Picture 20

Reading and writing about hip hop’s daily parade of outrages, controversies can get numbing, all the overanalysis (yes, guilty at times here) and uninvited opinion, et al.

But something personal and truly “exclusive” like director Brett Ratner’s personal memories from his biggest video shoots is so refreshing!…The same guy who lives the ultimate Hollywood LaLa-lifestyle, directing the Rush Hour films, X-Men 3, etc…is also the same guy who directed such hip hop classics as Redman’s “Tonite’s the Night,” Heavy D “Nuttin’ But Love,” Jodeci “Freek-n-U” and more, that’s impressive. You can read all of Brett’s commentary and see his classic clips on the Complex Blog. (Props to BFred for the interviews!)

Ratner’s story about filming Wu-Tang’s “Triumph” has got to be one of the GOAT dinner-table-yarns of all time….

“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…

“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].”

The best part of the story, after the jump….

“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?”

awesome.

For more Ratner commentary go to the Complex Blog.