In the early 2000s, MTV aired a talent search hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs, drawing music enthusiasts and millennial TV viewers alike. Tens of thousands auditioned for a spot on the competition series, and, eventually, in 2002 four groups were formed: O-Town, Da Band, Danity Kane, and Day 26 (with Donnie Klang).
Among the Da Band members were Sara Stokes Rivers, Dylan DilinJah, Frederick “Freddy P” Watson, Kevin Lamont “Chopper” Barnes Jr. Lloyd “Ness” Mathis, and Lynese “Babs Bunny” Wiley. The six were famously known for traveling from Midtown Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge to go to Junior’s to get cheesecake for their boss, garnering significant attention for showing over the three seasons from 2002 to 2004 why they wanted a chance at being on Bad Boy so much.
Over 50 million viewers watched the show.
Today some of the Da Band members remain notable, with two of them pioneering a new frontier in hip-hop, particularly in battle rap, a skill they honed during the competition.
Junior’s and the Cheesecake Run
According to Diddy, the group had not really seen New York City because they had been locked up in their rooms. So, in episode 1 of season 2 he sent Da Band on a cheesecake adventure.
When Ness told the Bad Boy executive that he was “starving,” Diddy responded, “I’m starving too. You know something, I want me a piece of cheesecake.”
never forget, Diddy made the whole band walk across Brooklyn Bridge for a cheesecake and he didn't even eat. pic.twitter.com/iFVmDr9ZZ8
— 𝐒𝐊• (@spankyKILLMovEs) February 28, 2024
He turned to Babs Bunny, the Brooklynite of the crew, and said, “Do you know where to get … the cheesecake spot is at?”
She smirked, knowing he had something crazy up his sleeve, while Dylan and others yelled “Downtown.”
“Yeah yeah and y’all can walk from here, get the cheesecake, see the city, enjoy the sights,” the music mogul said. “Show them around. Take them over the Brooklyn Bridge and let that wind hit them over the water. See how y’all feel as a group.”
Diddy would say that the reason why he made them walk the miles to Brooklyn to get the dessert was not because he wanted to embarrass or haze them, but to teach them that in the music business “sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to do.”
Dylan, Dylan, Dylan
DilinJah, also known as Dylan, is a Caribbean hip-hop artist, executive producer, and philanthropist, from Brooklyn, New York, who has been doing music since he was 10 years old, according to his website.
When he was 13, his family sent him to Grenada to escape the gang influences of Brooklyn and refocus his life.
Three years after being on the Caribbean island he became a DJ/reggae selector at 16 before fully immersing himself in music as an artist and later finding himself on the show and in Da Band.
Currently, Dylan is still releasing new music and working on an upcoming film called “Brooklyn Bred” produced by Tionna Smalls and Angela Yee, but life hasn’t always been sweet. In a recent interview with We Are Flatbush YouTube channel, he spoke out about how he was blasted in a skit on the “Chappelle Show,” steering him into notoriety — and ultimately destroying his life.
“Dave Chappelle said the top five rappers are ‘Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan.’” Dylan said. “I never said that.”
According to the artist, all of the people that the comedian and his cast usually made fun of saw their direct quotes remixed for the jokes. But that is not what was done with him.
“I had no control over this. You [referring to Chappelle] said I’m [the] top five rappers. You said I spit hot fire,” he told We Are Flatbush, adding that he was only a kid when this all happened and that the ramifications were awful.
In 2005, Dylan had become a new father and was not able to feed his newborn because he could not get a deal nor could he get booked by promoters.
“No one is calling me. Everyone is laughing,” he continued. “No one picking up their phone … not a one label,” because he had become the joke.
Eventually, Dylan had to make it work for him. He went on to trademark the phrase and capitalize off the skit with a craft beer and radio show based on it.
Babs Bunny, The First Lady of The Streets
Lynese “Babs Bunny” Wiley is one of the most successful members of Da Band. The Brooklynite, whose battle-rapping abilities earned her a spot in the house, has taken her love for competitive emceeing and supporting women in hip-hop to launch (with her two partners Debo and Vague) the first all-female battle rap league, Queen of the Ring, the third-largest English-speaking league in the world launching the career of artists like 40 B.A.R.R.S., Jaz the Rapper, Shooney Da Rapper, Phara Funeral, C3, Casey J, O’fficial and more.
Atlanta Black Star spoke exclusively to the emcee and she said in addition to inspiring others, including Remy Ma, who also entered into the battle rap industry as an owner, Babs Bunny is transitioning into acting. She has three film projects that she has been a part of “Forty Year Old Version,” “Trapt,” and “Foster Sin.”
She had an Instagram show with rapper Lady Luck called “Bacon, Egg and Cheese” that ended in 2023, and is currently working on a new documentary titled, “Babs Bunny Presents Prom Night,” featuring Rah Digga and Remy Ma.
When reflecting on her time with Diddy and Da Band, she said she learned a lot and saw it as a “dream come true,” even with some of the challenges she experienced.
“I would definitely not say it was my worst nightmare,” Babs said in an interview with Mrecktv. “I could say it was a dream come true, it was dreams coming true with nightmares in and out. … For me, that was my experience. I was a sponge. And no matter with all the negative things over the years, I just tried to focus on all of the positive things that I learned.”
