Give some Madonna facts that some fans don't know

[Celebration 1,306]

Okay, not sure if this is true, but so cool if it is:

I read somewhere that when Madonna shot the video Express Yourself, she listened to Tanita Tikaram's debut album Ancient Heart between takes.

I makes sense. Madonna's life was a whirlwind at that point, and Tanita's calming voice was probably a welcome "brain rest" for Madonna.

 

 

[Ian 2,262]

American Life (track) charted on Billboard's  Latin Tropical /Salsa Airplay chart 

[Miki 245]

That she is in a league of her own. 

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

In a previous post i said as i was told by acquaintances i had, who worked on the movie, that half way through shooting Evita she lost interest in it because after meeting a lot of Eva Peron friends and relatives in Argentina she thought that the musical was not doing her justice. I was wondering if in the years following the release of the movie, she publicly talked about it. Well turns out she did and not years after the movie was released but right after shooting and even before seeing a cut of it, in an interview for the LA Times (i had never read before)

“But the more I learned of Peronism and Eva’s life, the more I realized how unfair Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical was,” Madonna said. “So here I was, working in a movie I didn’t agree with.” Her voice becomes cold when she refers to Lloyd Webber; she joins a line of theatrical leading ladies who have clashed with him, notably Faye Dunaway, Patti LuPone and Glenn Close.

“Lloyd Webber’s point of view was that of the [Argentine] aristocracy at the time Eva was married to the president,” she continued. “They were against her [and viewed her] as an opportunistic whore.

“I thought it was a male chauvinist point of view--that any woman who’s powerful is a whore or slept her way to the top. There’s that implication right through the [musical] and it’s ludicrous. You can’t sleep your way to the top. Well, in Hollywood, maybe, but she influenced an entire nation.”

Madonna thinks she convinced Parker with her findings, and that he modified the film’s tone: “Alan read a lot about Peronism. He’s intelligent, politically astute, and he understood the musical was one-sided against her. He wanted to be fair too.”

source

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

She's a terrible driver and has no sense of direction according to Andy Bird

"We chatted for a bit, and then we got into her car and she drove us to a dinner party she'd been invited to.' Madonna, it appeared, was nervous, too.
She reversed into a wall as she was turning round. She was screaming: "Aah, I hit something!" I think I probably swore - but it was only surface damage,' he adds wryly.

He rented a Dodge pickup and often would meet Madonna and follow her in his car. It was a rapid introduction to one of his new girlfriend's surprising quirks - her terrible sense of direction.
'I'd only been there a short time, but I'd still work out we were going completely the wrong way,' he remembers.
'Following her was a nightmare. You'd be at traffic lights, and out of nowhere she'd edge her way across the lanes and be in the lane for turning left, and there was no way you could follow her.
'It's ironic really: somebody with so much direction in their life not to have a clue where they were going.' While he struggled with her driving"

source 

(there's a lot more there and it's a good read if you have the time. Madonna"s and Andy story famously inspired the movie Notting Hill"

[Miki 245]

2 hours ago, Roland Barthes said:

She's a terrible driver and has no sense of direction according to Andy Bird

"We chatted for a bit, and then we got into her car and she drove us to a dinner party she'd been invited to.' Madonna, it appeared, was nervous, too.
She reversed into a wall as she was turning round. She was screaming: "Aah, I hit something!" I think I probably swore - but it was only surface damage,' he adds wryly.

He rented a Dodge pickup and often would meet Madonna and follow her in his car. It was a rapid introduction to one of his new girlfriend's surprising quirks - her terrible sense of direction.
'I'd only been there a short time, but I'd still work out we were going completely the wrong way,' he remembers.
'Following her was a nightmare. You'd be at traffic lights, and out of nowhere she'd edge her way across the lanes and be in the lane for turning left, and there was no way you could follow her.
'It's ironic really: somebody with so much direction in their life not to have a clue where they were going.' While he struggled with her driving"

source 

(there's a lot more there and it's a good read if you have the time. Madonna"s and Andy story famously inspired the movie Notting Hill"

Wow, that was a fun read. Thank u. Madonna in a relationship with a quirky Aquarius. 
The things I found interesting aside from Bird’s crazy antics were that he said Madonna was a naturally happy person, and that Guy pushed him when he said something derogatory about Madonna ( cause I always thought Guy never cared). And also her having an abortion because he wasn’t serious enough to be committed. That she had to abort years earlier because the fetus wasn’t healthy. She was nearing 40 and wanted a child and so it must have hurt her in unimaginable ways. And yet she spared him the decision, which I think he is grateful for. I admire and understand her even more now. But the fact that many of us don’t know this human and caring and mature side of her upsets me. And it’s not only that we don’t know but we judge her negatively. She truly is strong. And I wish her all the best. Thank u again. You’ve made my day. 
 

