A case of “being in the wrong place at the wrong time” has been credited as the reason for the classic club collaboration between Pras (of Fugees fame) Mya and Ol’ Dirty Bastard (lord rest his soul) on Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are) back in 1998. You might remember it, the funky bassline, Mya’s soulful vocals (where is she right now) interpolating the chorus of Islands In The Stream by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers and somehow invoking one of the whitest songs ever into an absolute banger with the help of Pras’ smooth delivery and Dirty’s inimitable manic flow bouncing all over the track like Flubber.
The track peaked in the top three on the charts around the world, reaching number one on UK’s R&B charts and as high as number two on the ARIA charts. If you still need reminding you can listen below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8uc3E6iwXY
When anchor artist Pras was asked how the collaboration came about during an interview with Vlad TV, the interviewer received an unexpected answer.
“He walked [into] my [studio] session by mistake,” Pras confessed.
The interviewer replied with an excited tone in his voice, saying that he had heard about this story and speculating that he was drunk at the time.
“I don’t know if he was drunk,” Pras replied, “but I know he he didn’t know the state he was in—meaning, in the USA, he thought that he was in a different state. I was in California; he thought he was in New York City. I don’t know if he was drunk. I don’t know if he was tired. I can’t say—God bless his soul, by the way. He just didn’t know where he was at. And so he thought my session was his session.”
When questioned about the dialogue, Pras said he was “respectfully” trying to make him leave. “I was sitting there trying to figure out what was going on. I’m being respectful; he’s a fellow artist. I don’t have no beef with him. [I] was trying to get him out in the nicest way.”
Eventually once he noticed the track that played in the background, Ol’ Dirty demanded to be a part of it. Even though Pras originally planned to delete the session he recorded but it turned out well. The former decided to keep Dirty’s verse (because deleting it would have been utter heresy) and the rest is history in the track we have today.
Watch the full interview below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FPxXAjNVrY
Image: Factmag
An A&R rep has discussed Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s bizarre recording session for his verse on Mariah Carey’s track Fantasy (Remix).
According to Cory Rooney who was speaking to Billboard, the late rapper had a penchant for being late and drinking plenty of liquor while in the studio.
“He finally showed up, three hours late, and when he got there, it was about 10:30 at night. He had been drinking, and was on the phone when he walked in. He was irate, screaming at some girl how he was going to go kill her, he’s going to kick her ass…and then whispering, ‘I love you.’ Then screaming again. This went on for an hour,” Rooney said.
“He finally came out and was like, ‘Yo, pardon me, this bitch is driving me crazy. I need some Moet and Newport’s before we get into this record’… He started yelling at the assistants, calling them white devils and saying, ‘You white devils, y’all don’t want black people to have shit.'”
The rapper, who received $15,000 for his verse, then recorded in between frequent stages where he’d go to sleep and get back up again.
“He said one line, ‘me and Mariah, go back like babies with pacifiers,’ then paused. He said, ‘Yo, I need to take a break,’ and went to sleep for 45 minutes. He woke up and was like, ‘Yo, let me hear what I did so far.’ We played his one line back, he sang another line or two, and then slept for another hour. He would come up with a line, punch that in, and go back to sleep. He went to sleep three different times in the middle of trying to get that one verse done,” Rooney recalled.
However, the story didn’t end there as the rapper also featured on the video which brought about a whole load of other complications. The Wu-Tang Clan rapper was amazingly given the company credit card and promptly went about splashing the cash.
“ODB disappeared in a mall for a minute and we found him in a store trying to buy Louis Vuitton luggage. He said, ‘I’m going to use it for a scene.’ He came back to the set with all these bags of Tommy Hilfiger clothes and Timberlands. It was finally time for him to do his scene, and I promise you, he put on a pair of jeans and Timberlands, and said, ‘I’m not going to wear a shirt, I don’t need no clothes.’”
The “disastrous” shoot was hilariously made even worse when Carey had turned him on to peach schnapps a few days before. “He drank like two bottles of that. So between the hot sun and him drinking two bottles, what a disastrous day that was. The video was a miracle, a real miracle.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6v_AiUK5mk
Image: Consequence of Sound