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I finally had a chance to watch last Monday's episode of Making the Band 4.
I found Danity Kane to maybe be a little impatient. They've found themselves after ONE album? They're frustrated after FOUR songs? Some groups record a bunch of songs - not all songs make the album. I can understand there is a time crunch, but it did come off as a little premature to me.
Aubrey's attitude continued to be unproductive. She said something to the extent of, "All of us are on the same page or it's going to suck for everyone." You have a record deal where you are paid. Essentially, it could be taken as a threat to sink the ship and not record or something. Of course, if they did that, they'd be hurting themselves much more than they'd be hurting anyone else. Let's keep the threats to the feasible or, better yet, eliminate them all together. They were really, at times, being overly dramatic.
Robert getting drunk was funny, but also hopefully served as some sort of lesson for him. Successful people don't get wasted. Ask Diddy if he drinks to get drunk. It puts you in a vulnerable state and makes you unproductive. Having some drinks is fine - but, as I said, successful people don't drink to knock themselves out.
And, as luck would have it, Robert is called to get up and get to the first workouts the next morning. Great timing! But, he did make it. Unfortunately, the guy's workout was just all around pretty bad. Mike hurt himself, Q struggled, Robert vomited... and Will didn't even get up out of bed, completely missing the workout.
This led Diddy to hire a den mother named Michael. Honestly, if the guys put their macho stuff aside, Michael is great for them because they need to be motivated. They're not above it. Unfortunately, they didn't see in that way and ended up pulling a prank on him.
When the girls were in the room with Conrad Dimanche and Slam Lawrence, they were really overdoing it. Between the two sides, if I had to pick one, it'd be Conrad's because he was making more sense. Aubrey interrupting Conrad was just rude - let people speak. When Aundrea said that they would prefer to have an album where only they worked on it... she was just too emotionally involved to be rational. Of course they wouldn't prefer to make an album where only they worked on it. Better yet, no one would put said album out.
Finally, let's tackle the Diddy apology. I didn't find this surprising as everyone apologizes for things. With a sophmore album, you'd want to know the direction you were going in as a group and if that wasn't communicated to them (whether or not it was Diddy's fault), that certainly wasn't a good thing and an apology is a good move by Diddy. Of course, he went on to reveal that his own vision for them was fairly close to what they are looking for. Like he said, they need to trust in him, to a great degree, and take direction.
According to a bulletin/press release from Diddy's MySpace, "A Raisin in the Sun" was a big hit on Monday night.
With the Premiere of "A Raisin in the Sun," ABC Dominates Monday Night in Viewers And Adults 18-49, Snapping NBC's 6-Week Winning Streak in the Key Sales Demo.
In Viewers and Young Adults, ABC Turns in its Strongest Monday Night in 3 Months.
"A Raisin in the Sun" Qualifies as TV's Highest-Rated Original Movie Since November 2005 Among Women 25-54 and Since April 2006 Among Women 18-49.
... the Network posted a definitive victory on Monday night, beating second-place NBC by 2.5 million viewers *(12.7 million vs. 10.2 million)* and by 13% among Adults 18-49 *(3.6/9 vs. 3.2/8).* *In doing so, *ABC snapped NBC's 6-week winning streak on the night *in the key sales demo.
Despite stiff original competition *on the other networks,* "A Raisin in the Sun" generated ABC's top numbers on the night in 3 months *among Viewers and Adults 18-49 - since 11/26/07.
The Sony Pictures Television film, "A Raisin in the Sun," stands as TV's highest-rated original movie since November 2005 among Women 25-54 (6.5/15) and since April 2006 among Women 18-49 (5.3/13) - since
11/27/05 and 4/10/06, respectively. In addition, the movie stood as Monday's No. 1 TV program in both key women demographics.
Ed Bark speculates that Emmy glory may await the program.
Advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds also turned out, giving Raisin an overall first place finish in this key demographic after Deal controlled the first hour. ABC's only scheduled made-for-TV-movie of this season looks to be an odds-on favorite to make a big Emmy haul this coming fall.
There will be no Making the Band 4 liveblog posted tonight. Sorry.
Finally, the night is here: the "A Raisin in the Sun" movie premieres tonight on ABC at 8:00 PM ET. I actually overlaps Making the Band 4, at 10:00 PM ET on MTV, because the movie is three hours long. I guess everyone with TiVo or a DVR, that can record a program and watch another, is alright. But, if you're like me, and you don't have those things, you have to pick one.
MTV reruns MTB 4 constantly, though, and I'm sure they'll be an encore showing of "A Raisin in the Sun" at some point.
Check out coverage of "A Raisin in the Sun" at the Los Angeles Times, Parade and USA TODAY.
