O-City have mentioned they’re being mistakenly confused as “a Diddy band” and it’s hurting their profession.
The boy band had been shaped on the primary season of the fact TV collection Making The Band in 2000, the present that later featured the disgraced rap mogul as a central determine that chosen the expertise and mentored the aspiring younger artists.
Nevertheless, on O-City’s season of the present, Diddy was not concerned, with Backstreet Boys and NSYNC supervisor Lou Pearlman – himself additionally a extremely controversial determine – performing because the mentor determine.
Regardless of having no connection to Diddy, O-City have said that it hasn’t stopped bookers and brokers from distancing themselves from the group. “Of all of the bands in Making The Band, we’re the one one not tied to him,” the band’s Jacob Underwood advised The Hollywood Reporter.
“The extra individuals confuse us with a Diddy band and submit our photos along with his story, the extra it goes towards us. We make a dwelling touring and may’t afford to have [bookers] Googling us to search out the most recent Diddy clickbait.”
O-City’s agent Matt Rafal mentioned one giant gaming firm withdrew the group from a billing attributable to their supposed affiliation with Diddy. “The supply was pulled because of the notion of the group being connected to Diddy,” Rafal mentioned. “We made it clear O-City’s Making The Band had no affiliation with Diddy, however the firm nervous company could also be confused. Because the Diddy information, we’ve acquired questions and hesitancy from a number of expertise patrons, particularly for tender tickets like gala’s and theme parks, in addition to city-funded occasions.”
As a substitute of Diddy, the band are related to Pearlman, about whom the Netflix miniseries Soiled Pop: The Boy Band Rip-off was launched final yr. He was indicted by Florida authorities in 2006 on prices of conspiracy, cash laundering and submitting false chapter, happening the run earlier than lastly being arrested in Indonesia in 2007. He was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2008 and handed away in 2016 after a cardiac arrest on the age of 62.
“We already inherited our personal notorious producer/supervisor from our model of Making The Band and now one other model and its mogul is affecting us,” Erik-Michael Estrada of the band mentioned in the identical interview. “For our livelihood to be impacted this a few years after the model was moved to him is so unlucky.”
The documentary about Diddy, The Making Of A Dangerous Boy, was launched on January 14 on Peacock within the US. In it, former Dangerous Boy Information signee Sara Rivers accuses the rapper of threatening her and her bandmates throughout her time on Making The Band between 2002 and 2004.
Diddy’s authorized workforce have denied the claims explored in The Making of a Dangerous Boy: “This documentary recycles and perpetuates the identical lies and conspiracy theories which have been slung towards Mr. Combs for months.”
Final September, Diddy was arrested and charged with crimes together with sexual trafficking and racketeering. He has since been held in a federal jail in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York Metropolis awaiting trial, which is ready to start on Might 5. If convicted, he may serve wherever between 15 years to life in jail.
Combs has denied all allegations towards him. Diddy’s attorneys not too long ago claimed that movies allegedly from the hip-hop star’s “freak-off” intercourse events will as a substitute “affirm Mr. Combs’s innocence” as a result of they present sexual exercise amongst “consenting adults.”
