After Swizz Beatz and U2 member The Edge confirmed a collaboration with Jay-Z to record a Haiti relief song, Swizzy recently explained how the effort came about. “The idea of the song is ‘We’re not gonna leave you stranded,” Swizz told Rolling Stone about the song that may be titled “Haiti Mon Amour’ or ‘Stranded.’ “And that what the chorus is. So me and Bono started going and forth with ideas, and he was like, ‘You know this word stranded keeps standing out to me,’ and I asked him to sing it, and he put me on hold, ’cause he’s recording the ideas on a Dictaphone — so he did it there and then on the phone.” Jay-Z later added the verses.
Rihanna was also added to the song to give it a softer touch. Swizz explains, “The last component that I added was Rihanna, and she’s kinda like the angel that’s on the track, softening it up and giving it that caring feeling, because this hook is so powerful.” Rihanna, a Caribbean native herself said in a radio interview on Thursday that she felt a personal connection with the victims of the earthquake. “In the Caribbean, we think of ourselves as one big family, one country. We’re all together. We all represent each other. It’s like [the earthquake] happened to Barbados.”
The song premiered on Friday night during George Clooney and MTV’s telethon “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief.”
In related news, Wyclef Jean has hired a new accounting firm for his foundation Yele after the organization was recently questioned for its handling of finances. The foundation was criticized when reports surfaced revealing that some donations were being used to fund events not related to Hatian aid.
The new firm, RSM McGladrey, will oversee the millions of dollars in donations, and says it will distribute them directly to the relief effort.
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In unrelated news, Prince has recorded a song for the Minnesota Vikings in celebration of the football team’s 34-3 playoff win against the Dallas Cowboys last week. The lyrics to the song, appropriately titled “Purple and Gold,” are posted on the Vikings official team website. Prince, who is a Minnesota native, was spotted attending the playoff game last week. The Vikings will face the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at the Superdome.
