Madonna reportedly came in hot during her first encounter with Montell Jordan back in the ’90s.
The two stars were crushing it during that era, but it was Jordan who exploded onto the scene with his debut smash “This Is How We Do It” in 1995.
Speaking on the May 1 episode of podcast We Sound Crazy, Jordan shared a story about attending the Grammys when his hit was at peak popularity. Around the 37-minute mark in the video below, the R&B vocalist revealed that someone introduced him to Madonna at the ceremony, and the pop queen gave him an icy reception.
“When I reach out my hand to shake her hand, she looks at me and she goes, ‘Don’t I own you?'” Jordan remembered. He said he wasn’t immediately “processing” what she meant until he connected the dots.
“When ‘This Is How We Do It’ climbs the charts, before hitting number one, there’s a track up there called ‘Take a Bow’ from Madonna. So ‘This Is How We Do It’ is the song that knocked Madonna’s record off the charts,” he explained.
“They tried to get me to sign a publishing deal for my share of ‘This Is How We Do It,’ but we turned them down. She owned this company called Maverick Records.”
But Jordan revealed that his co-writer, the late Oji Pierce, did sign with Maverick, which meant “This Is How We Do It” was partially owned by the seven-time Grammy winner.
“She was basically throwing shade like, ‘Yeah, don’t I own you, because I still have that spot that you had, that number one spot,'” he concluded.
Jordan continues to cash in on the 1995 banger, which has gone 5x platinum according to RIAA. And turns out he’s not alone in the awkward-Madonna-encounter club: Pink reportedly has her own uncomfortable story.
