Diddy Is Bringing ‘Making the Band’ Back to MTV
July 15, 2019Who are the five best rappers of all time? Ask this of any rap fans and surely they'll respond by dropping Biggie, 2pac, Jay-Z, or, if you're a youth of today, Travis Scott or something. But anyone worth their salt, specifically when it comes to early 00s MTV reality shows, knows the real answer to that question: Dy-lan, Dy-lan, Dy-lan, Dy-lan, and Dy-lan.
The infamous scene, in which rapper Dylan Dilinjah displays a stunning lack of self-awareness and was parodied on Chappelle's Show, was from MTV's Making the Band 2, a reality series in which Sean "Diddy" Combs put singers and rappers through the ringer over the course of three seasons to see who'd form part of a hip-hop supergroup, later named Da Band. Diddy went on to do two more incarnations of Making the Band, which lead to even more intense physical and mental strain placed on contestants at the hands of Diddy himself or infamously brutal choreographer Laurieann Gibson, and the formation of R&B groups Danity Kane and Day26. Now, aspiring singers and rappers will have another shot at musical and reality TV fame, as Making the Band is returning to MTV in 2020 with Diddy once again at the helm.
Whether he'll make contestants walk from Midtown Manhattan to Downtown Brooklyn (a two-hour walk each way) to bring him a cheesecake again, as he did in another iconic moment in Making the Band 2, is yet to be known, but one can only hope. It was fantastic television.
Last week, Diddy teased the return of the series on Twitter, asking followers if he should bring it back. That lead Danity Kane member (and alleged soulmate to Donald Trump Jr.) Aubrey O'Day to challenge Diddy to bring back her old girl group and give them another shot. No response from Diddy on that front yet, but considering the groups he built on MTB, and the fact that they either disbanded or were dropped, and never reached the megastardom they were promised, does she really want that?
For those who do want to take that gamble with Diddy, a global talent search is now underway. Diddy asked all hopefuls to upload a video of themselves singing using #MTBcasting on any major social media platform, including Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter. May be worth mentioning a willingness to walk for hours to bring him a cheesecake.
Alex Zaragoza is the senior culture writer at VICE and aspires to have Da Band's Sara Stokes' perfect eyebrows. Follow her onTwitter.