Here it is: most people don't like what they've heard from B5. That's the simple fact here. People do not like what they have heard up to this point. If they did, their sales would be higher.

To blame Bad Boy, Diddy or promotion in general is an excuse - and an absurd one, at that. B5 has been promoted well. They've been on BET's 106 & Park (twice), including one performance. They've been on Access Granted. They've been promoted heavily online through the Bad Boy and label channels. They've had a paid ad campaign online and on TV. They've been featured on heavily trafficked websites like TeenHollywood.com, Meez and AOL. They've been featured in major publications. They've participated in a good sized media tour, dealing with TV, radio and internet (including me), providing them with a solid amount of coverage and interviews. They've been on tour. And that's just what is coming to mind at this moment. And then, of course, you have the various fan based efforts and street teams that exist.

Do you know how many artists would kill for one performance on 106 & Park, let alone the rest of that stuff? Artists with a quarter of that marketing sell 18,500 records. It's not promotion. It's the fact that what the public has heard of B5 isn't clicking with them. With the first album, this meant "All I Do" and "U Got Me". With this one, it means "Hydrolics". People just aren't into what they've heard and see of B5.

B5 has their fans, yes. And that's mostly a good thing and, hopefully, those fans bought records. (I don't know if I'd consider myself a B5 fan - I'm a Bad Boy fan - but I bought 2 copies). But, it's just not enough for their fans to like them. Their music has to click with a wider audience and it has not. This is an album that has had a solid promotional push, at least, with some money behind it. On top of that, this couldn't have been a cheap album to make, either. Not everyone gets to work with Mario Winans, Bryan Cox and Danja. For the most part, a song is either going to catch or it's not. Promotion can be a reason for poor sales (it is plainly not, in this case), but at the end of the day, songs either catch or they don't. None of their songs have.

With any group that doesn't sell well, you have a set of fans that blame everyone and act like everyone is out to get them and/or the act they are a fan of. It's sabotage! The label, the executives, TV stations, retailers, the media, whatever. They're not doing their job, they're not realizing how great the act is, they're "hating" and on and on and on. It doesn't matter how much promotion they've had, some people would always say it wasn't enough. At some point, you have to step up and stop blaming everyone.

Personally, I want them to be successful. When I interviewed them, they all struck me as nice, polite young men. Like I said, I'm a Bad Boy fan and I bought 2 copies of their album. I cover them like I cover every other artist here. But, this is just how I see it. We're 2 albums and 3 singles into their career. Neither album has been a measurable success (their first album has sold 230,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan) and they have not had a single song chart on the Hot 100. To put that into perspective, Gorilla Zoe's "Hood Figga" is currently at 72 on the Hot 100 chart. It's his first single - ever. The reason is simple enough - more people want to listen to it.

Does this mean that this album is not going to be a success? No. You can't dismiss albums in their first week. That said, for most albums, their first week is their biggest week. It's more of a rarity that albums have better weeks than their first. But, it can happen. Maybe, just maybe, with their 4th single - their 2nd from this album - something will catch with that larger audience that will lead to increased sales. I hope that happens. If it doesn't - you don't know how many chances they are going to get.