Sophia Michaels
With the new season of MTV’s hit reality competition series Making the Band making a return, fans are excited to see what Diddy pulls together next. At the same time, many are still bumping to the tunes of the groups created from the successful franchise – specifically Danity Kane.
Danity Kane became the show’s most commercially successful group – having two platinum-selling albums. Their success was quick but shortlived after the world watched Diddy dismantle the group in season 4 of the show.
A new YouTube documentary from the channel Empressive details the group’s rise and fall and includes excerpts of a candid interview Dawn Richard participated in explaining what led to the group’s split. According to Richard, the group was doomed from the start, with the lack of money and support from Diddy and the label as the main contributing factor.
Danity Kane says Diddy did not believe in the group and hindered their debut album’s sales
The success of Danity Kane’s first album was massive. Thanks to the group’s journey being documented on the first three seasons of Making The Band 3, viewers were eager to hear their final outcome. By the time their first single “Show Stopper” was released in 2006, Danity Kane already had millions of fans.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO6J_UgmGxA?feature=oembed&w=500&h=375]
Despite having a hit reality series for worldwide promotion and the ratings to prove such, Diddy was still not convinced. So much so that according to Richard, Diddy put a stop to the label producing physical copies of the album for its debut release because he didn’t think it would sell.
“When we first came out, they [Bad Boy Records/Diddy] said, ‘Only do 100,000 copies because they won’t sell more than Cassie,’” Richard revealed in an interview with Unchained. “We sold 100,000 in a day and they had to figure out how to get more units by the time the week ended and they barely got it. We ended up selling 230,000 copies [in the first week] and we could have sold more.”
The hosts of the show couldn’t believe what they heard and asked why Richard believed the cards were stacked against them.
“We were a show. Puff [Diddy] saw money, he saw ratings and MTV – that was where the money was – Danity Kane was a concept of something bigger,” she explained further. “He had no clue we were gonna be that big.”
Dawn Richard says money was always an issue when it came to Danity Kane
Despite the setback, Danity Kane ended up on the Guinness Book of World Records after the release of their debut and sophomore albums – becoming the first female group in Billboard’s history to have albums debut at #1 consecutively. But Richard says the issues only continued.
The group went on tour with Christina Aguilera as her opening act and helped sell out arenas. They also released a second single, a ballad, “Ride For You.” But Richard says the label put a halt to their momentum. They had issues with their manager and eventually parted ways, leaving them in limbo. The label also refused to give money towards their performances.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XFvGjz-J9U?feature=oembed&w=500&h=375]
“When we got out there and we toured, they wouldn’t give us any money,” Richard said. “We were sewing our costumes from Forever 21.”
With no money and the future od Danity Kane uncertain, members of the group sought out individual projects to earn a living while they waited for word from Diddy. The media mogul event launched another season of Making The Band which he searched for a male group – eventually producing Day 26.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRq-8JzCG4g?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]
After more than a year of hiatus, Diddy brought Danity Kane off of their hiatus and combined the next season of Making The Band with Danity Kane and Day 26 as Danity Kane worked on their follow-up album. Unfortunately, the damage was already done.
All group members at different times have agreed that external issues revolving around management and the label eventually spilled into the group, causing their demise.
Written by: CheatSheet