[Miki 245]

I know Notting Hill / the film was inspired by her. But is this specific relationship that inspired it? I would think so.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Miki (see edit history)

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

27 minutes ago, Miki said:

I know Notting Hill / the film was inspired by her. But is this specific relationship that inspired it? I would think so.

Yes, it's this one. David Collins, one of Madonna's best friend in London who was also a very high profile decorator (he did the Met Bar actually and co-wrote Substitute for love) was good friend with Richard Curtis, the director. To think that this very low profile relationship she had, almost off the radar, ended up being a movie (the Guy Ritchie saga regarding how they met and how their relationship started became a song "She's Madonna") is proof a simple biopic is not enough. It's like every  month of her whole life (even before fame)  could be a film.

[Miki 245]

18 minutes ago, Roland Barthes said:

Yes, it's this one. David Collins, one of Madonna's best friend in London who was also a very high profile decorator (he did the Met Bar actually and co-wrote Substitute for love) was good friend with Richard Curtis, the director. To think that this very low profile relationship she had, almost off the radar, ended up being a movie (the Guy Ritchie saga regarding how they met and how their relationship started became a song "She's Madonna") is proof a simple biopic is not enough. It's like every  month of her whole life (even before fame)  could be a film.

So, Julia Roberts was the first (A -list) actress to play Madonna. I mean that jokingly but also a tiny bit in earnest.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Miki (see edit history)

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

25 minutes ago, Miki said:

So, Julia Roberts was the first actress to play Madonna. 

Indeed ! 

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

Warner wanted to go with the animated character from the titles for the Who's That Girl ? soundtrack and single

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

The jacket in Desperately Seeking Susan was red in the original script

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

Massive Attack were approched to work on Bedtime stories but they declined due to the 94 World Cup they wanted to focus on

"Still, this is the World Cup final and nothing but nothing is going to get in the way of a good time… Not even Madonna. La Ciccone’s people have been in contact trying to set up a meeting. But yesterday the Massive contingent were recovering from jet lag and tomorrow they return home. Today, of course, the question. Madonna may be the biggest female star in the world, but compared to the climax of America World Cup ’94 she is just someone else hoping for a touch of that old Massive remix magic."

 

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

Pics from Madonna Sr yearbook. She was a cheerleader too. She was also part of the glee club...

If you want to know more about Madonna Sr life in Bay City, how Madonna jr's parents met and how she spent her summers there this is a good read for you 

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

In this article from 2019, we learn more about Paula Ciccone and how she came to manage the business part of the Ciccone winery (while younger brother Mario manages the property). She seems very nice.

By Madeleine Hill Vedel

Sun contributor

Sometimes you end up where you never thought you would be. This is the case for Paula Ciccone, the introverted and warmly welcoming head wine-maker at Ciccone Winery, taking over from her father Tony, founder and creator of Ciccone Winery just south of Suttons Bay. As she tells the story, it was not something she actively sought, nor ever really imagined till it just started to happen.

“In 2011 I was laid off from my job down in Detroit, and came up [to the family winery in Leelanau] that summer. I had helped out in the cellar a couple of years before, but this was different. When I first got here I just did the website. Then I inventoried all the rows of vineyards for each wine, and tagged all of the posts. Once I was done with that it was ‘what should I do next?’

I didn’t come up here to be the winemaker, but I thought, what the heck. I’ll try it. My father started giving me responsibilities in the cellar, involving me more. It was one of those situations: did my father pull me in? Or did I take an interest in it myself? I started keeping a notebook of all the different procedures, and I started asking all these questions. I started reading and reading and reading.”

