Home

[Lazarus]

Wanita "D. Woods" Woodgett rose to fame as a member of Danity Kane, the versatile five-piece group that came together over two seasons on P. Diddy's MTV show Making the Band. By the time Danity Kane released their debut album, girl groups were a rare sight in R&B ? especially when compared with the 1990s ? but that didn't stop them from scoring two consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 (their 2006 self-titled debut and 2008's Welcome to the Dollhouse).

Diddy eventually fired Woodgett from the group, along with another member, Aubrey O'Day, and this signaled the end of Danity Kane: The group disbanded soon afterwards. (There was a brief, partial reunion in 2014.) Woodgett has been pursuing a multitude of projects since then, releasing new music ("You Win" in February), as well as acting on screen (Fox series Star) and in the theater (an upcoming production of the Tupac-based musical Holler If You Hear Me in Atlanta).

In honor of Girl Group Week, Billboard caught up with Woodgett, who recently returned from a short vacation in Cuba, to discuss her work in Danity Kane and her subsequent solo projects. The conversation has been edited for clarity.

What first brought you to Making the Band?

To be quite honest, this going to sound crazy, but Janet Jackson is what brought me to Making The Band. I was recording demos, I was in school at NYU, I was doing everything that I could at the time. I heard Janet Jackson was working on this album. I was writing songs, but I did not know how to get them to her. But you know who was managing Janet Jackson? Johnny Wright. And you know what Johnny Wright was doing? Making the Band. So I was like, what's the worst that can happen? We can make connections and present this project to [Wright] after the fact. I met Johnny Wright! But I didn't get to present my songs to Janet Jackson.

I had been working in group settings my whole life -- dance companies, theater ensembles. I didn't think they were looking for my type. I was really there to make my networking connections. Having that mindset -- they ain't checking for me anyway -- freed me up to do what I want and not feel that pressure. I was like, "They ain't looking for me, so I'm just going to act a fool in the corner." And I guess that's what they did like.

How did you feel about being on reality TV at that time?

I remember watching Real World as a young kid and thinking, it would be so cool if I could do this, but they probably won't be doing this when I'm of age. I was little apprehensive, because you would hear and see, after whoever was on whatever show, their feelings about being falsely depicted, or [how] the editing process makes a whole different story from what actually happened. I knew my intentions and goals were not to be a reality TV star -- I was an artist on a reality TV show.

I found out later that it's a lot of chess moves. You have to think a lot of steps ahead, and understand that the network has their goals, their intentions and their motives, the individual contestants have their motives, the creative team have their motives. You've gotta keep your head straight, and know that anything you do can manipulated in the edit.

Did you find things were manipulated in ways you didn't like?

Luckily, that was not really my experience. There were a lot of things that I was involved with that were not shown. I wish there was more that was shown. I don't feel like I was depicted falsely, I just wasn't shown in my full colors. It was just, "She's quiet over there."

It's funny, because when I run into fans of the show and they experience me in person, they're surprised. Like, "Oh my gosh! I didn't know you did all that!" I'm like, "Which show were you watching?" But they edited it down to a small percentage of what I was actually doing. But it's cool, because it gives people a chance to rediscover me and be surprised.

Did you expect the show to be as popular as it was?

I had no idea that it reached the corners of the earth that it did -- all ages and different kinds of people. I remember one of the times when we weren't filming, and we were just recording our album after the first season, we were living in an apartment in the Wall Street financial district of Manhattan. You would think we were cool to just walk around and do whatever -- it was a bunch of business people, men with business suits who do not watch MTV. But we would go to lunch, and they would stop us. Why is he watching MTV?

I guess music reaches everyone. Or the whole story of reaching for your dreams is a universal story.

Do you feel like you learned things from P. Diddy that still stick with you today?

That's an interesting question. I feel like I was raised to encounter all that he is and all that he encompasses. But there's nothing like meeting the real thing. I had just finished school at NYU; I graduated early. It was as if I took an intense master's program in the music industry, how to maneuver and how to survive. He's not necessarily going to sit you down and have a heart-to-heart with you. But you learn a lot by watching. If you spend time around someone of that magnitude and you can't apply that experience, you're wasting everybody's time. I was like, "I'm going to apply these things whether I do them or stay away from them."

