There's a hot new boy group on the music scene, and they go by the name of B5. B5 is made up of Dustin (17), Kelly (16), Patrick (15), Carnell (14), and Bryan (11)-five brothers from Atlanta, Georgia, who are already storming the charts with their first single, "All I Do." As the newest group on Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' label, Bad Boys Records, B5 is getting a major buzz. Scholastic News Online recently hosted the brothers at our offices and asked them about making music, growing up, and working 24/7 with family. Here's what they had to say.

Dustin and Carnell explain how a song gets made in the studio!

Q & A

Q: Explain what crunk means.

Patrick: That's an Atlanta and Dirty South term. Crunk music is its own style and flavor of music that you feel.

Q: Would you describe your music as crunk?

Dustin: Our music is different. Mostly, crunk music is rapping, but our music is for everybody.

Q: Kelly, what you would say your music is like?

Kelly: Our music is just a mix of different styles-R&B, hip-hop, rap, pop. It's just a good blend of different things.

Q: Who influences the group?

Kelly: Michael Jackson and Usher.
Bryan: Sometimes we’ll dance to the Monkees.

Q: How did you guys get started in the music business?

Patrick: B5 started at first as we danced in a garage and just sang songs and stuff. We heard that there was a Radio Disney contest for the Backstreet Boys to go and see them in concert. I think that was when I was 8 or 9. So we went there and beat everybody else and won the tickets. After that, we would go out and win everything at Radio Disney so they made us the official Radio Disney dancers. After that, we formed a little group called the TNT Boyz, and met Jim McMahan, our manager. Jim took us to Atlanta to meet producers, and we met Kevin Wales from World Wide Entertainment. Kevin said we should put Bryan in the group. Bryan really wasn't in the group until a few years after the TNT Boyz formed. At first, we were like, "No, he's too young," because he was only 7 or 8. But we let him in and it turned out to be very good. Kevin took us to meet P. Diddy in Cleveland.

Q: Bryan, did you feel a little left out before they asked you to join the group? Did you want to get into the group?

Bryan: Yeah. When I was little, I always wanted to be in their group. I always asked and stuff. They wouldn't let me.

Q: Did you guys go to your parents and say, "We want to be a group?"

Kelly: We were all in the living room one day and we were like, "Hey, let's make up a dance." We made up a few dances and that's when we went out to do competitions. Then it just escalated.

Q: What advice did P. Diddy give you guys?

Dustin: He told us to just keep our heads up. Stay strong in doing what we're doing.

Q: Tell us about your single, "All I Do."

Patrick: "All I Do"-Rodney Jerkins re-did it for us. He's really cool. He's really good to work with because he doesn't think he's all that. He's real down-to-earth. If he thinks something doesn't sound right, he'll tell us to change it. If he wants something low, he'll get Dustin and do the low parts. If he wants something high, he'll get Carnell because Carnell has the little bird voice.

Q: How did working with different producers affect your music and your approach to doing a song?

Patrick: The producers all have their own styles and flavors. For the slow song we did with Rodney Jerkins, we worked hard on harmonies because he's a perfectionist. Then we did a fast one with him called "So Sexy." That one was edgier with a faster beat and took more energy to do. It just depends on what kind of producer you're working with.

Q: Dustin, when you get an idea for a song, do you jot down the idea? Do you keep a journal?

Dustin: If I'm writing a song and I have an idea in my head, I'll probably go grab a piece of paper and write. I wrote about three or four songs so far, but they might go into the next [album] or something.

Q: Do you have a favorite song on the album?

Dustin: "You Got Me" because that song has a lot of energy and the dancing that we do to it is very high energy. Everybody loves that song when we do it.
Carnell: I don't have a favorite song. I think all of our songs are good.
Patrick: "Teacher's Pet," because it's funny. It's about a boy talking to this girl and then he finds out that she's the substitute teacher at school. If you listen to the lyrics, it's very funny.
Kelly: I like this song called "Twirk It." It's really cool. It's a real high-energy song, so you can go out and dance to it.
Bryan: "You Got Me." I like the way it sounds.

Q: Would each of you please describe someone else in the group?

Dustin: Carnell is quiet. He used to be real shy, but he's grown out of that. He brings a higher voice to the group and he makes up some cool steps. He has a cool personality. He's just chillin’ a lot.
Carnell: Patrick is craziest. He always makes up jokes and everything. His steps are cool. I think all of our steps are cool. He's just more out there than everyone else.
Patrick: Kelly used to be weird. Now, I think he's grown out of that. Now, he's Mr. Suave-all cool with his deep voice. I like how Kelly raps and how he sounds with his lyrics.
Kelly: Everyone thinks Bryan is the cute one because he's so little. He's real cool. He's a game freak. He loves video games, and beats everybody except for me.
Bryan: Dustin is the lady's man. He's all about girls-even on stage.

