Warwick Teams With Coolio, Kurupt To Remake 1966 Feel-Good Classic
Greg "Chip" Wilson
From www.sonicnet.com :
Warwick Teams With Coolio, Kurupt To Remake 1966 Feel-Good Classic
New version of 'What The World Needs Now Is Love' also features Bobby Brown
and Flesh-N-Bone.
Contributing Editor Teri vanHorn reports:
LOS ANGELES -- At one point during the re-recording of Dionne Warwick's 1966
classic "What The World Needs Now Is Love" on Friday night, 22 people
crammed into the control room of Studio 56 in Hollywood.
But it wasn't so much the number of people standing shoulder to shoulder. It
was the people themselves. Among those joining the legendary R&B singer were
multi-platinum rappers Coolio and Kurupt, not to mention hip-hoppers
Flesh-N-Bone, Bobby Brown and Big Daddy Kane.
A rap-heavy remake of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David tune brought the 57-year-
old Warwick together with a number of rap and R&B notables that also
included Mic Geronimo and the only other female performer in the studio,
Latin R&B artist Veronica. (Rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, who could not attend
the sessions because of his son's birthday, likely will be added to the
track.)
"When you're bringing artists together that don't normally be together ...
and it all comes out harmonious, that's love right there." -- Big Daddy
Kane, rapper
"Everybody is so into it, they want to be here," Warwick said. "They wanted
to be a part of it. The unity here, it's more than I expected -- it's over
the moon."
The tall and slender Warwick, more recently known for her TV promo spots for
the Psychic Network, sat at the control panel next to her son, producer
Damon Elliott, patting his shoulder. Elliott took advantage of the wheels on
his chair, sliding forward and back in quick, small jerks as he supervised
the performance of R&B newcomer Tyrese. Visible through the glass in the
recording booth, Tyrese tugged at his running pants as he soulfully sang
with his eyes closed.
Kurupt and Coolio lounged on the black leather couch against the back wall
of the control room, the former leaning back and smiling while the latter
sat forward, studying a rap scribbled out on some scratch paper. The two-day
recording began Friday and ended Saturday with an in-studio video shoot.
Throughout the endeavor, the vibe inside Studio 56, a popular recording
studio in Hollywood that has hosted such artists as Guns n' Roses and Sugar
Ray, was upbeat with contributing artists hugging and congratulating each
other after their performances.
As rapper Kane remarked, the collaboration of divergent artists drove home
the "love-sweet-love" message in the song's lyrics. "When you're bringing
artists together that don't normally be together -- R&B artists and rappers,
the younger generation and the older -- and it all comes out harmonious,
that's love right there," he said. "You know, artists have their egos and
someone could have said, 'Ah, Dionne's old school, I don't want to do
nuthin' with her,' and Dionne coulda said, 'Ah, I don't like those
rappers -- they're too loud.' But none of that happened."
Because the project came together in a matter of days, each contributor's
track was recorded individually so as to avoid possible clearance problems
from the artists. The majority of those involved participated Saturday in
the filming of the video, which will be released with the single next month.
In an interview after the shoot, Warwick, who described herself as so happy
that she was "floating," likened the experience to her previous song
collaborations in the benefit songs "We Are the World" and "That's What
Friends Are For." Bobby Brown, the husband of Warwick's cousin, pop diva
Whitney Houston, described it as "pure love," while Kurupt said, "I've
always wanted to be part of something like this."
Elliott, who has produced the hip-hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and some of
its members' solo ventures, helped Warwick assemble the cast. But, he said,
several of the performers also contacted him, wanting to be a part of it.
The new "What The World Needs Now Is Love" will be the first single from
Warwick's forthcoming album, Dionne Sings Dionne, due out late this year.
Part of the proceeds from the sales of the single will go to the charitable
R&B Foundation.
Warwick, who has been outspoken in the past against negative lyrics and
gangsta rap in forums such as a Senate hearing, said she hopes that the song
will dispel certain self-made mystifications about the rap community. "I
just had a dream and thought that I wanted to involve my babies," she said,
referring the project's contributors, "because I'm the one who's been
spanking them, in regards to lyric content and what they've been
representing, when, in fact, I know what they really are and who they really
are, and that they're good kids."
The revised feel-good song culminates with Coolio rapping the letters that
spell the word "love."
" 'L' is for the lies that they told ...'O' is for the outside looking in
...'V' is 'cause it's very necessary that certain policies get eradicated
... 'E' is for the extra mile you had to walk just to talk to your homie to
show 'em you had love for 'em," he proclaims.
Jakob Hellberg
She should team up with Necro and make a new version of "Get on your
knees"!! BTW, why is Kane still fooling around with those stupid ideas
after all these years???