Paula shared with me how in the beginning her father made all the decisions, and how with their shared corporate backgrounds it was natural to fall into the rhythm of daily morning status reviews, board reviews in the lab, discussions, and to include her in the planning and tasks of the winery. Following his own schedule, Tony passed the baton to his chosen successor. “He gradually stopped, maybe four years ago? He started being more in the owner role and less in the winemaking role. He began trusting me, letting me make more decisions. I still call him and ask him questions, but he throws them back at me.”

Ciccone Winery is a family business. Hearkening back to the traditions of his Italian roots, Tony brought his daughter and son Mario, who manages the vineyards, into the fold and trained them to carry on his dream. In Europe, it is expected that family will inherit a winery, continue the family legacy, and carry forth the dreams of prior generations. This is less common in the States, and in Leelanau County where transitions can be from one winemaker to the next —such as the partition of Mawby, now owned equally by founder Larry Mawby and the winemaking brothers Mike and Pete Laing who’ve worked alongside Mawby for two decades; or from one owner to the next, as when Richard Fortune purchased Shady Lane in 2013 from founder Dr. Joseph O’Donnell. 

“I guess because it’s a family business it made me work harder to be taken seriously. It has made me work that much more to legitimize the place and be a contender on the [Leelanau wine] trail, representative of the region.” To that end, Paula has studied, researched, asked questions, and attended wine making classes at Michigan State University. At first hesitant to reach out to her Leelanau colleagues, she now views them as invaluable resources for advice. “I couldn’t find everything in my research, so I called around, I put my pride aside. I reached out.” Dave Hill at Leelanau Cellars, Charlie Edson and Blake Lougheed over at Bel Lago Vineyards, and Matt Frolo at Peninsula Cellars have all been generous in their counsel and support. And in the past few years, Paula has entered her wines in competitions and come home with a couple of gold medals. “To be getting bottles in the same class as many of the other wineries up here is very flattering.”

Paula’s first intent was to be able to continue making wine in the style of her father, holding to his original vision of fruit forward wines and keeping the winery’s faithful clientele content. However, she has innovated on occasion, and may do so more in the future. “I’ve done a few experimental batches, particularly during difficult years when you don’t always get the best grapes. I was able to veer off program then and make a non-traditional blend, such as Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and Dolcetto.” Paula said. “When I told my father what was in the glass he looked me in the eye, horrified, and asked, ‘what are you going to call it?'” In the end, Paula named the unusual blend after her dog Cassie, put a watercolor portrait of him on the label, and it has become one of the winery’s top selling wines of the past few years.

In 2018, when there had been a particularly small harvest, she blended her hybrids, the Marechal Fauch and the De Chaunac, with the “punchy tannins” of her Dolcetto and named it Figlia—daughter—or her father. 

Gaining confidence in her skills, she has also “filled a hole in our program” and added a sweet wine, blending a majority of Chardonnay with a little Muscato. “It is the after dinner with a cigar thing, and the brides love it.” Paula said. “You’re only as good as your last movie.” She continued, “This year we introduced our wines in cans. Next year? I don’t know yet. There’s so much competition, but that also helps keep everyone on their toes. You have to be good to keep your share of the business.”

Making wine in Leelanau County is a big jump for this metro Detroit kid who used to summer up here at Timber Shores in Northport, where her father’s wife Joan and her brother had cottages. In a few short years she’s gone from working in corporate offices to contemplating how to make the best wine possible from the family’s twenty-one year old vineyards. However, learning from her beloved father and making sure his dream continues, sharing in its joys and successes is in her blood. 

“You’ve got to get really good at what you do. It was put upon me, but I wasn’t disinterested. I guess I like a challenge. That’s putting it minimally. Every year I write down my lessons learned. There is always a list. I keep thinking, this year I will know everything… But of course I don’t. It [winemaking] is good in a way as it keeps you on your toes.”

Laughing self-deprecatingly, Paula confides, “It’s like having kids and you try to do the same thing by each one, and they all come out different. When people say to me ‘your wine is fantastic, here’s your gold medal’, I say ‘well, it behaved this year.'”

As Paula showed me around the vineyards, she pointed out the little plaques on the end posts of the rows, still in place from her early inventory project. We toured the beautiful old barn where light streams in between the cracks in the vertical boards, and the windows look out over Grand Traverse Bay. Paula Ciccone may not have thought she would end up here, but clearly, she’s where she is meant to be. 

