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Rodney Terry, Ghost Town DJs Founder, Talks About Running Man Challenge And ‘My Boo’ History

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 15:58 PST, May 22, 2016

Rodney Terry, the founder of the Ghost Town DJs, opened up about the hit song “My Boo” returning to the Billboard charts recently thanks to the now-viral Running Man Challenge.

The song, “My Boo” was first released nearly 20-years ago in 1996 and sadly became a one-hit wonder for the Ghost Town DJs.

It is currently featured in the No. 27 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts — the highest position on that chart that the song has ever reached.

During a Billboard podcast interview, Rodney had a chance to open up about the history of “My Boo” as well as his honest reactions to the song being used for the Running Man Challenge.

What many people may not realize is that rapper and hype man for Lil’ Jon played a key role in the development and overall concept of “My Boo” all those years ago, according to Terry.

“It was originally an idea that Lil Jon and I had three months before we made the record…Mr. Mixx from 2 Live Crew, one of their producers, is my homeboy — he’s a great friend of mine. I’d produced bass records in the past, as well — I was always into dance music. We thought about the idea, and I think we tried it once before we got to ‘My Boo.'”

Terry further explained that they were trying to figure out how to make the song work one day in his office. They were apparently joined by Carl Moe — a man that Rodney Terry had never met at the time — who also had his keyboard with him. Terry states that when he played the beat, Carl “fell exactly into the pocket.”

According to Rodney, the key of the song was that it was “an R&B record over a fast beat” so “the music and the vocals couldn’t have anything to do with the beat.” The beauty of “My Boo” was intentionally designed to seem like two separate situations and songs that somehow worked beautifully together.

“We got it written up and recorded it — there was another girl, named Akima, who sang the record at first. But she couldn’t really sing it, because Carl Moe had written it for his voice. It was too low for her to sing, so I fired her in the studio. Virgo was there. Originally, a guy sang ‘My Boo’ — it was so low that Virgo needed to follow somebody in that key. This was all over the course of two days. Then, Lil Jon and I mixed it, and the rest is history. It was definitely more Lil Jon than it was Jermaine. My great friend [DJ and producer] Greg Street in Atlanta played it during Freaknik. It was just off to the races from there.”

“My Boo” has been revived through samples and other clips several times over the years since it was initially released. When asked to identify his favorite revival of the popular Ghost Town DJs song, Rodney Terry did acknowledge his appreciation for the Running Man Challenge — stating that he was “cool with” it.

However, Terry enjoyed Ciara’s sample of the song in her hit single “Body Party” a little bit more primarily because of the professional connection that he had with Ciara years ago.

According to Terry, he worked at Jive Records nearly 15-years ago, so he was working for the record label when Ciara first arrived. He even claims that he worked on some of her records even though he is sure that she never knew it was him working on them in the first place.

It’s because of that connection that he feels Ciara’s song “was a little more special” to him than when the young men involved with starting the Running Man Challenge sent it into the world of viral videos.

[Image Credit: Nowik Sylwia/Shutterstock.com]

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