Today’s From The Vault pick comes courtesy of a boyband who somehow managed to leave a mark in the masses’ minds despite their short-lived stint at the top of the charts.
This week we give you B2K’s ‘Bump Bump Bump.’
The track served as the launching single from the group’s sophomore set ‘Pandemonium,’ which was released in late 2002. As with most of the set, it was written and produced by the Pied Pipper himself, R. Kelly, and benefited from a guest verse from Diddy – or P.Diddy as he was known at the time.
A post-00’s serenade of sorts, the track sees lead Omarion set his sight on one girl, trying to make her his “main squeeze.”
Clearly the group’s breakthrough as well as well as their signature single, it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to become a worldwide hit peaking at #4 in Australia, #7 in France and entering the UK Top 20.
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The song’s accompanying video was directed by Erik White and presented the quad dancing in colorful rooms with Diddy and lady dancers shaking it for the camera. You know the drill, a classic 00’s Urban male visual.
Though already blatant at the time, looking back something doesn’t feel right about the way Omari is apportioned the spotlight in this video. A practice that was essentially the case in most of the band’s offering’s more broadly.
Still, it didn’t stop legions of loyal fans lapping up all things O, J-Boog, Lil Fizz, and Raz B. Even if only for a short time.
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Watching this reminds that we’d like to see update of the R&B boyband formula. As much as we reminiscence fondly on the likes of B2K and groups which came after them, the truth is that this would never fly in 2017.
We can’t wait to see what a new age boyband would look and sound like. With music, fashion, and “masculinity” defined altogether differently to what it was a decade + ago, it’d be interesting to see how the concept will have evolved.