LMFAO has hit the mainstream. Love them or hate them (and there are plenty in both camps), the cartoonish Los Angeles-based duo’s popularity is growing with a certain cross-section of the 14-24 year-old party set thanks to infuriatingly catchy tracks such as “I’m in Miami Bitch,” kitschy You Tube videos and energetic live shows. Redfoo and Sky Blu (yes, that’s what they go by) timed a radio hit perfectly this year with the PG-13 version of “Miami” just as an emergent pop-leaning sound was breaking on urban radio stations nationwide. Will.i.am was instrumental in helping the act land a deal with Interscope, as the group tells URB in an interview that took place inside an infamous bi-level apartment in the Hollywood Hills where four people were gunned down in 1981 during the Wonderland murders. Their latest single,” Shots,” features Lil Jon and is seemingly a lock for repeat plays poolside in Las Vegas this summer and inside less-than-reputable frat houses nationwide by fall. LMFAO’s debut full length, Party Rock, dropped this week.
Are you worried that electro-influenced rap is now becoming cliché? Everyone seems to have club-inspired beats these days, but you guys were a bit ahead of the curve when you started a few years ago.
Red: We gambled with our sound, you know? But you can actually predict where things are going. If all the DJs in Hollywood start playing up tempo stuff, and we’re into up tempo stuff and if the talk around the DJ community is that slow shit is over, you run to that space to get there so when it comes around you’re right there. It’s like a marathon.
Sky: I felt that there was a disconnect between the club and radio in 2007 and into 2008. People go out to have a good fucking time. No matter if you love hip-hop, you still like to dance. It’s only right that dance stuff came back to radio.
Red: There was a time when white girls in the model industry were really into hip-hop. Like hardcore hip-hop. And it was shocking, because you know, trendsetting hot girls like that were singing these insane lyrics. But those same girls started getting into dance music a few years ago. Now, for the first time in a while, dance music has an edge again with stuff like Justice. Before house music was being made fun of for being “gay” or whatever. But now, that same song that they made fun of (“What Is Love”) is a classic now that DJ AM plays it. Humor is back, too, with fun in the club.
Sky: Right now we are in a DJ-driven cycle. Look at “Since You’ve Been Gone.” That’s corny, but a lot of DJs are now playing it because girls love it. It can create a marker on a night as an experience, especially if you hook up with a girl while it’s playing.
What was more important to your early success in attracting fans and eventually landing a major label deal, Myspace or You Tube?
Red: YouTube was a big part of our success. We became almost TV stars in a way. We even learned how to make the baseline for “I Am Not a Whore” from a YouTube Fruity Loops demo, even though we use Ableton. It gave us ideas how to put a wave in the EQ. We even made our own swine flu masks out of bowls and put it on You Tube. CNN covered it [in a segment on swine flu].
So have you heard from Prince or Warner Music’s lawyers regarding your font jacking of “Purple Rain” for “Party Rock?”
Sky: No, because I don’t think you can copyright a font. Anyway, I heard Prince is a fan of ours.
How did you hook up with Lil Jon and what inspired your latest single “Shots?”
Red: It’s a ritual for us. Every time we walk into a new club we do a quick shot to get things started. It’s a quick way to get a nice buzz. The concept of the song started through Eric D-lux. He came up with the concept and we used to perform the song accapella onstage. We just sent Jon the track and he was into it.
How important was your first trip to WMC in 2007 when you first debuted “I’m in Miami, Bitch.”
Red: We’d never been to Miami before. But we’ve been since and nothing can compare to that first trip. Being there for the first time was intense. There weren’t too many haters and most everyone embraced us.
How did your deal with Interscope come about?
Red: Some of their scouts knew about us, and we knew will.i.am, who talked us up a lot. But Jimmy Iovine’s son was like our number one fan. Will and him just pushed us inside Interscope and it went from there.
You guys have been going out for years in Hollywood, a city with a fairly progressive club scene. But are you seeing the same thing happening in other places now that you’ve had a chance to gig outside of L.A. a bit more?
Red: There are some cities that are watching L.A. and they are basically trying to recreate the Hollywood scene. Place like Phoenix and Denver or wherever. And you’d be surprised how live the scene is in, like, Modesto. But we love San Francisco. That’s probably our best market. We went to Infusion [lounge] once, and we walk in playing our PSPs, and the club literally stops. The first group of people that see us, they start clapping. We barely even made it to our table.
Do you directly attribute your success up north to the localized “Bay” version of “Miami?”
Red: That for sure helped. The Bay version was the first alternate version we did of the song. But it wasn’t an immediate hit. We went up there like ten times before we had that great show….Too Short came to an early show, and it was ok, but still people didn’t really know us. We played for only 20 people up there once. But every show we figured out a way to win the crowd over.
Sky: Some of the best shows of our life have been for less than 20 people. We did a show once in Amsterdam for one girl. We didn’t want to do it.
Red: Sky didn’t want to do the show. But the sound guy was like “since you’re here you might as well.” Sky talked to the girl and she was a real fan.
Sky; The demeanor she had was like the whole place was full. She was waiting all day and I felt so bad for her so we had to do it.
Red: The show started out with one person but then a little crowd trickled in. We had 10 people by the end of it. But we jumped around and made it live. We’ll do the same show for 10 people that we do at Staples Center opening up for Pitbull.
How many different versions of “Miami” are you doing and is there a danger of jumping the shark with all the different versions?
Sky: We just did a Detroit version. Boston, Cleveland. We’ve done over 50 cities. San Diego was the first market to put a custom version on the radio before L.A. with “I’m in Diego Bitch.” We just did a Chattanooga version!
How do you even keep a straight face when doing all the different takes on “Miami?
Sky: We gotta do all of them. Our manager makes us.
Did you guys know the history of this apartment on Wonderland Avenue before you moved in?
Sky: I knew about John Holmes. We knew “Boogie Nights” but we only saw “Wonderland” [the film featuring Val Kilmer] after the fact. We’re such party people that ghosts don’t bother us, they party with us.
Who else are you into these days musically?
Red: We listen to the radio a lot lately because we are on the road so much, just to see what’s being played. But we like Deadmau5, DJ Chuckie, Justice.
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