Jewels n' Drugs

Album: ARTPOP (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This boisterous, trap-like hip-hop tune finds Gaga telling a tale of fame addiction with the help of Atlanta rapper T.I., Bay Area legend Too $hort and Chicago spitter Twista. Gaga told Chicago's B96: "I can tell you that Twista and T.I. and Too $hort, that entire experience making 'Jewels N' Drugs' was super fearless and they were so excited about being a part of the community of my fans and sharing their community of fans with mine."
  • Too $hort spoke to MTV News about his work on this track: "I was doing some songs last year with one her producers, DJ White Shadow," he revealed. "He's been pretty busy, doing his thing around the world and he got back at me a little while ago and said, 'There's a song that Lady Gaga's doing that possibly they would want to get you on... so I said, s--t I'm down with it!'"
  • Producer White Shadow told MTV News that the three rappers were chosen because they "just [wanted] to do something that was not quite as obvious as what was out there already."
  • Twista raps on his verse: "And I'mma be as strange as Lady Gaga." He explained to MTV News how Gaga is strange to him. "To just know you're free-minded and you're willing to take risks," he said, "and do what it takes to bring something different to the industry than what everybody has seen before."
  • Twista recalled to MTV News a phone conversation that he had with Gaga before recording his verse. "When she decided to put the track together, she wanted to put a vibe of certain artists together to complement what she was doing," he said. "It was me and $hort at the time that was talking to her and she was just telling us, 'Man, you, T.I., $hort, I want y'all to be on this vibe, y'all to capture the essence of what I want to do on this song.'"

    The rapper didn't get to the meet the pop star until she performed with him and Too $hort at the iTunes Festival in London in September 2013. However, T.I. did lay down his verse in the studio with Gaga after a chance meeting. "I didn't go there to do a record," Tip said. "I was recording in a room down the hall and somebody came and got me and said, 'LG wants to holla at you.' "

    "I just went there and did what I do," T.I. added. "Just like that; took me a couple of minutes."

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