Everyone says he's a marketing genius. He knows how to market himself, he knows how to market whatever he's focused on. I took that on for myself -- I'ma brand myself too.

What was it like balancing the TV side of things with the music side of things?

Like I said, I was an artist that happened to be on a reality TV show, so I didn't play to the cameras. We had several crews -- three or four cameras, a whole bunch of men, boom mics in your face. They wanted us to do it documentary-style, like a fly on the wall, but it's hard to ignore a 200-pound man with a boom mic in your face when you're trying to sing an emotional ballad. When I get into my craft, I zone out. Sometimes it would be like, "I'm sorry, did I smack you in the face? I was working on my left turn." It makes a difference when the listener or audience knows you're halfway out of it -- they're not gonna be fully into it.

It was a challenge. We had to have some come-to-Jesus moments sometimes, like, "Respect our space. You're capturing someone doing their craft. It doesn't just happen in 15 minutes because that's what you have on your itinerary." I'm an artist. I'm sensitive about my s--t.

We really fought to have our creative voice. There were a few episodes of our protest. Particularly, I wanted to have some writing -- the whole reason for me to even audition was because I was writing songs and trying to submit them. And I had been writing for some other artists before I even auditioned: B5, which was on Bad Boy, and Gorilla Zoe's first album. And I didn't have any writing on my own album! It was something we fought for.

Shanell of Young Money Entertainment, I fought to get her songs on there too. I was like, "I guess I gotta be an A&R." If you're just made to sing everybody else's interpretation of what they think you sound like and talk about, it's like, "Yeah, I can do that, but I want to sing my own words, express how I feel."

It took a lot of work, a lot of convincing, getting on the good side of some of these writers who were writing for us. They're like, "Oh, you write? You vocal produce? You do arrangements? Go ahead, get in on this." Sometimes the powers that be don't give the green light -- you just gotta do it, show and prove. Angela Hunte, who helped wrote our first single "Showstopper," she was always a big champion of our voices and our creative expression. Bryan-Michael Cox, Keri Hilson ? so many people were like, "Get on this, take the pen out." They were like the cool uncle who lets you sip on alcohol when your parents aren't around.

There was tension between Diddy and O'Day, and thoughts that Dawn Richard would want to go solo -- did that impact you?

At no point did that really affect me. I was always about the work. When you're in close quarters with people, you're going to get on each other's nerves. At one point we were on a bus for five months. Five females. Five months. On a bus. Come on.

But all the things surrounding us -- the different motives of the network vs. the label -- put a lot of pressure on us, individually and as a collective. You didn't know which place it was coming from. And everyone had different experience with that type of pressure, being exposed to the media. Rumors and scandals were flying around. And we were very young. Everyone's not yet sure who they are. There are comparisons in our looks, in our levels of talents. And they preyed upon that. It made good television. I hate that that happened.

Sometimes when I work with young groups coming up, the first thing I tell them is, "Y'all have to have good communication." You have to trust this girl right here. If somebody's whispering in her ear, y'all need to talk about it every night: "Here's what they're trying to tell me, what's going on with that?" You have to be so secure in your teammates: They're going to push you out cause you're the sexpot; they're going to get in your ear because you're the one with the talent; they're going to prey upon you because you look like the young, innocent naive one. So let's use that to our advantage.

Did you feel like you guys had that communication?

I attempted to have that. I tried my best, tried a lot of different tactics, even to a point where I wouldn't say anything. I'm a passionate person, I'm a Cancer. I may come off too passionate, and it may throw someone off. Sometimes I just had to lay back and say, "See, I didn't want to say anything, because you wouldn't believe me, but now that it's happened, lets face it."

Since the drama is, as you say, good television, is the TV aspect of Making the Band inherently opposed to helping a group staying together?

