Danity Kane's 'Welcome To The Dollhouse': 6 Things You Didn't Know

While their dismemberment in 2008 might have been a long drawn out process that we had to relive once again a few years later, Danity Kane will forever remain a soft spot for Millennials hooked to MTV's generation of reality television in the mid-2000s. Just ask Insecure's Issa Rae. Somewhere in the shuffle of The Hills and Punk'd, Making the Band 3 saw the one and only Diddy form an all-star girl group with the help of handy advisors like Johnny Wright and Laurieann Gibson. Within the course of five years, America watched as the hip-hop heavyweight mentored, trained and eventually broke up the pop collective, which comprised of Aubrey O’Day, Aundrea Fimbres, Dawn Richard, Shannon Bex and D. Woods.

Music, of course, arrived as a right-hand component to the long-running series and, in some cases, delivered unexpected surprises. But their sophomore LP, Welcome to the Dollhouse, will serve as their pop pinnacle as they banded together to create 16 sleek tracks made in tangent with creme of the crop hitmakers like The Clutch, Stereotypes, and Danja. As a right-hand component to the reality show, the release also brought promotion, endorsements and, of course, a growing fanbase via MTV. 

iHeartRadio is celebrating select albums released in the year 2008 and chose Welcome to the Dollhouse as our latest set to reflect on. In honor of the LP's 10-year milestone, we have rounded up some facts you may not have known about the project.

1. Welcome to the Dollhouse's title served as a subtle nod to DK's time on MTV's Making the Band 3. As the story goes, the band wanted to further brainstorm the idea of being "these girls that were manufactured and put up in a house, you know, an MTV house," as per D. Woods. That idea opened up the narrative of sharing each of their stories with their listeners.

2. Even though they recorded the LP in under three weeks, all five of the girls reportedly worked on their own tracks and presented them for the album during their studio sessions. "We did all of our preparation prior to going into recording the album even before the show," O'Day previously admitted. "We were together on tour for Christina's [Aguilera] tour and then after that, we stayed together and we really vocally prepared ourselves for this album, so that we could go ahead and knock stuff out very quickly." 

3. Missy Elliott's guest feature on second single, "Bad Girls," was a long time in the making, as per one of the group's interviews after the album's release. "When we first heard the song, we were, like, 'Yo. You know what would sound really really good?' This was a year before we even got in the studio. We were, like, 'Missy Elliott would kill this,'" Dawn previously explained. Both of the acts dual appearances at MTV Studios would later reveal the cameo to the group's surprise.

4. "Lights Out," the Flex & Hated-produced foot stomper, originally started out as a Dawn demo. According to the pair of producers, the singer, who would go on to work with them on her solo venture after her work in Dirty Money, collaborated with the duo on a number of tracks. "We always had a running joke," Hated told iHeartRadio about their workaholic mindset. "We're always in the studio, always working, and Dawn would say, 'Oh, you're not gonna outwork me.' Because of that little friendly competition that we had, since she was a writer, we would send Dawn tracks and she would knock out demos." "Light Out" ended up being one of those tracks and Diddy "love it" when it arrived on the table.

"Ultimately, the record got presented to Diddy, and the girls went down to Miami to record it. Flex and myself weren't there, but they actually got a chance to record the record," Hated continued, noting that producers Akeem Lee and Erick Price were also part of the track's creation. "We actually first heard the record recorded on an episode of Making the Band."

5. Danity Kane was set to support the LP by opening up for Janet Jackson's "Rock Witchu Tour," but the group had to withdraw due to label conflicts. "She loves us. She bought our album out today in stores. We got wind," O'Day told PIX11 News on the day of the release.

6. Danity Kane may have disbanded within the year following the release of Welcome to the Dollhouse, but the set made history when it debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. Look Danity Kane up in the Guinness Book of World Records and you'll notice that the act is the first (and only) female group to score two consecutive No. 1 debuts with 2006's Danity Kane and 2008's Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Photo: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio