As pre-Grammy events commenced and music’s biggest stars packed their week’s agenda’s, BMI snagged a slot Saturday (Feb. 9) afternoon for their annual “How I Wrote That Song” panel. This year’s event featured Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and B.o.B, all of whom spoke about some of their most praised songs and creative process.
Music fans and industry professionals huddled into Hollywood’s historic Roxy Theater to hear each rapper’s song-writing process, and stories from two other award winning panelists country writer, Luke Laird, and GRAMMY-winning songwriter Evan Bogart, the latter of which penned hit records for Beyonce and Rihanna. BMI’s Vice President of Writer/Publisher Relations, Catherine Brewton, lead the exciting conversation between music video’s and acoustic explanations about each selected songs.
Busta looked back at a younger, dread-locked Busta Rhymes and shared the importance of spreading the Hip-Hop culture after “Pass the Courvoisier.” He explained how Diddy influenced him to rap softer to appeal to the ladies. “You always heard me on my barking and screaming sh-t on the mic,” said the “Whoo Hah” rapper. “Some discussion led to Diddy and Tip telling me, ‘Yo you need to stop screaming all the time, b-tches don’t want to do that all the time. Make a record just being cool, use your regular voice.'”
Uncle Snoop talked about taming his pimp demeanor and writing more positive and respectful lyrics on “Beautiful” featuring Pharell Williams, while B.o.B. explained how the most natural musical creations have grown to be smash hits, like “Nothing On You” featuring Bruno Mars.”For this record I looked at it like a challenge because of the tempo. I was like ‘I’m going to try to put my swag into this pop record and still make it mine.’ I just put as much as my energy into it as possible,” B.o.B. said.
If there was a person in the house who was not enthused by what they were hearing during the exclusive conversation, Snoop’s cloud of smoke sure woke them up. The “Reincarnated” rapper-turned-reggae artist blazed not one, but two blunts, while on the panel.
Click below and check out flicks from the “How I Wrote That Song.”
Photos: BMI