Q: You're a group, but you're brothers and you're with each other 24/7. How do you work out disagreements?

Dustin: We have disagreements sometimes, but all brothers argue. We really don't get into fights or anything.

Q: Where do you want to be five years from now?

Kelly: Keep loving what we do. Give our fans the best music and [still] show that we can give them. Sell millions of records and maybe branch off into different parts of the music business.

Q: Is there any artist that you would like to perform with?

Kelly: I want to do a concert with OutKast. They're my favorite rap group. They're really cool. I love their songs.
Bryan: Usher. We did one show with him, but we really didn't get to be around him. We just met him.
Dustin: Probably Usher. I [also] want to see a Britney Spears concert, too, because she dances a lot.
Dustin: Janet Jackson. I want to see her, too.

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Q. How old are each of you & what are your middle names?
Dustin: 17, Michale
Kelly: 16, Allen
Patrick: 14, Owen
Carnell: 13, Fredrick
Bryan: 10, Jesse

Q. When will "U Got Me" be released?
May 19th

Q. What are your favorite movies?
Dustin: Amityville Horror
Kelly: Ong Bak
Patrick: Amityville Horror
Carnell: Ong Bak
Bryan: The Incredibles

Q. Are you single?
Yes, we are all single

Q. Would you ever consider dating a fan?
Yes, we would date a fan

Q. Where would you take a girl on a date?
Dustin: movies, hiking
Kelly: movies, concerts
Patrick: movies, play basketball, just fun stuff!
Carnell: movies, dinner
Bryan: anything fun canivals, circus

Q. Do you like to preform live?
Yes, we love the reaction from our fans, we love it when they get crunk!

Q. What group influenced you to go into showbiz?
Michael Jackson, I was 3 when I saw him, Usher, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, New Edition

Q. What do you do on a daily basis?
Schoolword, rehearsals

Q. Would you consider doing a school tour?
We perform for school all the time yes! yes! yes! we love school performances.

Q. Do you still go to public school or are you homeschooled?
No, we don't go to public school, and yes we are homeschooled.

Q. What is your favorite thing about working with your brothers?
They're my brothers! What could be better than that. I'm with family.

Q. Do you ever hold auditions for background dancers?
Not yet...because we do so much dancing, we haven't needed to yet

Q. What is it like working with P. Diddy?
It's great, I mean who wouldn't he's P. Diddy, very smart and driven, he's a hard worker for real.

Q. How do your relatives feel about your dream coming true?
They are so excited and proud of us becasuse we've worked so hard. It's been 5 1/2 years of grinding.

Q. If you were not in the music industry, what would you want to do with your life?
Dustin: Football
Kelly: Producing, designing clothing
Patrick: Basketball
Carnell: Basketball
Bryan: Football, we all love sports

Q. What future plans do you have?
We would love to do some T.V. and movies, we would love to get the experience in different fields of entertainment-skies the limit!

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B5 are the youngest artists signed to Bad Boy Records. Heck, they might be the youngest artists ever signed to Bad Boy. The group is comprised of five brothers Dustin, Kelly, Patrick, Carnell, and Bryan. The five brothers originally hail from St. Petersburg, Florida but they currently make Atlanta their home.

Their first single "All I Do," garnered them a huge fan base of mostly teenage girls who have been known to go to extreme measures just to meet the group. The group is signed to P. Diddy's Bad Boy Records. The B5 phone interview was fun but kinda hard. When you are interviewing someone over the phone and it's a group, you can't always tell who is talking. Then, they are young and their was a publicist present so I wasn't sure what kind of questions were off limits. I mean the youngest member of the group is 11 so is dating even a topic to bring up? The B5 interview was enjoyable and I know you will enjoy reading it.

How did you all go about getting your deal with Bad Boy?
B5-We were with our manager Jim McMahan. We were doing a couple of auditions and one of them was with this guy named Kevin Wales of Worldwide Entertainment. He knew Puffy very well, so he took us up to Ohio to meet Puffy. What we did was we went to his hotel room and performed with a little boom box and after that he said he liked us a lot and a month later he sent us a contract and we got signed.

