Key Takeaways
- B2K and Pretty Ricky will face off on VERZUZ On Thursday, June 25 at 6:30 p.m. Neither boy band would be here without BET's 106 & Park, that millennial-defining video countdown show that gave fans intimate access to hip-hop and R&B stars while launching new talent into mainstream visibility.
- B2K used 106 & Park as the primary stage for their early-2000s boy-band takeover, with hits like “Uh Huh” becoming so dominant they were retired from the countdown as fans watched the group’s rapid rise and breakup in real time.
- Pretty Ricky carried B2K’s template into a more X-rated lane with 106 & Park staples like “Grind With Me” and “On The Hotline”.
BET’s 106 & Park wasn’t just after-school programming to rival MTV’s TRL. It wasn’t just the house that A.J. and Free built. Created by executive Stephen G. Hill, 106 & Park was a cultural phenomenon that became the standard for rising stars and Hollywood veterans to reach a new generation.
The show, which counted down the 10 hottest hip-hop and R&B music videos of the day—voted by the viewers—debuted on September 11, 2000 with hosts A.J. Calloway and Marie “Free” Wright.
The show was essentially a hit out of the gate. Throughout its 14-year run, it was regularly the network's highest-rated show, birthing segments like Throwback Thursday and Freestyle Friday.
And really, what made 106 & Park special was that it—in a pre-social media world—gave fans intimate access to urban artists that weren’t accessible. 106 & Park welcomed artists such as Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown, Ginuwine, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne and more. It also housed countless pivotal moments including Aaliyah’s last interview, days before her tragic death; Kanye West facing off with 50 Cent; Ciara clearing the air about her gender and sexuality; Jay-Z announcing his retirement; and Bow Wow kissing Tyra Banks.
The rise of B2K
The show became a hub to see your favorite stars. But what really made it transcendent is how it gave a platform to the next superstars. 106 & Park successfully served as one of the catalysts for many artists’ meteoric ascent into superstardom including Chris Brown, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Bruno Mars, and Rihanna.
“Making it to 106 & Park as a new artist was a ‘Mama, I made it moment,’” Big Tigger, who had a brief stint as host, once said. B2K, which consists of Lil' Fizz, J-Boog, Raz-B, and Omarion, is one of the prime examples of that. The group’s debut single, “Uh Huh,” was released in the summer of 2001, with the video premiering on 106 & Park that fall.
It was on 106 & Park that the boy band got to bask in their pandemonium. They were to 106 & Park what *NSYNC was to TRL, young heartthrobs with each member representing a fraction of a young crush, from the rapping bad boy to the romantic leader. “Uh Huh” became so popular that it was retired from the countdown, something that happens after a video appears on the show 65 times. 106 & Park was home for B2K; they premiered the videos for “Gots Ta Be” and “Why I Love You” on the show.
Fans witnessed their rise and fall in real time. In January 2004, just three years after making their debut and dropping three albums within that time, fans were distraught when they announced they were splitting up—with Omarion going solo.
Pretty Ricky carries the torch
In reality, B2K laid the tracks for a new era of boy bands that had hip-hop style and artistic ticks but ultimately were wholesome, like B5 and later Mindless Behavior.
But it was Pretty Ricky, who consists of Marcus "Pleasure P" Cooper, brothers "Spectacular" Blue and Diamond "Baby Blue" Smith, and Corey "Slick'em" Mathis, took the B2K framework and added an X-rated twist.
Their debut single, “Grind With Me,” almost instantly became a 106 & Park staple, one that took them from afterschool TV sets to the BET Awards. Follow-up hits, “Your Body” and then later “On The Hotline”, became inescapable from the show. Similar to B2K, their run as a unit was brief—lasting only two albums before Pleasure P went solo. But, unlike B2K, they replaced him with a new member, Emanuel "Lingerie" DeAnda. And of course when they were getting ready to release their self titled third album, the new foursome returned to 106 & Park.
From 106 & Park to VERZUZ
NYT best-selling author Garrick Kennedy once described 106 & Park as “essential viewing” for millennials, praising it for “[staying] true to the video countdown formula with interviews and performances spliced in-between [and doing] so with an unbeatable swag.”
But despite its indelible impact and efforts to stay relevant as digital dominance infiltrated attention spans, 106 & Park’s grip on popular culture started to loosen in the early 2010s. Near the end, the original hosts, Free and AJ, were long gone, replaced by a rotation of names that were familiar but could never recreate the magic of the original hosts—or even Terrence Jenkins and Rocsi Diaz who led the show from 2006 to 2012. 106 & Park was cancelled in November 2014, with BET’s then-President of Music Programming and Specials, Hill, explaining in a statement that it would switch to a digital-only format. Its final episode aired on December 19, 2014 and the subsequent digital version never came.
Even nearly 26 years later, reboot conversations are still happening and not in the form of the now defunct 106 & Sports. Diaz feels a modern 106 & Park would be a “talk show format blending nostalgia with the present,” adding that, “people still want connection and realness— just in a different package.” And there have been rumors of a new version of the show hosted by Keke Palmer and Kai Cenat. Former BET President and CEO Scott Mills previously mentioned that 106 & Park could return as a podcast or “digital experience.”
With BET now being under the guidance of Louis Carr who took over as president when Mills stepped down this past December, who knows what the future of 106 & Park could be— if there is one. But the legacy of the show still lives on. On Thursday, June 25 at 6:30 p.m., B2K and Pretty Ricky will face off at VERZUZ. Fans of 106 & Park can tune in live through Apple Music and vote for who the winner is on Complex.
