Quincy Jones revealed the good, the bad and the ugly in his latest Vulture interview, touching on a range of topics, from star signs to his experiences with Michael Jackson to who killed John F. Kennedy.
Among conversation of his greatest musical accomplishments, the producer also discussed his mistakes. He specifically referenced his 2010 record, Soul Bossa Nostra, which featured various artists as a tribute to Jones’ work.
“I was not in favor of doing it, but the rappers wanted to record something as a tribute to me, where they’d do versions of songs that I’d done over my career,” he said.
He mentioned rapper T-Pain, who recorded Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” with Robin Thicke for the album: “I said to them, “Look, you got to make the music better than we did on the originals.” That didn’t happen. T-Pain, man, he didn’t pay attention to the details.”
T-Pain took to Twitter to respond to the remark. In a string of posts, he talks about how he was forced to do the record by his managers and was equally unhappy with the result.
He ended his rant with a bit of a dig at Jones, saying, “But also to be real. It just seems like @QuincyDJones is pissed off at the whole world. I have nothing but respect for the guy so I don’t know why we didn’t hold the song or tell me exactly what he wanted when I kept taking the headphones off beggin for direction from the God.”
For the record I told my managers (at the time) and I told @QuincyDJones in his face “I don’t want to remake any of your past records because I know I’m gonna fuck it up. I’ll never be able to reach the greatest of MJ” it took them hours to pump me up to even go in the booth 1/2
— T-Pain (@TPAIN) February 7, 2018
And I still hated it when I came out of the booth. Then the song came out and it was even worse than it sounded in the studio. This is legit one of the reasons I don’t work with the managers I had anymore because if I said I was uncomfortable doing something they didn’t care 2/2
— T-Pain (@TPAIN) February 7, 2018
But also to be real. It just seems like @QuincyDJones is pissed off at the whole world. I have nothing but respect for the guy so I don’t know why we didn’t hold the song or tell me exactly what he wanted when I kept taking the headphones off beggin for direction from the God
— T-Pain (@TPAIN) February 7, 2018
This article was originally published on Billboard.