Making the Band captivated viewers during its reign as one of the top music-driven reality franchises of its time, with millions of fans tuning in to follow the various storylines and careers of the artists and groups who were introduced via the show. All of the acts that Making the Band spawned reached some level of commercial success, however, the journey to stardom, which was witnessed in real-time, was rough and often humiliating. Fans of Making the Band recently brought this up on social media, resulting in the show becoming a trending topic.
One Making the Band alum, Willie Taylor of R&B group Day26, which was formed during the fourth iteration of the show, chimed in on the conversation, claiming that all of the groups involved were never built in a manner that’d sustain longevity. “Making The Band was [an] experience for sure,” Taylor wrote in a post on Instagram that’s since been deleted. “But the platform and contracts were all set up for the failure of hungry talents.”
He expounded on those sentiments in an accompanying caption, adding, “Learning Experience, you gotta Understand that People will do to you whatever you allow them, so don’t let your passion drive you to the wrong destination #MTB4 Day26 / Danity Kane are talented groups but the situation in which we met was designed to fail.” While Taylor didn’t namecheck anyone in particular, many will assume his comments were in reference to Sean “Diddy” Combs, who signed four of the five acts that Making the Band spawned to deals with Bad Boy Records. The group, including Taylor, have spoken out about their ill experiences with Diddy in the past, who often made what many deemed unreasonable requests of the show’s participants, even after making the final cut.
Willie Taylor and Day26 released two albums under Bad Boy Records: their self-titled debut, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and their sophomore effort, Forever in a Day, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The group would part ways with Bad Boy in 2009.