Yes. It's a lot more interesting to watch people fight in the studio then come in and write a great song. Some of my favorite groups were able to heal in an organic way. When you have cameras pointed in your face and you have microphones strapped to your body and cameras and microphones in the furniture and the light fixtures everywhere you go, it's hard to have a genuine moment.

What was it like transitioning into your solo career?

For me, nothing stopped. It took a while for me to find my voice after having committed myself to making a situation work. It's kind of like a marriage: You make compromises. You figure out what we like to eat, where we like to go, what time we go to sleep. It takes a while to figure out -- I'm a night owl, I'm going to go sleep at three a.m. I'm going to go somewhere by myself. I had to do that musically and creatively.

I started working with no goal in mind. I wanted to explore my voice: How would I do harmonies if I didn't have to do five-part harmonies? I started doing it for the love. Because before, it had started becoming unenjoyable. I did workshops, teaching high school students. I started a non-profit organizations to mentor high school students in making their dreams reality. I set up my own label, Woodgrane Entertainment. I did a film called Blackbird. I'm about to start a production with Tony-winning director Kenny Leon ? Holler If You Hear Me, based on all the music of Tupac. I'm so excited: I'm going to be rapping onstage!

I try to keep people who know a lot around me. I can't be the smartest person in the room. Or I need to find another room.

Are you still writing music for others or just yourself?

Lately, because I've been doing so much film and TV work, I've been focused on submitting music to music supervisors on film and television. Being in Atlanta, there is so much production happening: They're shooting Star, a Lee Daniels production with Queen Latifah, and I had a small role in that -- so cross your fingers, maybe you'll see D. Woods again on season two. I submitted music to shows like that.

That's been the focus, as well as creating this forthcoming D. Woods album. It's an ambitious project. I'm trying not to be like Dr. Dre and sit on a project for that long -- but we were so happy when he put [Compton] out! I can't say much about it. But I want it to come out soon. I'm merging a lot of things together in this project: drama, dance, music. It's more of a gumbo than a steak. I need all the flavors to marinate and come together.

It's a visual album as well as an album. I'm so glad that Beyonce and people like that have put their albums out because it's going to make mine more palatable. Somebody's done it and somebody's succeeded at it -- sometimes you have ideas and you need things to catch up in the best way.

Is your new single "You Win" from the forthcoming project?

It's like a prelude, a little appetizer. Sometimes on Instagram, you wish that people would like whatever things that you think are cool. You could be like, "Hey, I'm going to whatever thing," and you'd get likes. Then you put a picture of yourself in a bikini? it's weird what people like. And I get comments sometimes, guys [being] like, "Why don't you show that ass?" Some people capitalize on it, and I don't know their hustle, but I bow out. I give them the crown. You win. That's where that song comes from.

A lot of my songs come from my experiences or vicarious experiences ? conversations I had with my homegirls that turn into a song. I'm kind of like Taylor Swift in that way!

What do you view as Danity Kane's legacy?

I don't really know what the legacy will do. That's kind of out of my control. But I can do my best to put out the best of myself. I was tripping one day watching Issa Rae's Insecure on HBO and they talk about Danity Kane. I had a moment. And she had a conversation about us on Twitter. I'm a fan of theirs! They're a fan of me. I'm surprised that it was so influential, and I'm happy that it is. I put a lot into it.

I also want to do a lot more. And that's what I'm trying to do now: execute the things that I didn't have the license or the freedom to do then.

[BAPHOMET.]

  @ Visual Album.

The way everyone feels like they can just do one.   

[Eternal Bell]

I zone out. Sometimes it would be like, "I'm sorry, did I smack you in the face? I was working on my left turn."

[BAPHOMET.]

It's a visual album as well as an album. I'm so glad that Beyonce have put their albums out because it's going to make mine more palatable. Somebody's done it and somebody's succeeded at it -- sometimes you have ideas and you need things to catch up in the best way.

But wait Queen. 

yea the Visual Album is Bey's thing.

[AIDS]

Wanita "D. Woods" Woodgett rose to fame as a member of Danity Kane, the versatile five-piece group that came together over two seasons on P. Diddy's MTV show Making the Band. By the time Danity Kane released their debut album, girl groups were a rare sight in R&B ? especially when compared with the 1990s ? but that didn't stop them from scoring two consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 (their 2006 self-titled debut and 2008's Welcome to the Dollhouse).

