Cassidy has said that he wishes he got to know former collaborator R. Kelly better than he did while making his debut smash hit, “Hotel.”
During an interview on The Bootleg Kev Podcast on Tuesday (March 28), the Philly artist divulged into the creative process behind the 2003 single and explained how he was introduced to the disgraced R&B singer.
“It was my first time meeting him,” Cassidy said. “I think it was my first time to Chicago too. Swizz and them were telling me different stuff of how it might be, but when we went in there — I’m a super-fan of R. Kelly, like my older brother that raised me, we used to ride around in the hood banging R. Kelly songs loud. I was a super-fan, so to know that I’m working on my first album, finally got budgets open and it’s like big, and I’m working on my first single with R. Kelly and Swizz Beatz produced it. So I was excited. I was super happy.”
He continued: “I got in the studio, and even Twista came through. I remember Twista came through the studio, and me and Twista started rapping I think. Twista spit some bars, I spit some bars, and me and Swizz was just there. Swizz started explaining the record. It was like a collaboration [for ‘Hotel’]. We already had the idea that we wanted to do this ‘Hotel’ record when we went to go see R. Kelly, so it was already an idea we had.
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The “I’m a Hustla” rapper then explained how the remix to “Hotel” was completed in the same session and broke down how he wishes he could’ve locked in more with R. Kelly.
“I wish I got a chance to bust it up with him more and see what type of dude he is,” Cassidy said. “The second time I met him was at the video shoot and I never got a chance to meet him after that. It was my first project and I had no records out so I ain’t really have nothing for him to be connected to me.” Cassidy’s first album, Split Personality was released in 2004.
Cassidy has been busy doing interviews recently, including one with Off the Porch during which he said he doesn’t think his rap battle rematch with Freeway will take place anymore.
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen. It was locked in with the URL, Smack and them,” he said. “They locked it in. They set it up. They having some little issues with executing it so I don’t necessarily think it’s gonna go down.”
He added: “I mean, I’m ready even if they want to do it tomorrow. We could do it and make it happen but I’m not sure if it’s gon’ go down or not.”
Meanwhile, R. Kelly was sentenced to two decades behind bars by a Chicago judge for his federal sexual assault case last month.
According to The New York Times, Kells scored a victory when the judge ruled that all but one year will be served concurrent to the 30-year sentence he’s currently serving in New York on racketeering charges. He was acquitted on charges of enticing minors into sex and obstruction of justice.