Who is E. Ness? DJ Vlad claims rapper impacted careers of Da Band members by declining Diddy's offer
On June 17, 2025, rapper E. Ness spoke to DJ Vlad about his journey as an artist, reflecting on his time under Diddy's Da Band. E. Ness, aka Elliot Ness, is a former member of Da Band, a hip-hop group signed under Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment label.
E. Ness, whose real name is Lloyd E. Mathis, belongs to Philadelphia. He began his music career in 1984 as a break dancer, competing in artist showcases and local talent shows. E. Ness is known for songs like Tonight, My Life, and How U Like Me Now.
Da Band was formed by Sean Combs as a part of MTV's reality series Making the Band 2. The currently imprisoned rapper selected the band's members and contributed to their training and development through the show's first 3 seasons.
On June 17, 2025, DJ Vlad reflected on his conversation with E. Ness and put forth his opinions in a tweet. Vlad wrote:
"After their debut album went #1, Diddy offered the six of them a $300K publishing deal (with Janice Combs Publishing). Since E. Ness declined, the group ended up not signing."
Here's something I learned after doing my recent interview with E. Ness from Making the Band.
After their debut album went #1, Diddy offered the six of them a $300K publishing deal (with Janice Combs Publishing). Since E. Ness declined, the group ended up not signing.
Because they didn't sign, Diddy had no financial incentive to get their music in TV shows, commercials, movies, etc. So the music started to lose relevance over time. Which ultimately affected the careers of the entire group.
If you're a legendary artist like Jay-Z or Bob Dylan, you don't need a publishing company to push your music.
But if you're a new artist, these publishing deals are lightweight extortion. You either ,ve these companies a big portion of your music in exchange for an upfront payment or you stay an underground artist.
The journalist continued,
"Because they didn't sign, Diddy had no financial incentive to get their music in TV shows, commercials, movies, etc. So the music started to lose relevance over time. Which ultimately affected the careers of the entire group."
DJ Vlad added that legendary artists like Bob Dylan or Jay-Z don't need a publishing company to push their music. The journalist said that publishing deals are "lightweight extortion" for new artists.
Vlad concluded his tweet, stating that either new artists give companies a huge portion of their music in exchange for "an upfront payment", or they can remain an underground artist.
Da Band member Chopper alleges the band broke up after Diddy threatened Freddy P
Da Band, formed during MTV's Making the Band 2, comprised members like E. Ness, Babs, Sara Rivers, Chopper Young City, Freddy P, and Dylan Dilinjah. The band officially disbanded at the end of Making the Band's season 3 in May 2004.
In February 2025, one of Da Band's members, Chopper Young City, gave an interview to DJ Vlad wherein he claimed that the band broke up after Diddy threatened to kill Freddy P, adding,
"Fred was like f*ck the band and then Diddy asked us do we want to continue with the band? And we all just felt it wasn't a need to Fred ain't going to be there. But basically it's because Diddy said that 'I was going to buy your neighborhood', told Fred right in our face, he said cut the cameras off."
While Chopper Young City didn't mention the timeline of the event, the mention of cameras and the band sitting together with Sean Combs speculatively indicates that it was during the MTV series.
DJ Vlad then asked Chopper what led to Combs threatening Freddy P, to which the former Da Band member said that Freddy felt like the band was getting mistreated. Chopper Young City mentioned that Freddy felt like a lot of things that Sean Combs put the band through "was more like hazing than actually industry things."
When Freddy P put his point across, Combs asked for the crew to cut the cameras off while his security guard, Paulie, was trying to tell the rapper not to say something he wasn't supposed to.
Once Chopper narrated the incident reportedly leading to Da Band's breakup, DJ Vlad said that Combs couldn't hire someone to kill another artist at the time, especially with the kind of visibility the rapper had.
Diddy is currently facing trial on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution following his arrest in September 2024.
