Mannie Fresh doesn’t have as much interest in working with newer artists as he does more seasoned ones – and it comes down to what he says is a difference in expectations.
Chopping it up with B High ATL alongside Turk and Juvenile in an interview published on Monday (December 2), the seasoned producer was asked why he hasn’t collaborated with many young artists.
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“There’s a disconnect,” he explained. “I’m not saying all young artists, but a lot of young artists can’t take direction. And the way we work is: I’m not gon’ send you a beat. If I can’t sit there and do it with you, if I’m not in there with you, it don’t make no sense to me. What you hire somebody for to tell them what to do? I already know these dudes can rap. I’m not gonna tell them what to do.
“If you stumble on a word, then I can say, ‘Hey, you stumbled on a word.’ But I can’t tell you the art of how to rap. And right now, it’s like you’ll hire somebody but you’ll tell them, ‘I want it like this,’ and, ‘Can you do [xyz]?’ And I’m like, ‘Why don’t you just let me do what I do and you concentrate on what you do and the magic gon’ happen.’”
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The conversation begins at the 48-minute mark below.
In other news, Mannie Fresh recently shared a story about coming up with the hook for the 2000 smash hit “Who Let the Dogs Out” by the Baha Men in an offhanded way, and then promptly forgetting about it — without receiving any writing credit or compensation for his work on one of the most popular songs of the decade.
“We was at Circle House [Studios, in Miami]. I was programming something in the studio, and the dudes who made that song, they was just like, ‘Bro, would you help us with a song?’” Mannie recalled.
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“I was like, ‘I’m busy doing something right now.’ They was like, ‘Give us a hook or whatever.’ I was like, ‘Just go, “Who let the dogs out/ Who who who who“,’ and I closed the door. I was just like, get the fuck out of here. And that came out and I was just like, ‘Wait a minute.’”
Mannie has told this story before, and some aspects of it hold up to scrutiny — the Baha Men did in fact record part of the song in Circle House. However, the “Who Let the Dogs Out” hook well predates the Baha Men.
Their 2000 version of the song was a cover of Anslem Douglas’ 1998 original, which was recorded overseas and contains the hook Fresh claims to have written. Douglas himself said he got the hook from a jingle for a radio show hosted by his brother-in-law.
To make things even more complicated, there is a well-documented version of the hook from an entirely different group, called Miami Boom Productions, that dates from 1992.
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Versions of the hook can be found as far back as the late 1980s, in a Texas high school football chant. You can read a 99% Invisible story about the history of “Who Let the Dogs Out” in all of its complicated glory here.