To visit, taste wine, join the wine club, or book an event: Ciccone Vineyard & Winery is located at 10343 Hilltop Rd, Suttons Bay, MI 49682. Call (231) 271-5553.

[Andreo 5,323]

On 2/28/2023 at 1:54 PM, Roland Barthes said:

She's a terrible driver and has no sense of direction (...) 

Following her was a nightmare. You'd be at traffic lights, and out of nowhere she'd edge her way across the lanes and be in the lane for turning left, and there was no way you could follow her.

THIS IS SENDING ME 

[David3333 24]

On 1/28/2023 at 4:11 PM, Roland Barthes said:

Vince Aletti is one of the most respected music & arts critic, he used to review singles and albums for the Village Voice and had a special connection to Madonna (he did one of her most interesting interview ever in Aperture in 1999).

While doing his single reviews he used to call her to get more infos on the songs. So in 1991 in his review of the Justify My Love maxi cd, she called him from her gynecologist office and told him "The Beast Within" was Saddam Hussein.

Edit : here's the article

The following year, and more interestingly, he phoned her to inquire about This Used To Be My Playground, turns out it's not about baseball or her childhood in Michigan, she told hi it was about how aids decimated the whole club scene in New York and took away all her friends. So TUTBMP is a sister song to In This Life but specifically about the innocence and joy of her clubbing years in Manhattan and most likely, the person she wishes was "here with me" is Martin Burgoyne, her clubbing partner in crime. 

Edit : here's the article

That is super interesting. And explains that when one of her favorite club haunts, the Roxy, closed down, the last song ever played there was …

This Used to Be My Playground

[Miki 245]

3 hours ago, David3333 said:

That is super interesting. And explains that when one of her favorite club haunts, the Roxy, closed down, the last song ever played there was …

This Used to Be My Playground

Wow, thank you, that blew my mind. TUTBMPlayground being about all the friends she lost to AIDS is news to me. Have always loved this song , but my adoration for it has now grown ten fold with this new bit of information. 

[TheGoth 499]

Wow, this whole page has had such an emotional impact in me right now. Thank you for sharing these details.

[Crazy For M 376]

On 3/5/2023 at 1:33 PM, Roland Barthes said:

Pics from Madonna Sr yearbook. She was a cheerleader too. She was also part of the glee club...

If you want to know more about Madonna Sr life in Bay City, how Madonna jr's parents met and how she spent her summers there this is a good read for you 

I agree! I came across that page by accident one day while looking at pictures of M, on google, and got stuck down a Madonna Fortin/Madonna (singer), as they put it, rabbit hole 🤣 

[like a light 60]

Vince Aletti seems to be a very good critic and interviwer.

Please, let's share more articles of him  (or others like that).

[Redha DBL 7,321]

Thank you so much @Roland Barthes for all the amazing and never shared before info you posts on this thread, this is facsinating. 

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

Some fans never understood why she put Did You Do it ? On Erotica. Here's the reason why.

While recording Erotica, Dre Betts and Madonna would constantly exchange jibes at each other. During that time the New York Times (not even the New York Post) printed an article about the urban legend saying Madonna would pick up guys randomly in the L.E.S streets with her limo to fuck them. This pissed Madonna off, hence that legend on the polaroid above. Once she was late for a playback of the tracks she did with Dre. This is when Dré and his sound engineer recorded Did You Do It ? as a freestyle joke refering to that article while waiting for her. Little did they know she came with some execs from her record company and Dré forgot he had readied the prank version of Waiting so that's what he played. Madonna was amused. Then a few weeks later she asked him if he was ok about the track making it on album, he though she was joking but she offered him 75% of the rights so he said ok. It was her way to get back at that urban legend and at the NYT since it's exactly what the track is about (and Dré friends teasing him about having or having not fucked Madonna) . It's Dré singing, don't go by the credits. But no one knew about that obscure NYT article.

That urban legend did not die though and 3 years later it took a new dimension when it came in the middle of a dick battle between Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.

