Thanks to Catherine and our good friend Anne from justnodoubt.net for sharing,in a new interview with The Believer,Jamaican artist Lady Saw discusses working with No Doubt:
BLVR: How did recording with No Doubt come about?
LS: [Legendary Jamaican producers and rhythm-section drummer and bassist] Sly and Robbie called me up—they’re my darlings, I love them. They said, “No Doubt is in Jamaica and wants to do a collab.” And I said, “OK, on my way.” [Laughs] So I went to the studio, and they played me the song, and showed me where my spot was. And I started writing, and I was done in a minute. And Gwen [Stefani] and the whole group, they were all like, “Bravo! You’re so good. You’re so quick.” And it was done in a minute, and boom: it was a hit. I loved that.
BLVR: When you won the Grammy for the No Doubt collaboration, a lot of people in Jamaica were pissed that you didn’t get to go onstage to accept it.
LS: Yes—like I wasn’t a part of it. I went on a few of [No Doubt’s] shows on tour, and I mashed it up. But then when it was time for the Grammys, my name wasn’t listed. I just got a certificate, not even the real Grammy. My people called the Grammy people, and the Grammy people said they got the information from No Doubt’s people, and No Doubt’s people said they put my name there—it was a whole runaround. So when they announced we won, I was getting up to go up there onstage with my manager at the time, but the damn security guy in the aisle was like, “Where you all going?” And we were like, “We just won, and we’re going to go up there.” But by then their speech was almost done, you know. Fat Joe was sitting right there. He was nice. He said, “Don’t worry, Mama, your time will come.” He said, “It’s all right, Mama.” He was very nice about it.
But I remember when Gwen did get up there, the first thing she said was, “Thanks to Lady Saw, and Sly and Robbie.” We’re cool—we been cool. I like her personally. She’s just a cool person. We were on tour and she’d be talking about how she wanted to have babies. Girl-to-girl talk, you know. She’s cool. We’ll do something again.
Check out a clip of ND in Jamaica working with Sly and Robbie and Lady Saw: