April 10, 2008

Nelly And Fergie Both Wanted The 'Party People' Beat ... So They Decided To Share It

By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Ritesh Gupta (MTV.com)

Polow Da Don's penchant for playing tracks he shouldn't is still paying off for the producer.

Earlier this year, he admittedly leaked the single he worked on with Usher, "Love in This Club." The song then rocketed up the Billboard Hot 100 to land at #1.

This time, he played the beat for Nelly's new single, "Party People," to the St. Lunatic when it was originally intended to be a track for Fergie's next album. Instead, the Black Eyed Pea had to settle for second billing on the song.

" 'Party People' started as a song that Polow Da Don and I did back when I did 'London Bridge' and 'Glamorous,' " Fergie told MTV News on the set of the "Party People" video in Los Angeles. "Basically, it was almost done. Trina did a verse on it; that's why you hear me say [her name] on the song. Everyone thought it was too street for me at the time. [Laughs.] So that's why they didn't want to put it on The Dutchess.

"It was left off, and I was gonna put it on my next album," she continued. "Polow played it in the studio for Nelly, and [he] flipped out and turned the song around and made it into a major club banger, brought his energy, and it just became this monster. He played it for me. I told Polow, 'You know I was saving this song for my next album. But I can't hate on it, because it's good! I like it! I like this version.' And all the label heads loved this version. And Nelly called me like, 'It's crazy!' "

Nelly said he and Polow were 10 songs deep into recording when the producer played him the music for "Party People."

" 'I'll take it,' " Nelly recalled thinking when he heard it. "I kind of reconstructed it a little bit, put some Nelly in it, rearranged it some more, and it came out to be the song you hear today."

The pair recently finished the video, which has since popped up online and will officially make its premiere next week.

The song is the lead single from Nelly's fifth album, Brass Knuckles, due June 24 on Universal Records. Guests expected on the album include Ciara, T.I. and LL Cool J. The first song released from the album was "Wadsyaname." But after the St. Louis rapper heard "Party People," he said he knew that would be the single.

"As soon as I heard it, I knew it was Nelly," he said. "It had everything that I really wanted. The beat is infectious. The feel of it is right where it needs to be - right what I want to do as far as killing it over the summer. It was perfect."