Edit : this urban legend must have been born when Madonna started using the Sire/Warner limo to pick up friends in the L.E.S to enjoy the ride and go to the clubs, she used it with Basquiat and Fab Five Freddy to pick up their B-Boys friends while cruising. Something she did up until she married Sean. 

Funnily enough there's a similar scene in A Certain Sacrifice, but "Bruna" 's gang is cruising NYC in a limo to catch her rapist.

[Roland Barthes 5,838]

How Madonna got involved in the middle of the biggest gangsta rap tragedythat ended with Tupac being killed.

Gianni Versace, Madonna, Haitian Jack at Madonna's Bday party in Miami, 1994.

To the casual hip-hop fan, the name Jacques Agnant may not ring a bell. That quite honestly may be for the best.

“I’ve been known to put holes in quite a few people, and not just one at a time,” boasts Agnant in his very first statement in the documentary Hip Hop Uncovered. “I’ve been known to clean corners.”

Premiering Friday on FX, the six-part series from executive producers Malcolm Spellman and Jonathan Chinn of Lightbox Entertainment and director Rashidi Harper aims to peel back the layers of the genre’s most influential, notorious and yet creative element: the streets. Rap luminaries such as Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Too $hort and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels make frequent cameos, and there’s a now-mournful appearance by Lil Marlo, who was murdered last year.

But the driving force in the series is five power brokers who cut their teeth (and, at times, other people) in ’hood politics and used that influence as an entrée into the music industry. The series chronicles the odysseys of Eugene “Big U” Henley, siblings Deb and James “Bimmy” Antney (the latter a former member of the infamous Supreme Team from Queens, New York), Christian “Trick Trick” Mathis and Agnant — or “Haitian Jack,” as he’s immortalized in the streets.

Each character narrates his or her own story, and the familiar thread of coming-of-age in post-Vietnam/Reaganomics/crack-era America with hip-hop as its unfiltered soundtrack ties the five of them together. They even share some scenes, as Big U, Bimmy and Haitian Jack have been friends for decades. Even among this group of peers, Jack’s story stands out, partly because of its plot twists and partly because so little of it has been told outside of bits and pieces of interviews and ’hood documentaries that live on YouTube.

His reputation in the streets earned him respect in an industry that, in its dog-eat-dog ethos, was not all that different from the business that turned Jacques Agnant into Haitian Jack.

You expect Hip Hop Uncovered to delve into the most dissected part of Haitian Jack’s life — his time with Tupac Shakur — but the story of the notorious Brooklyn, New York, bully goes far beyond that. Due to an economic depression in Haiti, Jack’s family migrated to East Flatbush, Brooklyn, which had a reputation for street crime. His fellow Haitians had a reputation for being pushovers, Haitian Jack says, whereas their Jamaican counterparts were about that life.

“That’s why I ran with the Jamaicans because the respect they got is the respect that I wanted,” he said. “So you can say I was raised by wolves.”

Haitian Jack’s Brooklyn of the late 1970s and ’80s is night and day compared to the gentrification epicenter of today. By the time crack had its cobra clutch on the ’hood, Jack was deeply immersed in the street life. Walking into clubs with his gun on him was normal. Drug dealers were often respected and feared — and Jack was applying pressure on them. Not because it made him a ghetto Robin Hood. He did it because it made him a lot of money. A lot.

Throughout Hip Hop Uncovered, there’s an undeniable cockiness in his voice as he recalls his life and times, from handling his first bully during his adolescence (his first time using a gun) to a moment of twisted levity when his father called Haitian Jack the “King of the Thieves” after retrieving property stolen from the family.

Toward the late ’80s and certainly by the ’90s, the hip-hop industry became increasingly violent. Street money needed to be cleaned and potentially striking gold in hip-hop was a lot more appealing than, say, a laundromat. In many ways, there was little difference between the two worlds in how business was conducted and how agreements came to be. As much as individuals from the streets were looking out for their own best interests, many artists trusted them more than the suits who made millions off their art but couldn’t relate to the experiences it took to create it.

Haitian Jack wasn’t looking to invest in music at first. But when people in the industry needed muscle, he was often at the top of the list of people to call. This point is illustrated with a story about producer Dallas Austin and how Jack refused to “put some pressure on” Austin after a crew from Atlanta courted his services. The only reason he didn’t was because he thought highly of the multiplatinum producer. But Austin learned an important rule: Don’t ever end up on Haitian Jack’s bad side.

