‘Making the Band’: Where Are They Now?
Pictured: (L to R) Ashley Parker Angel, Babs, Donnie Klang
Making the Band 1, O-Town
Debuting in 2000 as part of ABC’s late-era TGIF lineup (it soon moved to MTV),
Making The Band attempted to mint a boy band sensation under the tutelage of Lou Pearlman, the onetime manager of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. O-Town released two albums; three singles hit Billboard’s Top 100. But the band was dropped by Clive Davis’ J Records in 2003 and the members went their separate ways until four of the five members reunited in 2013. They released an album called “Lines & Circles” in 2016 and have been touring with other ’90s acts.
Ashley Parker Angel: O-Town’s answer to Justin Timberlake, Angel scored an MTV spinoff, There and Back, about his struggles as a solo artist, and released one major label album “Soundtrack To Your Life,” but never achieved mass success. He turned down an opportunity to reunite with O-Town in 2013 to continue to focus on his solo career.
Erik-Michael Estrada : Though currently touring with the Angel-less O-Town, Estrada has shifted into acting, appearing in a number of indie films and shorts, the latest of which was an action comedy called The Bang Bang Brokers. And no, he is still not Erik Estrada’s son.
Trevor Penick: Let’s just say a name change to Tre Scott didn’t ignite his solo career. He’s currently touring with his O-Town bros.
Dan Miller: Miller, who replaced original member Ikaika Kahoano, released a solo EP, “Slower Than a Gun,” in 2005, and now bills himself as a producer, songwriter and graphic designer.
Jacob Underwood : After O-Town, Underwood moved to Nashville where, he admitted in a 2015 interview, “I learned what I didn’t know about music.” He released an album as part of the Southern rock band Jacob’s Loc before returning to his hometown of San Diego and working at a guitar store until the O-Town reunion.
Making The Band 2, Da Band
Sean “Diddy” Combs” took over as Svengali from Pearlman, and in his first outing forged Da Band, a collective of six rappers and an R&B powerhouse. Da Band released a single album, “Too Hot For TV,” which went gold, but Combs dissolved the group at the end of Season 3.
Lynese “Babs” Wiley: Da Band’s sole female rapper, Wiley still records —she released “Can We Talk (feat. Monia Amore) in early 2017— but also spearheads Queen of the Ring, which showcases female rap battles and promotes female rappers.
Lloyd “Ness” Mathis: Combs hung onto the Philly rapper after Da Band dissolved, initially with an eye to pairing him with Babs, but Ness was eventually let go from the Bad Boy label. He continues to record and calls himself the “King of Battle Rap.”
Frederick “Freddy P” Watson: Ness’ favorite sparring partner, Watson was dropped in Season 3, but he continues to release music from his Miami home base.
Kevin “Chopper” Barnes: Post-MTV, the New Orleanian landed a contract with Big Boy South and scored a track on the Hustle & Flow soundtrack, but he also became mired in legal drama. He received two years’ probation for an old robbery charge in Maryland, and in 2013, he was arrested on warrants for extortion and battery. In 2012 he was shot in while riding in his Lamborghini during what he described as a botched robbery, but he still continues to record and tour.
Dylan Dilinjah: Now known as Dylan Dili, the rapper at one point signed with Akon’s label KonLive, and has had a full-length album “Pain 2 Power,” on the verge of release since 2014.
Sara Stokes: The Michigan R&B singer’s stormy onscreen relationship with her husband Tony got worse after the band fell apart. She served time in jail for domestic violence, and later appeared on a Centric reality show called From The Bottom Up in 2016, about her hitting rock bottom. In it, Stokes revealed she had been molested by both her stepfather and her biological father when she was young.
Making The Band 3, Danity Kane
Combs spent three season trying to finesse a female supergroup, and while Danity Kane did release two chart-topping albums, the group dissolved in 2009 due to infighting.
