I know this song is old news, but this story is too interesting to let fade away. Read this and trip...

Investigating the Indian sample in Truth Hurts' "Addictive"
By Narendra Kusnur

The music world can be really funny. Check out what happened yesterday.

A few days ago, I heard that a Lata Mangeshkar song had been sampled in an American number called Addictive, rendered by somebody called Truth Hurts. Yesterday, I discovered that this song had become a rage in the US and UK, even reaching No 9 on Billboard Hot 100. Truth Hurts is actually a singer named Sheri Watson. The song is produced by Dr Dre and has a rap stretch by Rakim.

So I decided to find out which film the original Hindi song belonged to, who composed it, who wrote it and whether they were aware their song had been used by somebody. The only thing I knew was that the song had a line called 'Thoda resham lagta hai, thoda sheesha lagta hai'. Now here's what happened.
1.30 pm-4 pm: I asked every possible source whether he or she had heard this song. I approached musicologists, trade analysts, music company people, film music historians and Lata Mangeshkar fans, and nobody knew. Some, probably looking for an excuse for not knowing, suspected that these might not be the opening lines. I even tried Lata Mangeshkar's residence but was told she was abroad.

4.30 pm: A colleague received an e-mail from her brother saying he was forwarding a song which had become big in the UK. We played the song, and there it was - Addictive by Truth Hurts. It began with Lata singing "Kaliyon ka chaman jab banta hai, thoda resham lagta hai, thoda sheesha lagta hai", and then went into a hip-hoppish vocal by Sheri. Lata's voice was there throughout the song, playing faintly in the background when Sheri's voice was on. From the style, I suspected it was either Laxmikant-Pyarelal or R D Burman.

5 pm: I tried to get some details about the song on the Internet. The colleague dug out this quote from Dr Dre from mtv.com. Dre said: "The song is really simple... All it is is a drum track, bassline and this Indian girl singing..." Hello, did he say 'girl'???

6 pm: I spoke to Pyarelal, who said he'd never heard a song with those lyrics. But I kept trying others - musicologists, music buffs et al.

6.20 pm: I called Hridaynath Mangeshkar's residence and spoke to Lata's nephew Baijnath Mangeshkar. He said: "The song is from the film Jyoti, which has music by Bappi Lahiri. Strange nobody knows this song."

6.35 pm: I was on line with Bappi, and explained how one of his songs had become such a hit in the US and UK. I read out the lyrics, but sorry, he hadn't heard the song either. We then played it over the telephone, and he said: "You're right. This is my song." Though I told him the song might be from Pramod Chakravorty's early 80s' film Jyoti, Bappi wasn't sure. "I'll call up my office in Kolkata and get back to you," he promised.

8 pm: Bappi still didn't know which film the song belonged too, and was convinced it wasn't from Jyoti. The Kolkata office was still finding out. But he said he'd find out whether the Americans had used the track after knowing whose song it was. "If they knew the original artistes, they should have given credit. How can anybody take a song without permission?" he asked.

8.10 pm: I called up Baijnath again, and he said he was sure it was from the film Jyoti. He also said he'd received a call from Lataji, who was wondering whether she had been given any credit. I said I hadn't heard of any such thing.

8.20 pm: I called up director Pramod Chakravorty, and read out the lyrics. His reply: "No, this wasn't in Jyoti."

8.50 pm: Bappi called up. He beamed: "You were right. This is from Jyoti, The song has been sung by Lata didi, written by Anand Bakshi and composed by me." I asked him whether he was planning to take any action because the American artistes hadn't given any credit or asked for permission. Bappi's reply: "I'll think about that later. Right now, I am really happy that I and Lata didi, the legend of Indian music, are at the top of the international charts. This is an unforgettable day for me and for Indian music."

Well, there it was. A song whom nobody knew, a song which was a complete flop when it was released two decades ago, a song which even the film's director and music director had forgotten... this tune has now become a rage in the West. But never mind - that's showbiz, folks

Actually,I thought it was Middle Eastern.

"Addictive" was not produced by Dr.Dre but by DJ Quik.

classic77 said:

never mind that it is a very very interesting story thanx 4 telling us!

very interesting

The source for this article is unknown. I was aimlessly roaming around the net and I stumbled across this article. It doesn't even have a title. I wanted to see what y'all thought about this. And yes, there is a B.T. Express sample in there.

Does anyone know if Truth Hurts or the production team behind the song gave credit to B.T. or the obscure movie they lifted the sample from?

This song kicks ass! I hate the rap so I edited it out of the song. It now sounds perfect!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

OK, I'm maddd late on this, but I JUST really listened to Truth Hurts' debut LP a few days ago and it is knockin'. She has this West Coast Mary J. Blige thing going on that I kinda dig. The whole album is banged out. Dre and Quik were killing it with the beats on this record. I'm straight up loving "Hollywood," "I'm Not Really Lookin'," "Do Me" and I'm starting to get back into "Addictive" (radio killed that song, but now since we've got a year in edgewise and the public has backed away from it, I can truly start to embrace "Addictive" for the gem that it is -- the song is still hot). Truth got lost in the shuffle of the Ashanti/Tweet climate back in the spring/summer of 2002. She needs to come back out with some more material!
[This message was edited Mon Nov 3 12:54:38 PST 2003 by JANFAN4L]