Celebrity Watch: Lady Gaga Producer Calls 'Government Hooker' A 'Beast'

Monday, March 7, 2011

Lady Gaga Producer Calls 'Government Hooker' A 'Beast'

DJ White Shadow talks to MTV News about the Born This Way track, which he dubs his 'favorite song.'
By Jocelyn Vena

Lady Gaga
Photo: Marco Prosch/ Getty Images

Earlier this week, fans got a taste of the new Born This Way track "Government Hooker," which made its debut during a Mugler fashion show in Paris. The song's producer, DJ White Shadow, called "Hooker" a thumping, sexy track.

"To me, that song is my favorite song, and it's just a beast," he told MTV News. "I don't even know how to explain it. [Born This Way] is not a pop album; it's a pop masterpiece of music. If there was no category of pop music, you wouldn't call it pop music."

Shadow recalled how the song came together — and let's just say what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay there. "We were in this studio in Vegas, and I was playing some hip-hop stuff [for Gaga's label boss Vince Herbert], and I ran across this [old beat I had made], and we were talking about faster songs, so I sped it up and I played it for Vince."

It seems the new version of the beat, which Shadow had worked on with DJ Snake ages before he played it in that Vegas studio, was the magic that Herbert was looking for. "He was like, 'Whoa.' She walked in, and I played it for her and [producer] Fernando [Garibay]. She laid it out in two seconds. She sang over the melody and tuned it up and put the chorus in. She finished it super quick."

There's a Euro-sounding robot on the track, which comes courtesy of someone in Gaga's inner circle. "The guy that's actually talking, that's her security guard," White Shadow revealed. "We were sitting there thinking how to make a computerized voice, so we were like, 'Let's get Pete in here.' He's got a super-thick Dutch accent, and he's trying to read off paper. It was insane, and he just talks like that. That's what it's like working with Gaga. It's like a f---ing supernova. When she walks into a room, things explode."

The lyrics, White Shadow said, were written right there on the spot. "She thinks of sh-- that I can't comprehend," he said. "It doesn't make sense to me, and I'm a creative person."

A credit to her charm and smarts, Shadow summed Gaga up like this: "Working with her is totally different than anyone else I've ever done anything with. She's the most hands-on person I've ever run into. She could walk into Steve Jobs' office and tell him he's doing Apple wrong, and he'd listen. As a producer, it's super cool to be with somebody who generally cares and is fully involved."

What do you think of "Government Hooker"? Let us know in the comments!

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