The music video for "Reasons" arrived Monday (Aug 17), 22 years to the day since Epic released "O" and made a solo star of a 19-year-old from Inglewood. The song is track three on O2 - Part 1, the seven-song, 21-minute record Omarion put out on June 26 through Create Music Group and Immaculate Frequency Records. Part 2 is promised for the fall.

Eleven years ago, "Reasons" was the name of an album rather than a song.

In August 2015, ArtClub, Maybach Music Group and Atlantic announced Reasons as Omarion's fifth solo album, due that October 23, led by the single "I'm Up" with Kid Ink and French Montana. That summer he was on the road with Chris Brown's One Hell of a Nite Tour, alongside Kid Ink, Fetty Wap and Teyana Taylor, selling a record that did not exist yet. October came and went. The label moved the date, then moved it again. By 2017 a new one had been set for June 16 through Atlantic, Roc Nation and MMG, with "BDY On Me," "Distance" and "Word 4 Word" seeded ahead of it. The album never came out.

He kept working anyway. The "Word 4 Word" visual was shot as a short film in Tokyo. Omarion cut it himself and told Complex at the time that it was by far the longest edit he had ever done. He invoked Michael Jackson while describing why the visual mattered as much as the record. Nine years later he spent this August playing solo dates in Japan behind an album nobody can shelve.

On the intended release date, Omarion uploaded a video of himself covering Earth, Wind & Fire's "Reasons" with a four-piece band, spliced with family footage and clips from the road. He addressed his fans directly before the first note to explain that the record was not arriving. It was a cover of a song he did not own, standing in for an album he could not release, named after a title his label was sitting on.

The shelving is what pushed him out. Speaking to The Breakfast Club in 2022 about leaving Maybach Music, Omarion said of the label head, "He could have helped more." He has since framed the situation in plainer terms, saying that for a long time he did not have full control of his output under label deals and time constraints. Building Omarion Worldwide, by his account, is why he can now put out as much music as he does.

The discography backs the claim. The Kinection arrived in 2020 through Omarion Worldwide and Warner. Full Circle: Sonic Book One and Book Two both landed in 2023 on the imprint alone, and SexSonics followed in March 2024. Four projects in four years from an artist who spent the previous six waiting on a phone call.

The current arrangement is a partnership rather than a signing. Create Music Group handles distribution and services on a roster that also includes Jason Derulo, Keri Hilson, Tyrese and Durand Bernarr, while Immaculate Frequency Records carries Omarion's own imprint credit. The song called "Reasons" now sits on a record he controls, with a video that went out on a Monday in August because he decided it would.

That structure is becoming the standard shape for veteran R&B rather than the exception, the same logic behind Mya running her tenth album through her own Planet 9 after eight years away.

O2 is billed as a "Sonic Book Two," a callback to the debut that opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 182,000 copies in February 2005. That record earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album, ran 52 minutes, and drew on The Neptunes, The Underdogs and Rodney Jerkins. Its lead single won Viewer's Choice at the 2005 BET Awards. This one runs 21 minutes, and the opening track is titled "2005."

21 also entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 in December 2006. Sex Playlist, the Maybach album, peaked at No. 49 in 2014 and stands as his lowest debut. It still carried "Post to Be" with Chris Brown and Jhene Aiko to No. 13 on the Hot 100 and Best Collaboration at that year's Soul Train Awards. Nothing since has charted at that altitude, which is the context the seven-song format is answering.

O2 - Part 1 is built by Blaq Tuxedo, G-Elz and Ethos across those seven songs, then split in half so a second installment can arrive before the year ends. "The One" samples Snoop Dogg's 2002 hit "Beautiful," the Pharrell Williams and Charlie Wilson record, and has climbed from No. 63 to No. 38 on Urban radio. "I Could Do It" brings in South Africa's Major League DJz and pushes the album toward amapiano, which is new territory for a singer whose reference points have mostly been domestic.

The Rest of the Calendar

The album landed in the middle of the busiest stretch Omarion has had in a decade. He performed solo on the BET Awards 2026 pre-show. He then stood on the Verzuz stage with J-Boog, Lil Fizz and Raz-B against Pretty Ricky, a night that ended with B2K releasing "Mileage," their first new single in more than 20 years. On June 29 he played an intimate set at the Blue Note Jazz Club in Los Angeles with James Fauntleroy and Tone Stith.

He also stars in and executive produces Wild Rose, the ALLBLK action series that became the network's top-rated program of 2026 and was renewed for a second season. The wellness material runs parallel to all of it, through the 2022 book Unbothered: The Power of Choosing Joy and the "Unbothered Mondays" series he still posts. Japan dates filled August. A domestic solo run follows this fall. In December he rejoins B2K for an international tour, and the first night is December 13 at The O2 Arena in London, a coincidence nobody involved is likely to correct.