R&B singer and millennial heartthrob Omarion revealed another reason why the other guys from B2K might not like him. In a recent interview, he says he charged his former bandmates thousands of dollars to speak directly to him before their last tour.
While talking to The Shade Room’s Thembi, the chart-topper revealed he actually does have an “icebox where his heart used to be.”
She probed, “I saw that your team charges the guys [B2K members] to talk to you, and they did pay … their team paid a couple of thousands just to have a conversation.”
“Yes,” he answered.
“That’s crazy,” she exclaimed before asking, “So why did you make them basically pay up to chat?”
The Inglewood native said for him it was all about making sure the guys were serious about reuniting in 2019 to join the Millennium Tour.
“Well, it was really truly a measure of seriousness and business,” he remarked. “When you watch the docu, you can see several photos of us in the past trying to get ourselves together to do another tour.”
“I was like, ‘Yo, if this is serious, then you know, OK, let’s put it online for real,” he stated.
B2K was the biggest Black boy band in the early 2000s, becoming what Jodeci and Boyz II Men were in the ’90s, New Edition was in the ’80s, the Jacksons were in the ’70s and the Temptations were in the ’60s.
The members (Boog, Fizz, Raz B, and Omarion) broke up in 2004 but seemed to be serious about reassembling the group to give the fans what they’ve been asking for. At least it seemed that way when the tour was announced in 2018 and listed B2K as the headliners, securing top billing over Mario, Pretty Ricky, Lloyd, Bobby V, Ying Yang Twins, and Chingy.
Billboard Boxscore reported the tour sold 56,542 tickets in three different venues, The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. (April 13-14) grossing $2.2 million; State Farm Arena in Atlanta (April 4-5) grossing $1.7 million; and Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif. (April 12) grossing $1.2 million, during the beginning of the tour.
All of the performances for the Millennium Tour in 2019 were sold out.
This effort proved to be successful for the acts, earning them a gross of $5 million, a career-high for the group, and placed as the second highest earning touring act of the year, second only to Justin Timberlake, who grossed $14,549,479 in eight performances, selling 108,162 seats.
According to Billboard analyst Eric Frankenberg, “These three engagements are, quite simply, the biggest of B2K’s career. They are the three highest-grossing and most-attended engagements for the reunited foursome.”
Frankenberg noted by eight shows, the tour had grossed $6.7 million and had outperformed the Scream III Tour from 2003, the last mega-tour of this kind for the act. At the end of its 22-show run, it pulled in a whopping $4.7 million, an astounding number for the time.
To put it in perspective, when B2k performed at The Forum in 2003, they took home $351,000. This time around, they showed a 618 percent growth in revenue. Adding to the ticket price, set at $45.50, are certain bonuses fans could purchase like meet & greet packages, album and merch bundles, and other VIP add-ons. An attendee could scale their custom package up to over $150.
Overall, promoters of the tour grossed over $28 million.
Despite the success the tour yielded for the group when promoters announced the 2020 iteration of the tour, B2K would not be included.
However, Omarion co-headlined the tour with Bow Wow.
Even after the 2019 tour was over, Omarion continued to capitalize on its success, parlaying it into a partnership with the Zeus Network.
According to Variety, the SVOD network created by millennials for millennials contracted to release “The Millennium Tour Live Concert featuring B2K,” on its channel. The deal also allowed for the lead singer to produce original content for the media company.
Lemuel Plummer, president and CEO of Zeus, said, “We are excited to work with Omarion to bring original content, music, and entertainment to Zeus.”
“Zeus is a pop-culture platform that continues to push the envelope to bring the best in entertainment to our audience,” he continued. “By working with creators like Omarion we are able to give our viewers relevant programming that keeps them coming back for more.”
Omarion has proved to be a shrewd businessman. He released three successful albums between 2001 and 2004 with B2K as the group’s lead singer. As a solo artist, he released two albums: debut album “O” and “21.”
The Grammy-nominated “O” reached the top spot on the U.S. charts and “21” gave the world his classic hit “Ice Box.”
He has also made a splash in movies and television appearing in films like “Fat Albert,” “The Proud Family Movie,” and “You Got Served,” and on TV shows like “One on One,” “The Bernie Mac Show” “America’s Best Dance Crew” and “Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood.”
It is estimated the artist’s net worth currently is approximately $6 million.
