It’s not like Chris paid them a million dollars. The lawsuit would have been millions of dollars if [Raz] had stuck to his guns.
On January 2 of this year, a camera crew from the celebrity Web site TMZ.com captured a strange meeting at the opulent Beverly Hills restaurant Mr. Chow.
Just a week after uploading those controversial YouTube videos, Raz B and Ricky Romance stood arm in arm with Chris Stokes, merry as frat boys. “We love each other, man,” Raz said as he left the restaurant, embracing Stokes. “You see this right here? Family unity....”
While the cousins carried on their lovefest, former Immature member Romeo tried his best to hide behind a man selling roses on the sidewalk. “We knew to step away at that point,” Boog says. “Like, really, don’t try to save this dude [Raz].... He flipped out on us.”
Both he and Fizz, whose next rap album will be called Tug of War, have repeatedly denied ever being abused, emphasizing that they are not gay. Boog, who’s now working on an R&B album called My First Words, says he wishes Raz would have told him about the alleged abuse sooner, primarily because he worried about Raz having access to Boog’s infant son. “You know how they say if you’ve been touched, then eventually you will touch?”
Ricky says he now regrets making those videos in the first place: “I was angry, I was mad, I was upset, and I didn’t know any other way to handle it.”
He seems even more regretful about how the TMZ video came off. “A lot of muthafuckas see me on TMZ and they like, Aww nigga, you got paid off,” Ricky says. “I ain’t get paid off. I ain’t accept no money for nothing.”
But according to Leffridge, Raz and Ricky were paid by Stokes to keep the allegations out of court. “They didn’t get enough money,” he says. “It’s not like Chris paid them a million dollars. The lawsuit would have been millions of dollars if [Raz] had stuck to his guns. But he settled for way less than that, and Chris knew that [Raz] was going to run through that money like a hot knife through butter.”
After all the changing stories, opinions are divided about what really happened to Raz B.
But Leffridge stands by Raz: “If he says it happened, I believe him. And I have more than enough situations that I could go into to confirm that.... The reality is, if you know anything about the business, it’s not far-fetched. It’s not absurd or unrealistic for that to happen, especially to a child star.”
While Michael Bivins declines to comment on the specific allegations against Stokes, he does say: “When they were doing well, he was the best thing that happened for them. It’s hard for people on the outside to have opinions—no one knows the truth.”
According to an LAPD spokesperson, there is, at press time, no criminal investigation into the allegations against Chris Stokes. “We’ve gotten this request several times,” says Officer April Harding. “There are no sexual battery reports on file regarding Stokes.”
Ray J, who hit the charts this year with his Yung Berg duet “Sexy Can I,” made it clear where he stood on the matter when he released a dis record called “Settle the Score” last December. “Fuck Chris Stokes! And fuck Marques Hou! /Them niggas is some bitches! Trying to clone the crew! /Some bitches told me they do each other in the booty /Ain’t no denying that them niggas act fruity!” Now 27, Ray J says he thinks his record may have inspired Ricky and Raz to post their videos a few weeks later.
“I don’t know if he’s a molester,” says Ray J, who claims Stokes once threatened to sue his sister Brandy for $20 million. “But don’t be a thief. Don’t try to take other people’s money.”
Fizz is even more scornful about Raz— suggesting that he needs professional help to resolve his abuse issues. “Raz had some kind of infatuation with Chris Stokes,” says his former bandmate. “That’s why you don’t see him here with us today, he chose to deal with that. I personally don’t like that camp, so anybody that decides to associate with [T.U.G.], I’m not going to associate with them, ’cause it’s just negative energy over there—period.”
Back in Ricky’s coupe, the music is turned off. A smoggy sunset paints the L.A. skyline. Ricky is reflective. “My brother is a good guy,” he says, sounding near tears. “He’s just been through a lot these past years. He’s been hurt. Nobody knows, nobody will ever know. Nobody will ever understand him.”
Sitting silently in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza hotel with dark shades on, Raz B looks like a million bucks. But beneath the black motorcycle jacket, diamond studs, and fresh Caesar cut, he resembles a scared little boy.
“I’m glad B2K broke up,” he says quietly. “So if it ever did come back, it’d be proper. It wasn’t built on rock—it was built on sand. It was built on a bunch of lies, a bunch of intimidation, and a bunch of manipulation. But you know what? It was a learning experience.... I learned a lot of things from Chris,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “Good and bad. Trust me, I learned everything.”
“Fire,” Raz B’s first post-B2K release, hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Hip-Hop/R&B Singles chart last May. Still, he considers himself a victim. “And it’s still going on,” he says. “I can’t even give y’all the real in-depth interview that I want to,” he adds. “But I know something happened to me in my childhood. So I’m not ashamed about that.”
Raz declines to discuss whether his life has been threatened, but he admits feeling pain- fully paranoid. “I felt like I was being followed because I’m worth money,” he says flatly.
Raz is all over the place, but then he was always the unpredictable one in B2K.
“These things are not publicity stunts,” says his publicist, Elayne Rivers. “It’s a sticky situation. Other people have gone through the same thing as Raz, but who’s gonna give up their celebrity, their status, and what they feel they have? Here’s someone who put his career on the line, but nobody gives Raz that respect for stepping forward.”
Raz does admit that Stokes gave him some money before he made the apology video. “Yeah, my cousin could give me some money,” he says, “but it’s not no payoff.” He then adds that he gambled the undisclosed amount away in Las Vegas. “Crazy, huh?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Raz says, “God has given me so much. But I feel like I don’t have what’s entitled to me.” He pauses to collect himself, before speaking as if Stokes is standing in the room with him: “Come on dude, you signed over guardianship, you sitting on $65 million. I’m broke! I don’t care, paperwork is paperwork, [but] I worked for you for seven years and you had guardianship over me. I’m supposed to be sitting on millions. Where are my millions at?”
“Putting that tape out made me look like a liar, but I’m not no liar, I’m just sitting right here where God wants me to be,” he says, putting his legs on a coffee table for emphasis. “And it’s like, I can’t lie. But at the same time, the world is cruel, so I got to protect the information.”
He says he was the one who asked Ricky to take the YouTube videos down. “My brother uploaded tapes, and it was like, ‘Ricky, what are you doing?’ Like, ‘Get that off.’ [But] it was too late. It was already out in the world.”
Suddenly Raz gets up off the sofa, straying onto a cryptic tangent. “I’m not ashamed to be Jesus,” he says. “I’m not ashamed to be the lamb, I’m not ashamed to look like the crazy one, y’know what I’m saying? When Jesus came to this Earth, he claimed to be equal to God, people didn’t understand that. So when I say, ‘I am B2K,’ it only means I have the creative power in the universe.”
The soliloquy might be amusing if it wasn’t so heartbreaking. Has speaking his truth helped Raz B find healing or happiness? “No,” he says softly. “Not at all. I’m trying to move on with my life.... I told the whole world that B2K was going to come back together,” he says.
“And my soul won’t rest ’til we do.”
Read "STOKED" Part 1.
Read "STOKED" Part 2.
Read “STOKED” Part 3.
Read "STOKED" Part 4.
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