Raz B has responded to Omarion‘s recent remarks about his former group members in B2K being his backup dancers.
In an interview with VladTV published on Sunday (January 15), the founding member of the R&B boyband broke down several bombshells including how Omarion’s Verzuz against Mario was originally planned as a battle between B2K and Pretty Ricky, in addition to the “Icebox,” singer’s negative “backup dancers,” comments.
While in the process of dissecting shots the pair of R&B vets traded on social media before and after their face-off, Raz B explained why he felt Mario won the Verzuz battle and also revealed B2K initially started out with Omarion rapping before the group “forced” him into singing.
Watch the full nearly eight-minute clip below:
Raz B previously put Omarion on blast in July last year after he shared an email from the B2K’s attorney Allen Jacobi that allegedly revealed Omarion was no longer a part of the group.
O appeared to clap back at Raz B and his bandmates’ claims of getting washed in his Verzuz against Mario with an IG post of his own calling them nothing more than “backup dancers.”
The conversation about the aforementioned sneak diss starts off with Raz B explaining Omarion’s background as an artist before the group popped off.
“Omari [Omarion] is just not a vocalist like that,” Raz B said in part. “Omari started the group and he used to be a rapper, right. We forced him, pushed him into singing. And he’s developed his singing voice over the years and I think he’s done phenomenal. But people like tones and textures … you want something that’s really smooth on the ears. Omari is not a vocalist he’s a performer just that simple.”
Raz B continued, explaining his thoughts on how Omarion has been “clowned,” by the culture the past few years while also targeting his statement about B2K and his former group members being his “backup dancers.”
“I thought that was really, really funny,” he said. “That was a conversation me and the guys had about that too. And then you know, Boog [J-Boog] wrote a very lengthy message to [Omarion] and Boog did his research and his homework and Boog got a lot of that knowledge. Because a lot of that knowledge that we need to know about Omari or what we knew about him then, we can get that information and he put it all compact.”
As he went on, Raz B detailed how each member of B2K brought something different to the table, while also emphasizing that the group’s goal wasn’t ever to be the most vocally outstanding.
“They didn’t talk to me that day, they was going to put my name in it too, but I stood by the message because that was the truth,” Raz B said. “What J-Boog said was the truth, you know what I’m saying? Marcus Houston sung a lot of backgrounds. Dave McPherson, at that time would put … they would put certain leads in certain parts. So Omarion was not a vocalist. B2K was not a vocal group. It is what it is.”
Raz B remarked on how B2K, as a whole, were backup dancers of their own because they didn’t sing over their tracks during live performances like other 2000s boy bands, such as the Backstreet Boys.
“But since you’re already tearing down the brand even more then just keep doing what you’re doing, bro,” he said. “It’s like we got to say something. Ain’t nobody no backup — I mean we all the background dancers, you know what I’m saying? Because B2K is not singing. We would sing over our tracks but we are not out there singing live and dancing. We’re not. I’ve seen some of the greatest groups do it, NYSNC, the Backstreet Boys. B2K wasn’t putting in that work.”
Towards the end of his comments, Raz B explained the difference between the original vocals recorded for B2K’s tracks and the versions Omarion re-recorded himself.
While clearing up the discrepancy, he also gave his opinion on why “arrogance,” played a role in Omarion’s Verzuz defeat.
“Just keep it a buck, if you don’t keep it a buck… or you could have just left it right there in La La land and that’s what being arrogant got [Omarion] got Mario to call him out,” Raz B said.
“But I know what Omari was saying. He’s like, ‘These are my vocals.’ In other words, he’s saying I went back in the studio now and I re-recorded all these vocals. But everybody was talking about the vocals that’s on the track. Don’t attack somebody and expect not to get attacked.”
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