Making His Band ep01: Diddy be strokin’

… his ego, that is. Nobody loves Sean Combs more than Sean Combs, but you already knew that. I guess he wasn’t sure we knew that because he spent the first 10 minutes of his new reality show Making His Band talking about himself and his rise to musicianship or whatever. I guess Diddy said screw trying to make a band with chicks (Danity Kane), dudes (Day 26) or rappers (Da Band). He’s putting together a team of singers, drummers, guitarists, bassists and keyboardists to back him on his next project, “Last Train to Paris”. While some may scoff at Diddy trying to step grow musically (really?), he might be onto something. Afterall, he is Bad Boy’s top artist and highest priority.Along for the ride are judges Laurie Ann Gibson (why?), Om’Mas Keith (producer/lyricist), Rob Lewis (songwriter), Nisan Stewart (musical director), and Romeo (vocal coach).

So the Didster has a team looking for a “certain butter”, the kind of band that can carry the show without him. The first episode is always a massive weeding out process where they feature a few hopefuls, get the audience attached, then brings down the axe on some of your faves. We’ll see what happens with these guys…

• The violin player, Lee, is hot. I get the feeling they won’t know what to do with him because a violinist wasn’t in their original concept of the band. It sounds great in the mix though.
  
• White keyboardist Brockett was given props but told to “put it in context.” Hip Hop isn’t his first genre or what he trained in, but I think he is amazing.
  
• Kristoffer, the big dude drummer. Is. Not. Playing.
• Jamareo, on bass, is so sweet. I want him to make it. He’s my pick for the final band!
  
• Couple of the white guys, were pretty sick on the guitar. Blake looks like he knows it too. Uh oh, that won’t be good. After talking about himself, Diddy’s next favorite thing is breaking down anyone who thinks they can come close to his orbit. The other dude Alex up and said his amp was tired when criticized. Diddy’s #3 fave thing… torturing people who make excuses.
  
• In the beginning I was all “I’m pretty sure the big girl singer is a man. Thank goodness it was verified that Jaila was born Michael. It would have surely driven me crazy for episodes to come. Homegirl’s voice DEEP den a mugg! That’s a throwback to LaVerne on I Wanna Work for Diddy, except LV was much more fabtastic!
  
• Oh damn Dina, they basically said you hit (the drums) like a girl. What?! Haven’t they heard of Sheila E? Joy got up right after her and crushed the drums. Score one for the ladies.

Those folks (except Dina), and several other musicians made it into the house. Let the madness that is Diddy + MTV ensue!

Jaila!

Some personal highlights this ep: Diddy came onto the scene and gave his critique. Lack of swag was in the building and Dids warned the wannabes not to put him to sleep. I thought that overall, the background singers sounded alright while drums might turn out to be a big issue in the competition. Wow at the conversation between Diddy and one of the judges about Jaila. Dids referred to her as “my man” and the other judge called her “whatever”. Now, I can’t really clap to that. Shame on you Didville! LOL @ “make sure your MF’in weave is tight” though.

Jaila snappin’ it up for the kids, of course, and Andre Harrell’s sage advice to Diddilicious: Lose weight and start dancing again. People love to see you dance. Hmm… I mean, yeah I like to see him dance but he’s been clowned a lot for Diddy Bopping across the stage. After watching his YouTube vids though, I’m going to agree that some gym time would be beneficial, dancing or not. Diddy’s response to Andre: You lose some weight too, big man. LOL!

Seriously, I’m interested in seeing how this show pans out for the viewers. People can, for the most part, look at dancing or listen to singing and make a decision on what’s good or not. They might not know what a pas de deux is or know what “sounding pitchy” really means, but they know Whitney Houston from Rhianna. I’m not so sure how well the average viewer will be able to judge a bass player or keyboardist. And let’s face it, judging is what reality is all about.

Most important lesson learned this episode: It’s harder to tell you are transexual if you’re fat.