Dustin Michael, a member of the R&B group B5 who were once signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy, has revealed that he’s dating a transgender woman.
The singer took to Instagram on Tuesday (May 9) to “celebrate” his girlfriend, film director D. Smith, who recently covered the murder of a trans dancer named Rasheeda “KoKo Da Doll” Williams in a documentary for Gaye Magazine.
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“I feel as Black men, we’re not allowing ourselves to love who we wanna love openly without fearing being judged and shamed publicly,” Williams said in a video post. “I feel that we’re taught as children being sexually ambiguous is wrong and that we learn to suppress certain feelings.”
He continued: “Which leads me to why I’m making this video. I’m in a very beautiful relationship with someone who makes me very happy…my girlfriend, she is transgender, her name is D. Smith. I don’t want to be one of the men benefiting from a trans woman in private and not celebrate her publicly.”
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D. Smith reposted her beau’s video on her own Instagram page, and shared her own thoughts on their newly public relationship.
“I’m so proud of you. We’ve known each other for almost 10 years now, and every moment with you was always validating,” Smith wrote. “So many men only dream of being as brave as you are. Thank you for being the example of a human just loving a human. I’m so grateful for your heart, ambition, and spirit! I love you.”
View this post on InstagramConsisting of the five Breeding brothers, B5 was discovered by Diddy in 2002 who signed them to Bad Boy soon after. Their debut self-titled album dropped in 2005 and peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard 200. The project included the hits “U Got Me” and “All I Do” — A Jackson 5 Cover that hit No. 71 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
The group then returned with Don’t Talk, Just Listen in 2007 before leaving their deal at Bad Boy. Dustin later embarked on his own solo career, before reuniting with his brothers in 2018 for “Do That,” B5’s first song together in five years.
Despite their modest success on Bad Boy, fellow B5 member Bryan Breeding said last year that the brothers never saw a dime from any of their records.
“We made about 99.9% of all our income from live performances & merchandise and till this day I’ve never seen a PENNY from any of our B5 commercial albums,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “For years! We reach out to lawyers, advisors and even TV networks for a chance to help us or tell our story and no one ever touched it with a 10 foot pole.”
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He went on to implore other artists to use his story, encouraging young artists to own their own music.
“So here I AM telling my story, my truth and not from a ‘woe is me’ perspective but as an example for the next generation of young artists to WRITE and OWN your content!” he added. “READ your contracts and create new sounds for the LOVE of music, as a expression of who YOU ARE! You don’t need to compromise for the bag or the glamorized ‘Record Label Deal’ we have enough artist like that and doing a great job at it.”
