Just A Freak

Album: Crystal Waters (1997)
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Songfacts®:

  • The basketball star Dennis Rodman adds vocals on this track. NBA players have made successful forays into music: Shaquille O'Neal was a serviceable rapper and Wayman Tisdale was as good on bass guitar as he was on the court. Rodman has never shown any musical talent, and certainly doesn't on this song, where he mumbles out a few lines. So how did this happen?

    In a Songfacts interview with Crystal Waters, she explained: "That was my A&R's great idea. I remember that day. He came in and I was like, [incredulously] Okaaaay. He came in with an entourage of people - he didn't even know why he was there. It took almost all day to get him to do four lines. Oh my god, it was like, What are we doing here? It was just a marketing plea from the label."
  • Waters wrote this song with her producers, Doug Smith and Richard Payton of the team 95 North. On the track, she sings about getting freaky in the club, which was definitely not her style, but the song was clearly tailored to Dennis Rodman, who had cultivated a very freaky reputation. Rodman was coming off a championship with the Chicago Bulls (alongside Michael Jordan) and on his way to another one, but he was more famous for his misbehavior and off-court exploits - the year this song was released, he opened a nightclub in Dallas with RuPaul.
  • Dennis Rodman appears in the video and on the cover of the single, where he nuzzles up against Waters, who looks a little creeped out. Despite his very minor contributions to the track, he was all over the promotional materials.
  • This was used in the 1997 movie Double Team, which Rodman starred in alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film tanked at the box office.

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