Sara (Stokes) Rivers
Sara Stokes has not experienced the same kind of success her Da Band sister Babs has.
Reports note that the Port Huron native has had suicide attempts, excessive drinking and being held in the St. Clair County Jail in 2014 after being convicted of domestic violence against her then-husband, Emanuiel “Tony” Stokes. This eventually led to the dissolution of their 18-year marriage. He filed two days after her arrest.
According to TMZ, in addition to being arrested and charged with domestic violence, the arrest has triggered a probation violation for an earlier incident where she stabbed her Tony in 2009.
In 2009, Sara claims, she co-wrote and produced two songs, including Jennifer Hudson’s “What’s Wrong” with T-Pain. However, she ended up suing the “Sprung” hitmaker, claiming that despite Hudson’s album going gold, Sarah received no producer, songwriter or performer credits for her role in creating the song. She later said she learned he was making deals with third parties to re-record the song with her original vocals.
Not every moment post-Da Band was harsh for her. Now, Sara’s life is completely changed in 2024. She has shed her old self and only goes by Sara Rivers online. The married mom of four lives in Georgia and has been spotted taking photos at a birthday party with “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Porsha Williams. Sara is also invested in health and beauty and her new company, SaraFina Co., is a portal where she sells skin care products, makeup, accessories, and merch.
She recently spoke about her time in the group, remembering the absolute chaos that surrounded her in the early 2000s, when Da Band was formed.
“They would be beating down the car doors, windows, trying to get to us, grabbing at us, trying to hug us,” Rivers said in a 2016 interview with the Detroit Free Press. “Police had to escort us out of there. It was sweet, but it’s scary, too. At the mall, we could be shopping, and they would be off the hook, running at us going crazy. Next thing we knew, we’d have a crowd following us, especially if I had Chopper or Babs with me.”
Chopper
During the end of COVID-19, Chopper, who was one of the breakout stars from “Making of the Band 2,” found himself in trouble with the law for allegedly using social media to lure women into his pimp game.
In April 2022, according to a statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the rapper who uses the alias Rodney Hill was arrested and charged with one count of sex trafficking of an adult and booked into the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada.
The police statement revealed his significant social media presence, with about 340,000 Instagram followers, allegedly used to recruit women for sex work.
He purportedly coerced a victim in Las Vegas through messages and calls, threatening her and bragging “imma rich pimp, imma boss.”
He went on to say he had multiple women working for him in his “stable,” police stated. He also told her that he knew people in her town who could “find” her and hurt her, writing, “I can make it bad for you.”
This was enough to lock him up.
Despite arrest, he was released on his own recognizance, and it remains uncertain if he faced prosecution for the offense.
Freddy P
Freddy P has been in the news for his views on Diddy, calling for the industry to shut him down years before his recent allegations.
The former Da Band artist took to social media and blasted his former boss for making him walk to Brooklyn for cheesecake, interfering in his career, and snatching his dreams.
“God knows if I was @diddy I would’ve done WAY MORE FOR THESE KIDS, any real ninja would’ve,” he wrote in the caption in a now-removed Instagram post. “God gone have the last laugh. My talent was given to me to touch hearts and homes an it was silenced. You silenced Gods plan. Everyone who ever took part will depart horribly from [planet Earth emoji].”
In a video on the app, he said, “A lot of people don’t understand what I’ve been through. This year alone, I’ve contemplated suicide two or three times. I done pictured my brother walking in, finding me dead. I cried a few times thinking about leaving my son, because you just gets tired of life. It’s like, no matter what you try to do, you just gotta keep battling.”
Freddy P continued, “N—gas got they foot on your neck, n—gas wanna see you fall. It’s these n—gas like Puffy, he my main mother—kin’ reason why I really hate f—kin’ life, dog. People don’t even understand.”
In a video posted shortly after Diddy settled with Cassie, Freddy said that he would kill the Mount Vernon native for $200K adding that he knows that the executive sexually assaulted other men in his camp and called on them to come forward.
Ness (E. Ness)
Ness, a Philadelphia native who now goes by the title E. Ness, was one of Diddy’s favorites on the show and often called “Captain” or “Thinker.”
A fun fact about his name is that he snagged the moniker E. Ness from Eliot Ness, the Chicago Bureau of Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down mobster Al Capone. Eliot Ness and his law enforcement colleagues were known as “The Untouchables,” nicknamed that because they could not be influenced to do dirt.
When talking about Ness, Da Band member’s friends said his skills were so good he was going to “clean up the rap game” the way the lawman cleaned up the streets.
His foray into battle rap as a professional came when he and Jae Millz went crazy on one episode, helping to lay a blueprint for what is now a multi-million-dollar industry.
Still one of the hottest battle rappers around, E. Ness has been featured in leagues such as the Ultimate Rap League, the Battle Academy, U. Dubb Network, Trenches, Verbal War Zone, Gates of the Garden, Rare Breed Entertainment, and internationally in Canada at King of The Dot and in London at Don’t Flop.
He is still releasing new music.
This month E. Ness announced he was starting a comedy podcast with his company 54villent Studio.
