Da Band's Dylan Jail Bound?

Though Dylan John, the Grenada-born reggae rapper in Bad Boy's Da Band credits the group with keeping him out of prison, his promotional work with the group might send him there anyway.

"If it wasn't for Diddy, I would have been incarcerated right now," John told Rolling Stone in the fall. Last year John pleaded guilty to an assault charge and was given a community service and probation sentence. But he's missed multiple meetings with his probation officer and is now scheduled for a January 12th hearing that could send him to jail for seven years if his probation is revoked.

Throughout the fall, John's sentence and his duty with the band were in conflict. His sentence required him to get a judge's authorization to leave the five boroughs of New York City, which meant that John was unable to join Da Band for some of its live appearances outside the Big Apple.

John and his five Da Bandmates were chosen from a field of 40,000 aspiring musicians for the MTV reality series, Making the Band. The group was signed to P. Diddy's Bad Boy label and the show tracked the ups and downs of the recording process for their first album. Earlier this month, MTV renewed the series for a third season.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

More Song Stories entries »

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