When is the album coming out?
B5-July 19th

You all were in Virginia Beach last weekend for Memorial Day weekend performing at the Af'Fran festival. How was that?
B5-It was crazy. Everybody out there was showing us a lot of love.

I'm in Virginia. We tried to go down there but it was so crowded man. So Dustin you're the older are you kind of like the leader of the group sorta?
B5-There is no leader in the group. It's just all 5 of us. We all have our part we play.

Are you all doing a lot of promo and touring now?
B5-A lot of promo stuff, a lot of radio interviews. We are doing a lot of shows and spring fests and getting ready to promote our album.

You all are home schooled now or rather tutored do you ever….
B5-We go to a school called Atlanta Country Day School that school provides us with, when we are on the road the tutor comes with us. When we are home in Atlanta we go to the school and do our work.

Do you ever miss regular high school stuff like go to school, come home, play video games, teenage stuff?
B5-You don't get to hang out with your friends. There are only 5 other kids at the school. B5 and five other kids.

What is the name of the second single?
B5-"U Got Me"

How do you guys feel about the Jackson 5 comparisons?
B5-We feel really good about the Jackson 5 comparisons because when they were out they were so good. They have been around for a long time, so for people to think of us like the Jackson 5 is a compliment to us.

I heard you all in a radio interview saying you all would always be a group and no one had plans to go solo. Do you all still feel like that, that you will always be a group?
B5-Yeah. I think everybody might do their own thing but we will still be B5. Later on down the road maybe Carnell will want to make beats and write songs but we will never break up because we are mad at each other.

How long have you been singing together as a group?
B5-As B5 like 4 years.

Do you guys ever find it hard doing so much promotion, interviews all of the time?
B5-It's hard because we don't get too much sleep. The rest of it is pretty easy.

Have you all had any crazy fan encounters?
B5-Yeah

Can you tell me a story? What's the craziest thing you can think of from just this past month?
B5-Well…some of the shows we did, a lot of the girls were fainting and stuff. We went to do a radio interview and this girl said, "I was at you guys show and I pretended to faint so I could get backstage to see you guys." The last show we did there were a lot of girls fainting and falling out left and right. We had to cut our show short. A lot of girls fainting and stuff.

I know there are five of you in the group. Do you have any other artists featured on any of the remixes on the album?
B5-No it's just us right now on this album. We might have other people featured on songs on our next one.

I think it was valentines day, or no it was Mothers Day you were on 106 and Park with your mom? Do you remember that?
B5-Yeah

How was that? Did she enjoy being on TV?
B5-She was shocked. She said, "You all should have told me so I could have dressed up?"

Do you have any other brothers and sisters who aren't in the group?
B5-Just us. We have a lot of cousins.

Have any of you all pursued any acting or anything yet?
B5-We wanna do some acting. We want to do movies and all that stuff, but now we are just focusing on the album.

Puffy has had several reality shows and I asked the same question to Boyz n Da Hood. Have you all ever considered doing a reality show like B5 on the Road or B5 behind the scenes?
B5-We always joke around like that. We are always acting crazy on the road. I we had a reality show everybody would be watching that because we always act crazy.

Is it like surprising to see yourself on TV or in magazines?
B5-Yeah. It's pretty cool that we are on TV. We'll be flipping channels and we will be on BET. It feels good.

What do you guys like to do in your free time when you are not working?
B5-We play video games. Spend time with friends. Basketball. Football.

What kind of video games do you guys like?
B5-Halo 2 on X-box. The Star Wars Game Episode 3.

When you guys are doing shows do you have your own tour bus?
B5-Yes ma'am. We had a tour bus. We had our faces our big old faces on it. It was wrapped up with B5. When we were riding through everyone knew it was us. When we are doing shows really far away we will take a plane and take a limo or a van, but if it is close like 4 or 5 hours away we will take our B5 bus and go up there and perform.

So you guys are from Atlanta?
B5-We're originally from St. Petersburg, Florida but we currently live in Atlanta.

I know there is another group from Atlanta ATL I think I interviewed them before have you all ever performed at the same event or shared a stage?
B5-We heard about ATL but we never did any shows with them or anything

What is your favorite thing about being a recording star?
B5-Performing on stage.

Do you enjoy shopping for clothes and stuff?
B5-We are crazy over shoes. If we see some tight shoes we gotta get them

What is something about B5 that you all's fans might not know?
B5-They know everything about us. So the album is July 19th?

Any last remarks ?
B5-We love the fans. Vote for U Got Me. Get the album July 19th! We love you guys!

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