Mariah Carey Reflects on Ol' Dirty Bastard's 'Fantasy' Feature: 'Every Single Part of It Was Genius'

Mar. 15, 2025

Mariah Carey and Ol' Dirty Bastard in the 1995 music video for “Fantasy”.Photo:Mariah Carey/YouTube

Mariah Carey/YouTube

Mariah Careyis remembering the “genius” of her late collaborator and friendOl' Dirty Bastard.

As part of the new A&E documentaryOl’ Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys, which follows the life and career of the legendaryWu-Tang Clanrapper, Carey reflected on their time working together on the smash-hit 1995 “Fantasy” remix.

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As she explained, after the release of SWV’s 1994 track “Anything” — a song featuring members of the Wu — Carey ended up linking with ODB and had “no idea what he was gonna say” on their remixed version of “Fantasy.”

“I had no idea what the rhyme was gonna be at all. I’m like listening in on the phone. I remember this engineer, poor guy, he was this short little Caucasian man. Really cool, nice guy, but wasn’t ready for ODB,” Carey recalled with a laugh. “He was like, ‘Yo devil! Go get me this and that.’ I was listening on the phone like, ‘Oh my God.'”

Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Mariah Carey in New York City in May 2003.Scott Gries/Getty

Scott Gries/Getty

After a few hours of ODB perfecting his verses, Carey said she finally heard the song on speakerphone and felt like “the giddiest kid on earth.”

“[I was] basically jumping up and down on the bed, so happy,” she said. “And when he gets to the ‘me and Mariah’ section, I’m flipping out even more. I’m like, ‘I can’t even believe what this is.'”

But just as much as fans remember “Fantasy” for ODB’s fun wordplay, his performance in the track’s music video has perhaps left just as much as a lasting impact. In the documentary, Carey explained that when it came to the visual for the hit, she imagined a concept set in Rye Playland and giving it a fresh spin in the ODB version.

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“In the pop version, the clown, he’s leading you through the video,” Carey recalled. “So I said to ODB, ‘What do you think about that clown if now you’ve tied him on this pole and you’ve clearly taken over the moment?’ And he was like, ‘Yo, that’s peace, that’s peace, that’s peace, that’s peace.’ And I was like, ‘OK, let’s go.'”

“I love his performance in that video. Every single part of it was genius,” she added. “The way he performed, he was free. He did stuff so spontaneously, in the moment. He was in the moment. Even when he had the wig on and was looking up at the sky with no shirt — like, that’s his thing.”

Beyond just ODB’s work with Carey, the new documentary on the rapper’s life touches on the rise of Wu-Tang, the moment herescued a 4-year-old girl from underneath a car, his time in prison and his untimely overdose death on Nov. 13, 2004, two days before his 36th birthday.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtysofficially premiered on Sunday, Aug. 25 on A&E.

source: people.com