Diddy eventually fired Woodgett from the group, along with another member, Aubrey O'Day, and this signaled the end of Danity Kane: The group disbanded soon afterwards. (There was a brief, partial reunion in 2014.) Woodgett has been pursuing a multitude of projects since then, releasing new music ("You Win" in February), as well as acting on screen (Fox series Star) and in the theater (an upcoming production of the Tupac-based musical Holler If You Hear Me in Atlanta).

In honor of Girl Group Week, Billboard caught up with Woodgett, who recently returned from a short vacation in Cuba, to discuss her work in Danity Kane and her subsequent solo projects. The conversation has been edited for clarity.

What first brought you to Making the Band?

To be quite honest, this going to sound crazy, but Janet Jackson is what brought me to Making The Band. I was recording demos, I was in school at NYU, I was doing everything that I could at the time. I heard Janet Jackson was working on this album. I was writing songs, but I did not know how to get them to her. But you know who was managing Janet Jackson? Johnny Wright. And you know what Johnny Wright was doing? Making the Band. So I was like, what's the worst that can happen? We can make connections and present this project to [Wright] after the fact. I met Johnny Wright! But I didn't get to present my songs to Janet Jackson.

I had been working in group settings my whole life -- dance companies, theater ensembles. I didn't think they were looking for my type. I was really there to make my networking connections. Having that mindset -- they ain't checking for me anyway -- freed me up to do what I want and not feel that pressure. I was like, "They ain't looking for me, so I'm just going to act a fool in the corner." And I guess that's what they did like.

How did you feel about being on reality TV at that time?

I remember watching Real World as a young kid and thinking, it would be so cool if I could do this, but they probably won't be doing this when I'm of age. I was little apprehensive, because you would hear and see, after whoever was on whatever show, their feelings about being falsely depicted, or [how] the editing process makes a whole different story from what actually happened. I knew my intentions and goals were not to be a reality TV star -- I was an artist on a reality TV show.

I found out later that it's a lot of chess moves. You have to think a lot of steps ahead, and understand that the network has their goals, their intentions and their motives, the individual contestants have their motives, the creative team have their motives. You've gotta keep your head straight, and know that anything you do can manipulated in the edit.

Did you find things were manipulated in ways you didn't like?

Luckily, that was not really my experience. There were a lot of things that I was involved with that were not shown. I wish there was more that was shown. I don't feel like I was depicted falsely, I just wasn't shown in my full colors. It was just, "She's quiet over there."

It's funny, because when I run into fans of the show and they experience me in person, they're surprised. Like, "Oh my gosh! I didn't know you did all that!" I'm like, "Which show were you watching?" But they edited it down to a small percentage of what I was actually doing. But it's cool, because it gives people a chance to rediscover me and be surprised.

Did you expect the show to be as popular as it was?

I had no idea that it reached the corners of the earth that it did -- all ages and different kinds of people. I remember one of the times when we weren't filming, and we were just recording our album after the first season, we were living in an apartment in the Wall Street financial district of Manhattan. You would think we were cool to just walk around and do whatever -- it was a bunch of business people, men with business suits who do not watch MTV. But we would go to lunch, and they would stop us. Why is he watching MTV?

I guess music reaches everyone. Or the whole story of reaching for your dreams is a universal story.

Do you feel like you learned things from P. Diddy that still stick with you today?

That's an interesting question. I feel like I was raised to encounter all that he is and all that he encompasses. But there's nothing like meeting the real thing. I had just finished school at NYU; I graduated early. It was as if I took an intense master's program in the music industry, how to maneuver and how to survive. He's not necessarily going to sit you down and have a heart-to-heart with you. But you learn a lot by watching. If you spend time around someone of that magnitude and you can't apply that experience, you're wasting everybody's time. I was like, "I'm going to apply these things whether I do them or stay away from them."

Everyone says he's a marketing genius. He knows how to market himself, he knows how to market whatever he's focused on. I took that on for myself -- I'ma brand myself too.

