The Origin of "Fantasies"

The Dayton Family's very own Bootleg talks about him and Lisa recording the song "Fantasies" back in 1999, how they met, why her vocals got replaced with Shawnna's instead, and how LaFace was holding her back. Dayton Family’s Bootleg remembers song with TLC’s Left Eye FLINT, Michigan—Bootleg is known as a member of seminal Flint rap group The Dayton Family, but recently, he made news headlines alongside a different artist: the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. Lopes was the rapstress of TLC—a Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling R&B/hip-hop trio from Atlanta. A song with her and Bootleg, “Fantasies,” began circulating music sites in late February. In an interview with The Flint Journal, Bootleg recounts recording the song and admits that he leaked it with the family’s blessing. Bootleg says that when he was released from prison, his friend Tabeth told him that she had built a friendship with Lopes after moving down south. He flew out there to visit the two, and stayed at Lopes’ home while building rapport with her brother Ronald. “She had a lot of beautiful women at her house,” Bootleg remembers. “It was real nice. It was like a family atmosphere. A lot of barbecuing, and a whole lot of fun.” Bootleg let Lopes hear the beat that he wanted her on (it samples a popular Isely Brothers record, “For The Love of You”), and after some nudging from Ronald, the duo spent several days together writing and recording. The song, “Fantasies,” is about a man and a woman daydreaming about their future together, and a notably toned down Bootleg cleverly references TLC albums and song titles in his wordplay. He has fond memories of hanging out with the feisty lyricist. “She was a beautiful person: real outgoing, smart and funny. I enjoyed working with her,” he says. When she died ate age 30 in a Honduras car crash in April 2002, he sadly watched the footage that flooded news programs and the Internet. “It hurt me to the heart, because I got to spend several days around her and got to know her. It was kind of like losing a sister.” Bootleg had wanted to release the song around the time they recorded it, but he got Shawnna (then on Ludacris’ label, Disturbing Tha Peace) to substitute. He says that Lopes’ record label, LaFace Records, wouldn’t clear him to use her vocals on the song. “She was a megasuperstar, and they didn’t want to share any of that limelight. That was during the peak of her TLC stuff, so she was super hot,” Bootleg remembers. “I was a gangster rapper, so they’re like, ‘We can’t put her on a gangsta rap album.’ They didn’t know, she was just as gangsta as me!” With next month marking the 10-year anniversary of Lopes’ death, Bootleg thought that releasing the song now made sense. He contacted Ronald to ask for the family’s blessing, and after receiving approval, he contacted an overseas company to distribute the song to various web sites and publications. He said that he doesn’t plan to put it on his own album, but just to give to the family to use the song however they see fit. “I felt like it was overdue. I just wanted her fans to hear it, and I loved her verse on there,” he admits. “I think I’m one of the only rappers that ever got a 16-bar verse from her.” Dayton Family’s last album, Charges of Indictment, hit stores last year under Hatchet House – a subdivision of Psychopathic Records, the indie label of Michigan vets Insane Clown Posse. SPIN magazine named the disc as one of its 40 top rap albums of 2011. They went on a 54-city tour with the group, which Bootleg said has been chronicled on a DVD that they plan to release soon. They’re also working on more group material, solo material from Bootleg and Shoestring, and a 15-city tour. Bootleg is also quick to point out that he has recently paid $200,000 of back child support, which had earned other negative headlines lately.