MUST SEE TV: MAKING HIS BAND

I'm a little late with this post since Diddy's "Making His Band" has premiered on MTV weeks ago, but I must say I'm impressed with the show because its very musical.

It chronicles Diddy's quest for making a band for his stage show. Already contestants had to audition for inclusion into a house on their specific instrument of choice whether its the bass or vocals. He has also brought in an entirely new set of judges outside of the "Making the Band" circle, and they make weekly decision on who gets cut from the show not Diddy. After making it into the house, contestants have been given weekly tasks of recreating popular songs that reflects the direction of Diddy's new album "Last Train to Paris." so far.

Speaking of the new album, the show also has show the creation of Diddy's new project with his new act Dirty Money that includes ex-Danity Kane member Dawn Richard and singer, songwriter Kalenna, who looks like singer Estelle. Nonetheless, the music sounds whack and dated. Maybe if this album were released before Kanye West's "808's Heartbreak" it would sound original but its not. It has Diddy singing all over, and the compositions are euro-pop completely without any traces of Hip Hop.

MUST SEE TV: UNSUNG

So finally I got TV One in my apartment, and got to watch the some of the new installments of Unsung, which feature the stories of lesser-known Black musicians. The first season of this show featured specials on Donny Hathaway, The Clark Sisters, DeBarge, and Phylliss Hyman, and now its back for a second season and so far pieces about Minnie Riperton, Melba Moore, and, Shalamar have been shown (the latter two of which i just saw).

The Melba Moore episode was pretty good. She claims she got her start sing back-up for Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick (which I find hard to believe), and lived with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson in New York during the late 60's (wouldn't that famous song-writing duo have been in Detroit?). She got her big break starring in the popular musical "Hair", followed by a lead role in the Ossie Davis penned musical ,"Purlie," where she became the second African-American to win the Tony Award for Best Actress. On another note, she also prides the musical for bringing Blacks to Broadway. After all of this success and many more accomplishments, the entertainers life took a turn for the worse. She was basically used by her business partner/husband, and served time for defrauding the state because she needed welfare to get by. Her story really dove deep and also tried to explain why this talented singer did not experience the fame or musical acclaim of soul legends like a Dionne, Gladys, or Aretha.

Here is a performance of her singing "I Got Love":



I would write about Shalamar but their story just talked about accomplishments more so than any deep issues except for the group splitting which led to successful solo careers for Jody Watley and Howard Hewitt. One accomplishment to note is the fact that Shalamar was the second Black act to be played on MTV after Michael Jackson.

Here is a clip of the group in their early days:

MUST SEE TV? - WELCOME TO DREAMLAND

So, the new show "Welcome to Dreamland" premiered on BET last night after an entertaining episode of "College Hill: South Beach," and music industry based talent show honestly sucked. The girls that were featured on the show were whack. None of them will become superstars. Honestly, if veterans like Brandy and Monica cannot bounce back, and second-rate songstress from the new millennium like Amerie and Teairra Mari cannot secure a stable career, these chicks that I saw on the show have no chance. None of them really have impressive or unique vocal chops to me so it will be interesting to see what this six-part series produces.

The show was definitely a spin on MTV's hit "Making the Band" with two producers, Jazze Phae and Drumma Boy (some no name to me), who are going to be in charge of coaching and producing their own set of females until one girl is finally the winner of the show. This will be interesting considering the girls are not very talented and they are working with second-rate producers who definitely lied about their achievements in the opening credits of the show. When was Jazze Phae ever responsible for getting Usher and Toni Braxton's careers off the ground. (Doesn't that credit go to L.A. Reid and Babyface?). Regardless to say, the only thing hot that Jazze has done significant is bring Ciara to the public's attention. As I digress, I'll give the show another view next week and see if the competition show gets better, which I doubt. (This garbage just makes me want to see the new "Making the Band" and Monica's "Still Standing.")