What was it like balancing the TV side of things with the music side of things?

Like I said, I was an artist that happened to be on a reality TV show, so I didn't play to the cameras. We had several crews -- three or four cameras, a whole bunch of men, boom mics in your face. They wanted us to do it documentary-style, like a fly on the wall, but it's hard to ignore a 200-pound man with a boom mic in your face when you're trying to sing an emotional ballad. When I get into my craft, I zone out. Sometimes it would be like, "I'm sorry, did I smack you in the face? I was working on my left turn." It makes a difference when the listener or audience knows you're halfway out of it -- they're not gonna be fully into it.

It was a challenge. We had to have some come-to-Jesus moments sometimes, like, "Respect our space. You're capturing someone doing their craft. It doesn't just happen in 15 minutes because that's what you have on your itinerary." I'm an artist. I'm sensitive about my s--t.

We really fought to have our creative voice. There were a few episodes of our protest. Particularly, I wanted to have some writing -- the whole reason for me to even audition was because I was writing songs and trying to submit them. And I had been writing for some other artists before I even auditioned: B5, which was on Bad Boy, and Gorilla Zoe's first album. And I didn't have any writing on my own album! It was something we fought for.

Shanell of Young Money Entertainment, I fought to get her songs on there too. I was like, "I guess I gotta be an A&R." If you're just made to sing everybody else's interpretation of what they think you sound like and talk about, it's like, "Yeah, I can do that, but I want to sing my own words, express how I feel."

It took a lot of work, a lot of convincing, getting on the good side of some of these writers who were writing for us. They're like, "Oh, you write? You vocal produce? You do arrangements? Go ahead, get in on this." Sometimes the powers that be don't give the green light -- you just gotta do it, show and prove. Angela Hunte, who helped wrote our first single "Showstopper," she was always a big champion of our voices and our creative expression. Bryan-Michael Cox, Keri Hilson ? so many people were like, "Get on this, take the pen out." They were like the cool uncle who lets you sip on alcohol when your parents aren't around.

There was tension between Diddy and O'Day, and thoughts that Dawn Richard would want to go solo -- did that impact you?

At no point did that really affect me. I was always about the work. When you're in close quarters with people, you're going to get on each other's nerves. At one point we were on a bus for five months. Five females. Five months. On a bus. Come on.

But all the things surrounding us -- the different motives of the network vs. the label -- put a lot of pressure on us, individually and as a collective. You didn't know which place it was coming from. And everyone had different experience with that type of pressure, being exposed to the media. Rumors and scandals were flying around. And we were very young. Everyone's not yet sure who they are. There are comparisons in our looks, in our levels of talents. And they preyed upon that. It made good television. I hate that that happened.

Sometimes when I work with young groups coming up, the first thing I tell them is, "Y'all have to have good communication." You have to trust this girl right here. If somebody's whispering in her ear, y'all need to talk about it every night: "Here's what they're trying to tell me, what's going on with that?" You have to be so secure in your teammates: They're going to push you out cause you're the sexpot; they're going to get in your ear because you're the one with the talent; they're going to prey upon you because you look like the young, innocent naive one. So let's use that to our advantage.

Did you feel like you guys had that communication?

I attempted to have that. I tried my best, tried a lot of different tactics, even to a point where I wouldn't say anything. I'm a passionate person, I'm a Cancer. I may come off too passionate, and it may throw someone off. Sometimes I just had to lay back and say, "See, I didn't want to say anything, because you wouldn't believe me, but now that it's happened, lets face it."

Since the drama is, as you say, good television, is the TV aspect of Making the Band inherently opposed to helping a group staying together?

Yes. It's a lot more interesting to watch people fight in the studio then come in and write a great song. Some of my favorite groups were able to heal in an organic way. When you have cameras pointed in your face and you have microphones strapped to your body and cameras and microphones in the furniture and the light fixtures everywhere you go, it's hard to have a genuine moment.

What was it like transitioning into your solo career?

