Where did the idea for "Laffy Taffy" come from?
We were doing a lot of crazy gangster music all the time. We were from a bad neighborhood. We were in the strip club one night—we were at Babes, that's where it goes down—and we brought a couple of girls back to the studio, and I was just in the booth saying something like, "Tootsie roll," at first, and was like, "Nah." I had this piece of candy in my pocket and pulled it out and said, "Girl, shake that Laffy Taffy." And from there, we just perfected it. It was just that moment.
You literally got the idea from pulling a piece of Laffy Taffy out of your pocket?
Definitely. Everybody who know me know I'm the candy man. I always have some candy in my pocket. If you run into me and are like, "Yo, give me some candy," I guarantee I have some candy for you.
Did you know it was going to be a hit?
Actually I hated the song. I swear to God, I hated the song. I could remember Shawty Lo calling home from jail saying, "Don't put that song out!" [Laughs.] Me and all of the kids were doing the dance and we were so stuck on that or whatever but dealing with Mike Caren over at Atlantic and Johnny Cabell, they were like, "Let's just go for it." We were doing shows at the time, and "Laffy Taffy" was taking over the shows before it was even out. We would perform "Laffy Taffy" and it would kill the "Betcha Can't Do It Like Me."
How did you come up with the dance?
My grandaddy used to do that little dance all the time, you can do it to any beat, and he used to always be up doing that dance. And he used to say that too, "Betcha can't do it like me, youngin." Unfortunately he wasn't alive to see it happen, but I know he was smiling down on me smiling like hell. "Laffy Taffy" means shaking your behind, I just got tired of people saying booty, and I wanted to come up with another name on it.
Can you still do the leg move to this day?
Oh definitely, I can hit flips, all that.
