Influenced by R&B, rap, and buoyant pop music, the American boy band Mindless Behavior formed in Los Angeles in 2008. The initial lineup featured Jacob Anthony Perez (also know as "Princeton"), Chresanto Romelo Lorenzo August ("Roc Royal"), Rayan De'Quan Lopez ("Ray Ray"), and Craig Thomas Crippen Jr. ("Prodigy"), all of whom were recruited by the group's manager, Walter Millsap. An accomplished musician who had engineered Alicia Keys' The Diary of Alicia Keys, apprenticed under producer Timbaland, and served as Lady Gaga's music director, Millsap took an active role in Mindless Behavior's career, producing and co-writing nearly every song on the group's three albums. The first of those records, #1 Girl, was released in 2011. While Mindless Behavior toured the country with Janet Jackson, #1 Girl became a hit, producing a pair of popular singles — "My Girl" and "Mrs. Right," both of which cracked the Top 40 on the R&B chart — and climbing to Number 7 on the Billboard 200. Mindless Behavior won the Viewers Choice Award at the 2012 BET Awards and released a second album, All Around the World, the following year. Tensions within the band's ranks prompted Prodigy to leave Mindless Behavior in November 2013, with Elijan "EJ" Johnson — a Broadway actor who had previously starred in The Lion King — replacing him in April 2014. By the time the group's third album, #OfficialMBMusic, appeared in 2016, Mindless Behavior had morphed into a slimmed-down trio featuring EJ, Princeton, and Michael "Mike River" Martin. Although it debuted at Number 4 on the Hip-Hop Albums chart, #OfficialMBMusic was a commercial disappointment, and the group broke up in 2017.