Shannon Bex: After being released from her Bad Boy recording contract, the former Portland Trail Blazers dancer briefly pursued a country music career, then briefly reunited with three Danity Kane members before that collapsed. In 2015, she and fellow former band member Aubrey O’Day joined forces as the indie, dance duo dumblonde, but that didn’t last either.
Dawn Richard: The New Orleans native was the only member of Danity Kane to remain with Bad Boy, performing with Diddy-Dirty Money until leaving the label in 2012. The 2014 Danity Kane reunion was cut short after she allegedly punched Aubry O’Day during a recording session. She has since released three well-received independent albums, the most recent called
“Redemption Heart” in 2016.
D. Woods: After she was let go by Combs, the former Wanita Woodgett formed her own label, Woodgrane Entertainment, under which she continues to release music. Her last single was titled “Keep Calm Dance to This” and released in 2015
Aundrea Fimbres: Fimbres continued to tour and record after Danity Kane disbanded, and was part of the 2014 reunion, but soon revealed she planned to leave the group at the end of their tour to get married and help raise her fiance’s daughter. Since then she’s been leading a low-profile life, with her social media accounts focused on her family.
Aubrey O’Day: Though she has continued to record music—most recently with Bex— O’Day has made the biggest name for herself by appearing on several reality television shows. She was the villain of the 2012 edition of The Celebrity Apprentice, snidely taking down fellow contestants even as she raised money for an anti-bullying charity (she placed third); competed on 2016’s Celebrity Big Brother; and found love with Jersey Shore’s DJ Pauly D on 2016’s Famously Single. Her latest project? A proposed reality show about the couple’s relationship.
Making The Band 4, Day26
: Combs’ all-male R&B group hit number one on the Billboard charts with their self-titled debut album. They released another album before unceremoniously ejecting Qwanell “Que” Mosley. The group called it quits in 2012. Day26 briefly reunited the following year, and in August 2017 they are scheduled to perform at a sold-out 10th anniversary concert in New York.
Michael McCluney: “Big MIke” McCluney is still recording, but also finds time to coach young singers, model, choreograph.
He released an album, “Bonus Tracks,” in 2016.
Willie Taylor: Taylor is actively recording music, but he and his wife were also featured on Seasons 2 and 3 of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood.
Robert Curry: Curry too hasn’t given up his dreams of stardom, although his most recent effort was a 2015 single called “Rehab.”
Qwanell “Que”
Mosley: After his ugly ejection from the group (Taylor called him “a cancer”), Mosley released a couple of mixtapes and a 2012 single, “See Me.”
Brian Andrews: Like his bandmates, Andrews is still pursuing solo stardom, but he did make headline news in 2016 when he called out Combs on Twitter for failing to include Day26 in the Bad Boy reunion tour.
Donnie Klang: Combs chose to make a solo star out of Klang, a former child actor and American Idol reject, but he split from Bad Bay in 2010 after releasing a solo album that debuted and peaked at 19 on the Billboard 200 chart. He now co-owns a music and artist development studio on his native Long Island.
Don’t get your hopes up, prospective stars of Boy Band, if early 2000s hit show Making the Band is any indication, you’ll find more success hopping to another reality show than climbing the Billboard charts. (Although, in the case of O-Town, you can recycle your old hits for thirtysomething moms who spend their summers hitting up nostalgia tours.)
ABC’s new reality competition seeks to find the next Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC or New Kids on the Block, with popstars Rita Ora, Nick Carter (of the aforementioned BSB), Emma Button (Spice Girls) and producer Timbaland leading the charge. Will they form the next One Direction? If the fates of Making the Band winners are any indication, probably not.
Ever wonder what happened to O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel, Da Band’s Babs, Danity Kane’s Dawn, or Day26’s Que? Click through the gallery above to see what happens when TV makes you a star, but reality doesn’t live up to the hype.
Boy Band, Series Premiere, Thursday, June 29, 8/7c, ABC
