those involved know what truly happened, however after reading the VIBE article I am thoroughly confident that something did happen to those boys. The writer- Linda Hobbs- did an excellent job of presenting multiple perspectives of the story, but to me the evidence is obvious. The biggest thing for me was that Hobbs caught Stokes in a blatant lie. EXPAND this post to read on……

One paragraph explains:

Stokes got his start in showbiz as a producer for his younger sister Juanita, a rapper known as Smooth who went on to record with Tupac Shakur, among others. “I did a lot of producing,” he says. “I can’t really remember exactly because it’s been so long.” He mentions producing for Bobby Brown and Bell Biv DeVoe adding that “Michael Bivins was a very good friend of mine.”

The next page then goes on with a quote from a very confused Michael Bivins.

“Huh?” says Bivins when asked about Stokes’ work for BBD. Bivins does recall meeting Stokes back when he was still a member of New Edition. “He told me his sister Smooth was a big fan and she wanted to meet me,” recalls Bivins. “He might’ve submitted something,” Bivins adds, “but there’s not a song on our album from Chris.”

At that point, I definitely no longer believed anything coming from Stokes. The details about the B2K break up and exactly how it happened also disturbed me. According to J Boog and Fizz, Omarion told the management about their plants to move the group to another label and before anything could be done they were booted out of the group, and told Omarion was going to go solo, but Stokes denies that and says the split was due to issues over women. However, in the end Boog, Fizz and Raz B were left homeless and broke since Stokes bought everything and handled all of their contracts.

I cannot even begin to do justice to the very detailed and very thought provoking piece. You have to read it for yourself! Trust me– if you were ever a fan of B2K you are going to want to read this to get a better idea of what exactly happened to the “teen quartet that packed arenas around the country.”

You can read the beginning of the article via VIBE’s website @ http://www.vibe.com/news/online_exclusives/2008/06/stoked_part_one_b2k/

Also if you would like to see the controversial videos that started the whole thing check out these past blog posts:
http://societyandstyle.blogspot.com/search?q=b2k

DEFINITELY LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK…WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THIS SITUATION? Drop a comment with your responses.