Making His Band ep03: teamwork

Count Diddula working on his vocals

[Contains Spoilers]
Back on the scene after last week’s back to basics catastrophe. To be honest, I’m not as committed to this show as I am to others but I’m watching it so you don’t have to (or so that you know you’re not the only one!). Anyway, let’s get to this week’s recap.

Where last week was about the individual, the musicians were put into groups tonight to focus on programming, playing as a team and sonically reproducing the feel of Last Train to Paris. While it’s apparent that many of the musicians weren’t formally trained or know the fundamentals, they’re here now because they’ve taught themselves or have a natural ear for music. Broken up into 4 bands, the musicians had three days to three songs (Point of No Return by Expose, Pleasure Principle by Janet Jackson and Take On Me by A-Ha).

Out the gate, Brockett was hype. “Once we get the sounds right… there’s nobody gonna play with the kinda feel I can play on these records. Trust me,” he proclaimed. I liked that kind of confidence and from what we’ve seen so far, Brockett can really back up all the tough talk. He can afford to run the keys all he wants in his group though, because he’s the only keyboardist there.

In the next group, Lynnette was on keys along with Jason aka J-Sweet and they weren’t meshing quite as well as they needed to. Everyone cannot be the leader/music director but at this point, with it being a competition and all, I don’t think that’s an easy concept to swallow. Hence, discord. I really like Lynnette though. I feel as though she’s hella talented and humble which is a rare combination. What I’ve noticed is that J-Sweet has a very negative and defensive attitude. Every time Lynnette says something or asks a question, J-Sweet gets super condescending and patronizing. Ew. It’s not the way to rally a team if you ARE the leader. To be fair, I don’t think Lynnette should react by running away.

Making His Band ep02: Fundamentals

Last week’s premier was the massive weeding out of less than stellar talent and our first intro to the musicians who made it into the house. This week, we get a closer look and more Didtastic shenanigans, of course.

The house is not a home. It’s a freaking mansion. That place is huge and fits 30 people, son! Amenities include a pool worthy of ___ and a mini theather with stadium seating.

Lynnette and Brockett (who violated by wearing sunglasses indoors) have a connection to Berklee and a formal music education. Most of the cats in the house seem self-taught though so it’ll be interesting to see how education or lack thereof impacts their sound. The judges apparently feel that music education is important at some level because they stressed technique on the first challenge. FUNDAMENTALS is the name of the game. Brockett made a pretty good analogy likening everyone to new NBA players who gotta go back to basics and shoot free throw drills. Although, I must say that the slam dunk v. free throw comment reminded me of the racist assumption that Black players have natural skill and athleticism whereas white players work hard and dedicate themselves to training. I’m not saying Brockett is racist at all, by the way. I’m just saying.

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!

I Want to Work for Diddy – Finale!

I started out having no ego. A lot of peole see where I am now and they think it was given to me.
– The Tao of Diddy

Sorry it took a little while for me to get to this. Spent two hours watching Hip Hop Honors. Now I don’t even know why. It was alright but I wasn’t really impressed with the overall show. Now, I can get to the IW2W4D Finale!

Last week was hot because we saw the PA hopefulls flail on their first day at Bad Boy. Poprah got her shit READ by Diddy himself.

Yo. the look on Kim’s face when Diddy hit her with the, “thank you for applying for the position” line was pure confusion. She was flabbergasted. THEN, after she tried to explain herself, she came up with the real reason Diddy cancelled her: She’s overqualified for the position. Ohhhhhhhhhh. Okay. NOW the personal assistant position is a waste of her time. Poprah/Kim, spare me. You were so gung ho about this position ALL season long. Now that you’ve gotten the boot, working for Diddy is bullshit? I can’t believe how some people can convince themselves of anything. Overqualified?

I Want to Work for Diddy – Mission 9

There is a method to the madness
-The Tao of Diddy™

You lettin' these fools handle my showcase?

The four remaining hopefuls learn that they’ll be spending their first day at Bad Boy soon and being as such, they need to preserve their sexy. Mr. Combs doesn’t like ugly people around him at Bad Boy, so you know, keep it tight. The four get sent to a salon to get styled, shaved and waxed. Poprah even lets them handle that upper lip hair. Go on girl. Next, they all get to cop new gear. Stefanie and Suzanne are sent to H&M (O Really Puff?), Poprah gets to roll dolo to Lane Bryant (Well, I guess so) and Mike heads to the Sean John store (seems like he got the best deal).

The new mission is to put together a showcase for Janelle Monae (who is the hotness). The show really hammers home the point that a showcase is super important to an artist’s success. It can make or break him/her. Knowing the gravity of the situation, we know somebody’s going to fall HOARD. Kim steps out ahead as the leader because, according to her, she’s done that before.

The thing that stops people from being successful most of the time is their egos; how they gonna look to they friends or they feel something is beneath them. You know I started out I would go clean toilets at a Mexican restaurant and I would be a bus boy. At the end of the day, getting the job done and working hard is extremely important.
– The Tao of Diddy™

The Four hook up with Diddy’s current assistants to get the real on what they need to do today: Whatever Diddy Wants! This is more complicated than you think because Diddy truly expects each person to be in several places at once. Tasks pile on to each one and before they can even get started on one, BOOM, there’s another.

I Want to Work for Diddy – Mission 2

“If you can’t see the forest through the trees, you gotta chop them motherfuckers down.”
– The Tao of Diddy™

Last week Ms. Busty got the boot leaving Kim, aka Poprah, to gloat and scream another day. Ok, I’m sure Boris won’t win the show. Why? Because he couldn’t tell that Laverne was a transsexual. LOSER. Then again, my gaydar failed because I didn’t know Rob was gay before he said so. Not that there’s anything wrong with that © Seinfeld.

Of course, you can’t have a reality elimination show without some military/boot camp element. Before they even get started doing ANYTHING, Kim starts coughing all crazy. She claimed to be having allergies. Then she said something about asthmatic reaction to high pollen. Ok. Could be the case. Not a big loss anyway, the team decided, because she can’t run that well and is known to break down any teamwork whatsoever.