Welcome to Retro Rewind, the TGJ original feature launched to celebrate TV and Film’s glorious past.
Who we’re celebrating today? The R&B force that was B2K and their box office smashing movie ‘You Got Served.’
Touted as “four Ushers”, Boys of the new Millenium rose to fame as R&B’s answer to Justin Timberlake‘s ‘NSync in 2001 with the single ‘Uh Huh.’
Clean cut and scandal free, the Urban Pop quartet came courtesy of the manager Chris Stokes (cousin of group member Raz B) and was mentored by Marques Houston, formerly of the group IMX, and elder cousin of B’s bandmate J-BooG.
Their run atop Pop’s scene would last three years, delivering four studio albums, one US #1 single (‘Bump Bump Bump’) and four Top 40 singles.
Their last studio effort? ‘You Got Served: Music from the Motion Picture’, released to support their Screen Gems movie ‘You Got Served’ which picked up $16 million at the box office when it hit theatres on January 30th 2004.
Ready to take that walk down memory lane?
Reunite with ‘Served’ below…
Though a reunion seems unlikely at this point, it’d be great to see B2K‘s short but sweet run atop the charts celebrated in shape or form.
For, as many will agree, the quartet’s style, fronted by th criminally underrated Omarion, is to thank for the arrival of many impressive R&B male soloists in the mid noughties (see Chris Brown in the U.S. and the Varren Wade-led FDM ’03 in the U.K) as well as one Jhene Aiko.
Could the years to come see the group (away from the “allegedly” repulsive characters who steered them to stardom) bury their problems of yesteryear to ensure their hard work isn’t forgotten by the world?
We hope so.
Until then…