The Making of "Hey Ya!"

The ubiquitous jam of 2003 actually got its start five years ago

"More than anybody, I hope Prince reads this," says Antonio "L.A." Reid, current head of Def Jam Records and former president of OutKast's recording label, Arista. "I had a conversation with Prince and he said, 'There is no way you could've picked "Hey Ya!" as a single - no way you could've known that was a hit.' It was so against the grain in terms of what's happening on radio."

"Hey Ya!" was originally intended for OutKast's 2000 masterpiece, Stankonia. Big Boi says, "We had that track for a looooong time, since around '99." Says Reid "They'd play me something in the studio I'd really like and then tell me, 'We made that four years ago.' They're so ahead of their time, they sometimes have to sit on something for a few years."

In its most nascent form, "Hey Ya!" was titled "Thank God for Mom and Dad"; it started as a raw beat around which Dre built a guitar line. "I started writing that song five or six years ago," says Dre. "That's when my friends started hipping me to the Ramones, the Buzzcocks, the Smiths, bands like that. I was getting to this music late. I was like, 'Damn, this shit is jamming. Where have I been all this time?' The 'Hey Ya!' chords were the first guitar chords I ever learned."

The beat reincarnated, Dre worked quickly, layering music and vocals to forge the groove in just two days. Some of its most memorable lines were on-the-fly ad-libs. "Give me sugar/I am your neighbor' was a freestyle," Dre admits. And 'Shake it like a Polaroid picture' was, too. I'd written that line years before, about watching a girl just shake it." Dre eventually all the instruments except bass, for which he hired Aaron Mills from Eighties funkateers Cameo, of "Word Up!" fame. "Aaron made it thicker...more fluid and human, "Dre says. "If I'd played the bass part, itd would've sounded like a loop."

"Hey Ya!" wasn't finished when we started planning the album's release," Dre continues. "But we'd already sent promos to radio of 'She Lives in My Lap.' When I finished 'Hey Ya!', though, I called up and said, 'Stop the presses...this is the one.' " Reid didn't share Dre's enthusiasm at first. "Andre sent me the rough demo," Reid says. "On one listen, I wasn't sold, but I turned it off, and a couple of hours later it suddenly jumped into my head again, and I realized, 'My God, this is it!'"

Dre was surprised by the single's success. "People think its' a light song, but the lyrics are pretty serious," he says. "It's talking about the difficulty of relationships trying to stay together. But people just want to dance to it...even older people like it."

That Dre played most of the instruments on "Hey Ya!" helped inspire the video, where Dre morphs into a one-man band. Longtime OutKast video director Bryan Barber added the idea of paying homage to the Beatles' historic U.S. debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. "People say 'Hey Ya!' sounds like the Beatles, or Ike Turner, or Cheap Trick, but I have no idea where that comes from," Dre says. "I've heard some of those artists, but I'm not really hip to them. When you're in the studio, you're not thinking about breaking barriers. You just think about writing the song."

Matt Diehl

Nice article.

All the "sitting on it for a few years" reminds me of old-Prince.

odd prince said no way you could know that was a hit! im sure prince can tell a "hit" really, i mean, when doves cry and kiss werent obvious hits, but then in a sense were cos of the sheer quality. oh well..

Nice article
[This message was edited Tue Mar 2 19:14:50 2004 by SexxyCool]

Hell, the first time I heard Hey Ya I knew it was gonna be huge.

That song reeked of hit. Prince... Prince... Prince...

Romance1600 said:

exactly

Could this prove that he would never do funky pop songs again?
[This message was edited Thu Mar 4 12:54:54 2004 by andykeen]

softandwet said:

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He said that because nobody would think that L.A. Reid would put out a song like that with an
RnB/Rap group. Nobody has done that since Prince.

He was just surprised. He did not think L.A.Reid was that much of risk taker.

this proves that prince doens't have "feel" for the modern music and feel for what people like.
this may explain that prince can't put out any hit singles.
don't get me wrong. l like prince but dissing someone like that is very unproffessional and it sounds like jealousy.

ratt said:

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I don't think Prince is dissing L.A.Reid. Outkast is the only decent act on Arista. Mr. Reid was not one for signing anyone creative. After this is the guy that signed Blu Cantrell.
I think he was just surprised and if you go back and listen to the Bar Kays or Cameo that is the style of music Outkast is doing. These guys are good but their not exactly doing something new. Just new to a pop audience.

well the punk scene is what is goin on heavy around chicago area, and I think Dre has put forth something along those lines, its kinda a trashy song, which is what is cool now.

Prince was kind of punk I have heard him be catagorized as FUNK PUNK, which I had never knew there was such a thing but it makes sence now thinking about his earlier career., so maybe he is tired and has a back catalogue of that stuff but, he is trying to break out into more classy stuff that he will be noted for like Miles and Stevie