#BBLU: the rise & fall of the taz’s angels. ❤︎
circa 2013—2016: digital empire built on sex appeal, sisterhood, & scandals.
a lil bougie breakdown of the internet’s original it-girls.
before influencer was even a job title or instagram had stories: there was the taz’s angels. a curated house of bad bitches, living young wild & free in miami.
note: much of the taz’s angels timeline exists through archived videos, screenshots, and personal retellings. dates and details vary depending on the source.
001: the origins.
founded by michael j. williams but better known by his alias taz, the self-proclaimed “black hugh hefner” who went from co-producing khia’s “my neck, my back” in the early 2000s to marketing a lifestyle and the girls that came with it. as early as 2009, the angels brand was already being established for what was to come for the next few years.
according to sources, the first recruit discovered by taz was catherine portes — aka CatDaGreat. the exact date is unknown but I’ll assume 2009 based on when their offical youtube chanel was created. now cat worked at neiman marcus as a retail associate, struggling. according to retellings, taz then allegedly put her to work at a strip club in tampa working seven days a week. she would recruit other girls working there for taz’s vision. that’s when she recruited kinky (kenia lopez) and that’s when the collective really began.
002: the rise.
the group thrived as early as 2009 but their peak era is undoubtedly 2013—2015 before their falloff in 2016 due to scandals, angels leaving, and financial issues. the core girls of the group were cat obviously, kinky who was her right hand woman, AB who has been widely claimed online to have been recruited as early as 18, the sayed sisters (leena & ruby), and later on ashley martelle, ana montana, demi rose, jenna frumes and jayde pierce were added to the collective. other girls rumored to be part of the rotation (even if they deny it now): chantel jeffries and catherine paiz — whom were spotted during my research in early youtube videos, in BBLU apparel and on tour with the angels in places like NYC and various cities in florida.
known for hosting the hottest clubs in miami and associating themselves with celebs like amber rose, blac chyna, jordyn woods, kylie jenner, hailey bieber, and many more. instagram. snapchat. youtube. house parties in their rumored $4.5 million house with zero furniture. celebrity hostings. twerk videos. the viral one-liners and songs. they were also named dropped in hip-hop songs. they were the playmates of social media — just grittier and unapologetically ratchet. i remember being in middle school having no business up, watching their snapchat. entertaining to say the least. they referred to their supporters as the rydaz or ryders.
some of their beefs were with:
drake. (allegedly in 2014, him and pnd hosted cameo in miami on tuesday night. him and his entourage filled out three vip tables. troubles started to brew when cat got on the mic and accused drake of “not messing with taz’s angels.” — sources said drake felt a way about cat’s harsh words, jetted over to the angels section and confronted taz personally. witnesses from that night say words were loud and heated between the two, with aggressive hand gestures and stances.
then in 2015 at ovo fest, during star67 after the line "switching up the angles” drake then switched the lyrics to "where the fuck is taz, i’m trying to fuck an angel"
draya michele. (when kinky left the angels in 2016, she put on a PSA to her followers on ig to let them know about her new journey. draya commented some advice for her and cat didn’t like it. addressing hype she felt about it on snapchat.)
chantel jeffries. (after being apart of the angels for some time, in 2015 she was spotted with justin bieber. rumor has it that the angels were jealous of her newfound fame. however cat was very open about her feelings claiming chantel of being a ‘groupie hoe who couldn’t keep her leg’s closed who was fucking every rapper while driving a kia.’ a claim that circulated heavily on social media at the time.
also, not a beef but lil wayne curved the fuck out of cat outside of a club. video went viral. thought i’d add that.
their famous slogans + brandings were:
BBLU = “bad bitches link up”
yo daddy wanna me $hopping.
BNDDP = “broke niggas don’t deserve pussy” (real).
003: the aesthetic.
the palette: black, white, greys, nudes with hints of red and silver from crystal, diamond accents.
before ‘clean girl’, we had jet-black outfits, bodycon silhouettes, bandage dresses, thigh-high heels, red bottoms, platform heels, diamonds, big curls, jet-black hair, barbie blonde, low lighting, mirror selfies, shaky snapchat videos. their look existed somewhere between strip club glamour, rap video vixen, and early instagram nightlife. miami played a huge role. the palm trees, the humidity, the neon lights. minimal clothing was a normality. i still dress like this. these minimalist outfits with just enough glamour in them are still in my rotation til this day. this era as a whole in my favorite to source for fashion, the 2000s coming in as a close #2.
according to online chatter, the girls were known for a closet full of expensive, interchangeable clothes and shoes they shared among themselves.
my personal fav was leena when it came to the outfits.
004: the downfall.
in my eyes, everything went to shit when kinky left. then ruby as well when either before or after she got arrested. many people who were tuned in for kinky, a fav of the collective but once she left so did the views.
by 2014, the brand is big enough that local press starts treating them like a real phenomenon. the coverage has a suspicious undertone: who funds this? how does it work? what’s the business? miami new times frames them as a “mysterious posse,” highlighting that it’s unclear how they make money besides club hosting. by late 2014, once articles start explaining the depths of the lore, the group stops being a fantasy and becomes a case study. that’s when thinkpieces and forums start treating them like a long-running investigation.
allegedly they were raided by the fbi for sex trafficking in miami and were sued for not paying rent on their mansion thus their inevitable downfall. rumors say kinky left in the first place due to the mansion being put into her name deceitfully.
some of the angels have gone onto becoming mothers to rappers and other celebrities, turned their life over to religion, picking up work in modeling and acting, starting businesses and overall disbanding the entire angel image as a whole without a trace or mention of the era. cat and AB are still holding the brand up, the last two standing. still very active on their social media and still very loyal to taz.
conclusion.
taz’s angels didn’t just go viral. they invented a format. they didn’t just end. they expired. the way all early internet fantasies do once the audience grows up and starts asking questions. the internet that once cheered them on became the same internet that dissected them through it all (ironic). despite the drama, their era in time holds a soft spot in my heart.
before today’s influencer houses had PR training, they ran on raw ingredients: sex appeal, sisterhood, nightlife, and storyline. the internet watched them in real time like a reality show with no producers until the plot got too dark to keep romanticizing. cute gowns though, cute girls too.
they helped define the 2013–2016 era we all know and love: the look, the lingo, the club-hosting economy, the branding, the idea that a woman could be her own advertisement. today’s influencer collectives, ig models/baddies, the format of the nightlife scene via social media: it all has their fingerprints. one of the first to do it and pave the way during an era where social media was just getting its start.
whether you loved them, hated them, defended them, or dissected them, one thing is clear: they were the blueprint. the internet’s first it-girls. they didn’t just go viral. they built a prototype and like most prototypes: it worked, until it didn’t.
