If you watched Making the Band, you know Diddy and his team put together several successful musical acts on the reality show in the early 2000s. One of those acts was hip-hop group Da Band, made up of Sara Rivers, Dylan Dilinjah, Chopper, Babs, Ness, and Freddy P.
Freddy P, born Freddrick Watson, recently sat down with the “Art of Dialogue” YouTube channel to discuss his time with Da Band.
The rapper is originally from Liberty City in Miami and made it clear in the interview he’s “street.” He said he’s seen some things in life, but being part of Making the Band was crazy.
“We did so much, waking up at 6 a.m. training, walking around Brooklyn screaming Biggie’s lyrics, feeding the homeless, washing Swizz Beatz’s car,” Freddy recalled.
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He compared the group’s treatment to an initiation and confirmed that the infamous episode — when Da Band was ordered to walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn to purchase cheesecake for Diddy — was real and the group did walk for hours.
Freddy noted that the group members hated the tasks they were given, but Diddy — then known as Puff Daddy — “dangled” money and success in front of their eyes.
The show’s first three seasons aired on ABC and introduced the group O-Town. The series then moved to MTV and was overseen by Diddy and his Bad Boy Records associates.
The rebranded show featured Da Band, Danity Kane, Day26, and Donnie Klang, with each act appearing on multiple seasons as the series charted their progress.
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Freddy said the show made millions of dollars off the aspiring artists, but he alleged the earnings weren’t shared fairly.
“He made $43 million on the second season alone. We did three seasons with that guy,” Freddy said about Diddy. “We built the brand.”
He said Da Band had a terrible contract with Bad Boy, and the group members were paid a fraction of what they earned for promotional performances.
He accused Diddy and his associates of “robbing” Da Band of their earnings.
“If I catch any one them ni–as at the right time, in the right environment, I’m going to get it off you, except Puffy, because I know he’s a fed,” he said.
With the “fed” reference, he alleged Diddy is an informant with protection from law enforcement.
“Anybody who can’t see that Puffy is a f–ing agent… he shows you that by sacrificing ni–as under him,” Freddy said.
He continued by revealing that he left Da Band after Diddy allegedly threatened his life.
“One day, I woke up, I’m in a mood. I’m in the studio, I’m snapping or whatever. I didn’t even want to be f–ked with. You know when you around a bunch of goofies and you a street n–ga, sometimes you don’t want to be around the nerds… So I’m in that b–h, I’m just frustrated with a lot of s–t going on,” Freddy said.
He continued, “Anyway, we get into a situation. We in front of everybody, n–ga like, ‘Man, what you think, you bad or something?’ He was like, ‘N–ga, I’ll buy every house on your block, shut every light off in that b—h, and every time you come out that b—h, you’ll get popped.’”
Freddy said he knew it was time to go, adding, “I done seen Puff do some wild s–t.”
You can watch the full interview with Freddy P below.
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