O-Town have said they are being mistakenly confused as “a Diddy band” and it is hurting their career.
The boy band were formed on the first season of the reality TV series Making The Band in 2000, the show that later featured the disgraced rap mogul as a central figure that selected the talent and mentored the aspiring young artists.
However, on O-Town’s season of the show, Diddy was not involved, with Backstreet Boys and NSYNC manager Lou Pearlman – himself also a highly controversial figure – acting as the mentor figure.
Despite having no connection to Diddy, O-Town have stated that it hasn’t stopped bookers and agents from distancing themselves from the group. “Of all the bands in Making The Band, we’re the only one not tied to him,” the band’s Jacob Underwood told The Hollywood Reporter.
“The more people confuse us with a Diddy band and post our pictures with his story, the more it goes against us. We make a living touring and can’t afford to have [bookers] Googling us to find the latest Diddy clickbait.”
O-Town’s agent Matt Rafal said one large gaming company withdrew the group from a billing due to their supposed association with Diddy. “The offer was pulled due to the perception of the group being attached to Diddy,” Rafal said. “We made it clear O-Town’s Making The Band had no association with Diddy, but the company worried guests may be confused. Since the Diddy news, we’ve received questions and hesitancy from several talent buyers, especially for soft tickets like fairs and theme parks, as well as city-funded events.”
Instead of Diddy, the band are connected to Pearlman, about whom the Netflix miniseries Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam was released last year. He was indicted by Florida authorities in 2006 on charges of conspiracy, money laundering and filing false bankruptcy, going on the run before finally being arrested in Indonesia in 2007. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2008 and passed away in 2016 after a cardiac arrest at the age of 62.
“We already inherited our own infamous producer/manager from our version of Making The Band and now another version and its mogul is affecting us,” Erik-Michael Estrada of the band said in the same interview. “For our livelihood to be impacted this many years after the brand was moved to him is so unfortunate.”
The documentary about Diddy, The Making Of A Bad Boy, was released on January 14 on Peacock in the US. In it, former Bad Boy Records signee Sara Rivers accuses the rapper of threatening her and her bandmates during her time on Making The Band between 2002 and 2004.
Diddy’s legal team have denied the claims explored in The Making of a Bad Boy: “This documentary recycles and perpetuates the same lies and conspiracy theories that have been slung against Mr. Combs for months.”
Last September, Diddy was arrested and charged with crimes including sexual trafficking and racketeering. He has since been held in a federal jail in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York City awaiting trial, which is set to begin on May 5. If convicted, he could serve anywhere between 15 years to life in prison.
Combs has denied all allegations against him. Diddy’s attorneys recently claimed that videos allegedly from the hip-hop star’s “freak-off” sex parties will instead “confirm Mr. Combs’s innocence” because they show sexual activity among “consenting adults.”