For me, nothing stopped. It took a while for me to find my voice after having committed myself to making a situation work. It's kind of like a marriage: You make compromises. You figure out what we like to eat, where we like to go, what time we go to sleep. It takes a while to figure out -- I'm a night owl, I'm going to go sleep at three a.m. I'm going to go somewhere by myself. I had to do that musically and creatively.

I started working with no goal in mind. I wanted to explore my voice: How would I do harmonies if I didn't have to do five-part harmonies? I started doing it for the love. Because before, it had started becoming unenjoyable. I did workshops, teaching high school students. I started a non-profit organizations to mentor high school students in making their dreams reality. I set up my own label, Woodgrane Entertainment. I did a film called Blackbird. I'm about to start a production with Tony-winning director Kenny Leon ? Holler If You Hear Me, based on all the music of Tupac. I'm so excited: I'm going to be rapping onstage!

I try to keep people who know a lot around me. I can't be the smartest person in the room. Or I need to find another room.

Are you still writing music for others or just yourself?

Lately, because I've been doing so much film and TV work, I've been focused on submitting music to music supervisors on film and television. Being in Atlanta, there is so much production happening: They're shooting Star, a Lee Daniels production with Queen Latifah, and I had a small role in that -- so cross your fingers, maybe you'll see D. Woods again on season two. I submitted music to shows like that.

That's been the focus, as well as creating this forthcoming D. Woods album. It's an ambitious project. I'm trying not to be like Dr. Dre and sit on a project for that long -- but we were so happy when he put [Compton] out! I can't say much about it. But I want it to come out soon. I'm merging a lot of things together in this project: drama, dance, music. It's more of a gumbo than a steak. I need all the flavors to marinate and come together.

It's a visual album as well as an album. I'm so glad that Beyonce and people like that have put their albums out because it's going to make mine more palatable. Somebody's done it and somebody's succeeded at it -- sometimes you have ideas and you need things to catch up in the best way.

Is your new single "You Win" from the forthcoming project?

It's like a prelude, a little appetizer. Sometimes on Instagram, you wish that people would like whatever things that you think are cool. You could be like, "Hey, I'm going to whatever thing," and you'd get likes. Then you put a picture of yourself in a bikini? it's weird what people like. And I get comments sometimes, guys [being] like, "Why don't you show that ass?" Some people capitalize on it, and I don't know their hustle, but I bow out. I give them the crown. You win. That's where that song comes from.

A lot of my songs come from my experiences or vicarious experiences ? conversations I had with my homegirls that turn into a song. I'm kind of like Taylor Swift in that way!

What do you view as Danity Kane's legacy?

I don't really know what the legacy will do. That's kind of out of my control. But I can do my best to put out the best of myself. I was tripping one day watching Issa Rae's Insecure on HBO and they talk about Danity Kane. I had a moment. And she had a conversation about us on Twitter. I'm a fan of theirs! They're a fan of me. I'm surprised that it was so influential, and I'm happy that it is. I put a lot into it.

I also want to do a lot more. And that's what I'm trying to do now: execute the things that I didn't have the license or the freedom to do then.

e

[fedswatchin]

Ccccccccxxxx

[Freemala Harris]

I fell out @ visual album

gor

[MAY]

It's a visual album as well as an album. I'm so glad that Beyonce have put their albums out because it's going to make mine more palatable. Somebody's done it and somebody's succeeded at it -- sometimes you have ideas and you need things to catch up in the best way.

But wait Queen. 

yea the Visual Album is Bey's thing.

n

[Eternal Bell]

[youtube autoplay=1 start=69][/youtube]

yea cuz we wanna sit thru an hour of this mess

[BAPHOMET.]

JLHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGJJJJJJKHGKJGHJH

[Freemala Harris]

[youtube autoplay=1 start=69][/youtube]

yea cuz we wanna sit thru an hour of this mess

This budget All Night visual in the woods

[AIDS]

not 5k views. what the FUCK

[MAY]

She didn't promote fag

[Eternal Bell]

& why is she standin in sumone elses yard talmbout sum 'come home'

why dnt u go home firs bitch!

[AIDS]

She didn't promote fag

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3mynu7