Dylan Dilinjah of Making The Band believes that the Dave Chappelle skit poking fun at the MTV reality show back in the day tanked his career before it could even get started.
That’s the claim he’s made on the latest episode of We Are Flatbush, which dropped on Friday (March 1), where he affirmed that the cult classic sketch from season 2 of Chappelle’s Show all but cancelled him nearly out the gate.
After listing the ways in which he’s been able to capitalize on the joke in recent years — from a 2021 craft beer release to an online radio show — the Brooklyn native explained that he had no choice but to do so.
“I had to do that,” he stated, “because they said, ‘Dylan is top 5, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan.’ These are words that I never said; I never created. I never put this out. I had to trademark it and go through fights to trademark it. But David made this up, he’s a genius. I never said that. So I have no control at all.”
He continued: “Any time I send my music to DJs, they say, ‘oh, that’s the n-gga that Dave Chappelle made fun of, nah, I’m good on that. Not only that, but now, every promoter says, ‘nah, we’re not booking him.’ So now I have a newborn, and the fridge is empty in 2005, and no one is calling me. Everyone is laughing.
“I’m legend now! But [back then] I’m fucked up for what you just did. And you’re not answering the phone. At that time, no one picking up they phone. Not one label; and at that time, you had to sign to a record label. And I called all of them direct. And they said, ‘I can’t help you.’ That joke gone, boy. That joke took over. That joke actually burned your career. That joke burned it.”
Dilinjah’s claims however, are in stark contrast to what actually happened throughout recorded history, which proves that both he and Chappelle have a bit of a mutual admiration for each other.
In a 2014, Dilinjah spoke to Uproxx about Chappelle’s impression and what happened after it aired, insinuating that it had led to some professional opportunities.
“You take a joke and everyone’s cracking on you,” he said. “But the next question is, ‘What is he up to? What kind of music does he have? Can we book him?’”
Despite telling We Are Flatbush that they met in 2018, Dylan Dilinjah actually crossed paths with the comedy legend at a House of Vans event in New York a year earlier.
While speaking to Dilinjah at the House of Vans, Chappelle said, “Dylan, Dylan, Dylan … yo, I fuck with you bro,” to which the former reality star replied, “Yo, thank you man … you made me famous [laughs].”
The parody is easily one of Chappelle’s most celebrated skits. And while Dilinjah claims not to have ever uttered the words from the often-quoted impression, fans responding to a viral re-share of the We Are Flatbush clip on TheReelTeaTV‘s Instagram page seem to remember otherwise.
“But the character was based off of how you acted on the show Dylan. [squinting emoji] Sir, please,” wrote one user. “He gave him the opportunity to be in the skit and he declined,” another remarked.
While most of Da Band members had faded into relative obscurity by the time the skit arrived, the Grenadian rapper continued to release music and reportedly landed a deal with Akon’s Kon Live label.
He also released an album titled Pain 2 Power in 2014.
He’s definitely in my top 5.
Top 5 forgotten
Not what I meant at all. That ruins the whole joke 🙄
Dude need to cut the shit. You didn’t make it anywhere because everybody thought that show was a joke. He definitely had talent, but who was taking a rapper from fruity ass Bad Boy seriously in the early 2000s? Los is similarly talented , and he’s worked with everybody. His career hasn’t flourished either for the same reason. Bad Boy was the pop rap label where no one took you seriously.
Black Rob and G Dep came out that time, there were Bad Boy artist that was getting respect …The Band just wasn’t one of them. That being said their first album did go gold. They had 15min of fame and just didn’t have the staying power to make it longer. I thought this was going to be light hearted, this dude actual blames Dave Chappelle.
Black Rob died penniless after having a pop hit he’s known for despite being a tight ass street rapper. G-Dep is doing a prison bid, and nobody gave a fuck about him before he went in the hole. So nothing you said contradicts my original statement.
Except it does. You said that no one was checking for Bad Boy artists at that time and that poster proved that they were. What happens after that is whatever but at the time is what you said. You’re moving the goalposts. BTW: Artists from all labels get screwed by the big wigs and there are horror stories from almost all of them going back to Chess and Motown days and even further back. Puff is just the tip of the iceberg.
Back when The Source meant something, Black Rob got a 4.5 mic rating, had a number 3 album in the country, and went platinum when selling a million records was an actual show of success before streaming fucked everything up. Yeah, diddy fucked him along with every other artist, but people were certainly checking for him. That G. Dep album was decent too.
To be fair, none of his castmates had careers after the show ended.
What ruined his career was signing on to be a reality tv star that forces mediocre rappers with conflicting styles to mesh into a generic group aptly titled The Band.
You’re not a legend now. You’re an old meme! Aged trash!