The last time an R&B upstart sampled the Notorious B.I.G. on her
debut single, it was the early aughts: Eminem was still cleaning out his
closet and Pink and Christina Augilera were pop’s reigning bad girls.
Amidst all that, Ashanti’s Biggie-sampling “Foolish” scaled the charts
and spent 10 weeks at #1 on the way to becoming one of the decade’s most
successful singles. Now, 10 years later, Rita Ora is dipping into Mr.
Wallace’s vault for
her first Stateside release.
But whereas the onetime Murder Inc. princess made a breakup ballad
for the ages, Ora’s debut single, “How We Do (Party)” — which gets
musical inspiration from the late Big’s grimy “Party and Bullsh–” — is
as bouncy as a box spring. When the newly minted Roc Nation signee
visited the MTV newsroom earlier this month, we drilled her with
questions about the tune and its equally effervescent video.
