Brett Ratner talks about working with Wu-tang, Redman, Jodeci, Heavy D, Public Enemy, D'Angelo.

haha shit had me rolling.

http://www.complex.com/blogs/2009/09/16/directors-commentary-brett-ratners-music-video-classics/

Quote :

Redman “Tonight’s Da Night” (1993)
DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY: “Redman wanted to shoot it in Jersey where he lived, in the worst area—it used to be a Jewish neighborhood, and his house was across the street from a Jewish cemetery. So, I show up and park outside his house at 5 o’clock in the morning. He was sleeping, and I wouldn’t knock on his door because I was scared! So I went around the neighborhood and shot all these faces in black and white, for four hours. He finally woke up at 11 [laughs]. We go down to this one abandoned house in the neighborhood where everyone sits on the stoop. I remember the part where he goes, ‘Would the packed pistol posse put their fingers on the triggers?‘ The packed pistol posse, who was his crew, pulled out their pistols and pointed at the camera—my DP said, ‘That’s it, I’m leaving!’ I said, ‘What do you mean? No one got shot! C’mon!’”

“The best part of the Redman story is, three o’clock in the morning, he says, ‘I want a white bitch to roll up and buy some drugs for me.’ This is when you could just do hardcore videos, and I’m like ‘You wanna portray yourself as dealing drugs?’ ‘Yeah, man, that’s real, man!’ The only problem is, we ain’t gonna find a white bitch in the middle of the night in the street. There was no women on my crew, so Redman goes, ‘What about that white bitch?’ And I said, ‘That’s my mom!’ He goes, ‘Well use that hoe! Put that hoe in the video’ So, my mom is in the Redman video, at the end of the video, when the car pulls up, buying drugs from Redman.”

Quote :

Wu-Tang Clan “Triumph” (1997)
DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY: “It was the first million dollar rap video. When Steve Rifkind asked me, I said, ‘Are you sure about this record? There’s no chorus!’ He says “Trust me, its gonna be the biggest record of the year. Only Wu-Tang could pull this off.’ So, I set up the video—Joseph Kahn was my cinematographer. I hear that they want eleven Suburbans—they each want their own. They each also want $50,000 worth of gear, and they told me all their designers. So first day, these guys are walking in one at a time, and each guy walks into the dressing room, and walks out with plastic bags filled with all the clothes. I called Steve like, ‘They’re stealing all the clothes!’ He’s like, ‘Don’t worry, let them have it.’”

“It’s a five day shoot, and it’s crazy. The greatest fuckin’ experience, they’re eating mushrooms the whole time. Ol’ Dirty never shows up. I was like, Oh my god, this is fucking insane! The most fun I ever had. After shooting ends, they all leave to go on tour in Europe, but Ghost never would travel, because he had diabetes. So he checks into a hotel, and they said, ‘Yo Ghost, you watch Brett, and watch over that edit, man. White devil could fuck it up!” So, we’re in the edit room, and we call the group on speakerphone. And it’s the funniest thing, this is embedded in my memory. They’re all on the phone like, ‘White muthafuckin’ devil, man, tryin’ to rob us motherfucker!’ And Ghost is looking at me while on speakerphone, just winking at me like, I love you man! [laughs].”

“So three days into the edit, I get a call that Ghost had had been kicked out of like eleven hotels, and I’m like, ‘Why were you kicked out?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know man, I got fucked up, and I just start breaking shit. Can you come get me? I got no place to stay.’ So I let him stay at my house. Suddenly my phone rings, and it’s Steve Rifkind, ‘Whats going on?’ I go, ‘Nothing, I’m just bringing Ghost over my house ’cause he got kicked out of the hotel.’ Then there’s silence on the other end of the phone. I say, ‘Whats wrong?’ He goes, ‘I gotta call you back.’ Five days later, he calls me up and goes, ‘Are you okay? Oh my God, you scared the shit outta me, man. How can you let this guy stay at your house? I don’t even let these guys know where I live!’ I go, ‘What do you mean? He’s the nicest guy in the world.’ He goes, ‘You don’t know what Ghostface has? He hallucinates, he hears voices like kill your mom, kill your mom. He has to be medicated because he has homicidal thoughts.’ So a month goes by, and I would edit all day, and Ghost would just chill at my house until we finished. A month later, I’m with my girlfriend in the backyard, and the cat starts going fucking crazy and starts digging into the dirt. We dig up a bucket of fried chicken. Ghost buried a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in the backyard. How fuckin’ freaky is that?”

This stuff is hilarious... and I believe all of it... ghost sounds like he has to be off by just a little bit with all the music he makes - are there more stories? or are these two the best?

The Redman and Wu-Tang were the best. I wish someone would write a book about all the crazy shit rappers have done.

LOL! Those are priceless

What!? That shit is priceless. I always knew ghost was special buring chiken? WTF! Sounds like some get rid of evil spirits shit. And Red calling the man mom's a hoe and stuff is classic.

LMAO this is hilarious...that Triumph video will always be classic

This is gonna sound mad homo, but Ghost has crazy eyes...

The Real Real Jeru wrote:

This stuff is hilarious... and I believe all of it... ghost sounds like he has to be off by just a little bit with all the music he makes - are there more stories? or are these two the best?

there are more stories with shit he did with heavy d, jodeci, public enemy, etc. but those two were the best haha. dammmnn ghost burying a box of chicken wings?

The funny shit is, Ghost is vegetarian. That was someone else's KFC...