Bad Boy is passing out a praise sheet for Sean Combs performance in the film. Here it is:
"Combs... reminds us he can act with fullhearted expressiveness. He holds his own with Rashad... Indeed, the whole production is a model of subtle adaptation." -Entertainment Weekly
"Combs embodies [Raisin's] spirit of striving"-USA Today
"You'll Never Look at Sean Same Way Again!" -The New York Post
"WHEN THIS WALTER [COMBS] SAYS HE'S 'A VOLCANO' YOU BELIEVE" -DENVER POST
"... Combs holds his own in his first major movie role." -O, The Oprah Magazine
"[Combs] turns in a heart breaking performance!"-Us Weekly (3.5 stars)
"...The performances are top drawer. That includes Combs." -The New York Post
"Sean Combs reveals his growth as an actor..." -The Orlando Sentinel
"Combs has Passion and Heart..." -Star Magazine (4 stars)
News Blaze has a review of "A Raisin in the Sun".
Helped immeasurably by his principal cast of his talented co-stars, Diddy comes of age as an actor here, delivering a memorable performance in an African-American literary classic of Shakespearean proportions which proves to be every bit as relevant today as the day it was first staged.
Diddy's intro starts off with him plugging their sponsor, Sean John. He says that MTV hates when he plugs his brand, but he doesn't care because it's his show. He talks about how he kicked the guys out of the studio and how he wants to see them connect to the music with their soul and get back to the studio.
The guys are at vocal training with Ankh Ra. Michael Bivins drops in. He tells them to act like Puff is always in the room. If Puff flips out, they should look at it like, that's my business partner, am I doing what I need to do on my end? He tells them not to be the good TV group that breaks.
Willie and Donnie come to the studio and visit with Danity Kane. Donnie and Aubrey are hanging out. Dawn refers to them as Barbie and Ken. She's not real sure about it. Donnie talks, in private, how he wants to get to know her better, on a one on one basis, aside from the crazy party side. They make a date.
At night at the guy's hotel, the guys find out that Donnie's headed on a date and he tells them it's with Aubrey. They joke with him a bit. Robert asks him if he likes her and he says he's not sure, he wants to get to know her. Donnie leaves and walks over and picks her up. They walk to an Italian restaurant.
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I missed last night's episode of Making the Band 4. Luckily, I caught an encore presentation this afternoon and wrote up a liveblog as I was watching it.
To begin the episode, after Diddy has welcomed us to his world, the guys are in the studio, having a tough time harmonizing. Robert talks about how they only have five weeks and since they haven't worked together much, they don't have that chemistry.
Slam is working with the girls (specifically, Dawn and D. Woods are the ones that we see) and he's liking what he hears. Dawn explains that they can get their work done quicker than last time because of their familiarity with each other.
Diddy arrives at the studio, still on the crutches. He's here to listen to some tracks. First, "Silly Love" by Day 26. Brian is nervous because Diddy just sits there listening, not moving at all. He tells them to cut the chorus over, do the first chorus and the bridge better. He doesn't really like it as it is.
Donnie's "I Don't Care" gets the next listen. Diddy tells him to make it his own and to commit to the story - work on the finesse. Finally, Danity Kane's "Is Anybody Listening" plays and Diddy is bobbing his head. After he turns it off, he applauds. He complements them saying that it's almost there and they definitely sound like a group. The guys can learn from them, he says.
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The show starts with "This is a public service announcement." Diddy pops up and welcomes you back, saying it's time to get back in the studio and make some hits.
Day 26 is in the studio working on "Hold Me", produced by Kwame with Tiffany Starr assisting him. Kwame tells them he wants to incorporate everyone in the song. Mike records first, followed by Brian, who is told is raise his voice a bit. Q is next and he does well. Robert follows and he has a tough time.
We switch to Donnie, working with Battle Roy. He's having fun and everything seems to be going smoothly for him.
Over to the DK session, they are working on "Poetry", a song about one person in a relationship not being honest, according to Aundrea. Aubrey talks, in confessional, about how they know each other better now and know where each one of them fits in a given song. Aubrey is writing sticky notes saying "I Want Q", "I Need Q", "I Can't Live Without Q" and "I will Die If I Don't Do Q" and sticking them on Dawn's back.
Back to the Day 26 session, Willie is singing. Conrad Dimanche, Bad Boy's Senior Director of A&R; at the time, comes in the studio. Robert says that it seems like they have songs written for Will's voice. He continues to have a tough time with the song and he's complaining to Brian about it being their third song and he hasn't "shined once" (so what?). He says that he isn't a "background a**". Ouch. Attitude.
Back at the guy's house, Will talks to Brian about Robert's attitude, saying that everyone can't lead every time, some people will be background and some people will be lead. He's going to play his role - this is a group, there are no solo artists.
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Just a reminder: we'll have a liveblog of episode two of the second season of Making the Band 4. The show starts tonight at 10:00 PM ET. Stop by and comment during and after the show!
AllHipHop.com has an review of the "A Raisin in the Sun" movie.
The centerpiece of this work of course is the much heralded Combs, who despite being a novice actor, does yeoman work as the central character, emoting joy and pain and impressive emotional range. When you see the movie you will see why Combs has such an affinity with Walter Lee who is a bit of a dreamer and a hustler like Diddy himself. He brings life to this role and a relevance to today�s market that will surely attract younger viewers to this timeless tale.
Via Theo in the forums.
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