By the early ’90s, Haitian Jack was known around New York not only for his rep in the streets, but as an epic figure on the nightlife scene. Party promoters respected him, DJs saluted him and everyone from athletes to entertainers knew of Jack. So it wasn’t too surprising when a chance meeting in an Atlanta studio connected Haitian Jack with one of the biggest pop stars in the world at the time in Madonna.

The two instantly hit it off. He was charismatic and his ties to the streets gave him the bad boy image that Madonna gravitated toward in the ’90s.

“[Jack] got [Madonna] chillin’, eating jerk chicken, n—a. I saw that flex,” says rapper and fellow Flatbush native Spliff Star in Hip Hop Uncovered. “It was the swag. It was the persona. She felt it. I couldn’t understand. I was like, ‘Does this b—- know who she hanging with?’ This a real street n—a.”

Because rappers and people of power in the streets frequently ran in the same circles — and energy finds energy — Haitian Jack met Tupac Shakur in 1993. By then, Shakur’s reputation in the media was nearly as infamous as Jack’s was in the streets. He was considered by many public enemy No. 1 who attracted drama and violence the way pollen does bees. He’d sued the Oakland Police Department for $10 million after being assaulted by two officers after they stopped him for jaywalking. Vice President Dan Quayle demanded his debut 2Pacalypse Now be taken off shelves after Ronald Ray Howard’s attorney blamed the music for “riling him up” and killing a Texas trooper. In April 1993, he was charged with assault in Michigan after attempting to hit another rapper with a baseball bat at a concert. And three months later, on Yo! MTV Raps, ‘Pac admitted to beating up Menace II Society directors Albert and Allen Hughes — a confession that’d earn him 15 days in jail.

Shakur was in New York for much of ‘93 filming the cult classic Above The Rim. He played Birdie, a New York gangster — much like Haitian Jack — who wooed people through his flash and charisma while ruling through paralyzing fear. Shakur had always been privy to the horrors of life in the ghetto. His mother’s crack addiction nearly severed their relationship and his father was nowhere to be found. Drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes were unintended role models.

Still, hanging around Haitian Jack was a master class in how to operate within that ghetto political infrastructure. In his now-landmark Vibe interview from Rikers Island a few years later, Shakur admitted that Haitian Jack introduced him to a life he had only previously flirted with.

“I used to dress in baggies and sneakers. They took me shopping; that’s when I bought my Rolex and all my jewels,” Shakur said. “They made me mature. They introduced me to all these gangsters in Brooklyn.”

“One day [Shakur] said to me, ‘I’m glad I met you when I did because it really helped with that character I was working on,’” Jack recalls on Hip Hop Uncovered. “Then I said, ‘You got something from me?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, man. Just your swagger, the way you handle yourself, how everybody’s always around you. That was important for me to see that that happens. That people gravitate to a gangster.’ ”

The honeymoon phase abruptly ended on Nov. 18, 1993. That night, shortly before Thanksgiving, would lead to the single most consequential accusation in rap history because of the dominos that would fall later.

Shakur, Haitian Jack and others were charged with sexually assaulting 19-year-old Ayanna Jackson in Shakur’s 38th-floor room at the Parker Meridien Hotel. Shakur and Jackson had first met at the Manhattan, New York, nightclub Nell’s and engaged in consensual sex.

A few nights later, Haitian Jack informed ‘Pac that Jackson was coming back over. Shakur said Jack was making everyone drinks in what appeared to be an evening that was nothing out of the ordinary. Biggie Smalls was reportedly there, waiting to accompany Shakur to a New Jersey show. But he left shortly after Jackson’s arrival. According to Jackson, she and Shakur were in his bedroom alone when other men entered and they proceeded to rape her. Shakur said that when the other men walked into the room, he left, feeling weirded out by the group setting. He said he talked with his publicist in another room, felt groggy and went to sleep. He awoke to Jackson yelling at him for allowing them to assault her.

In Hip Hop Uncovered, Jack seems annoyed with Jackson, but his anger is reserved for Shakur.

“’Pac was all good when I was doing things for him. Until we caught that punk ass case that easily could’ve been beaten by both of us,” Haitian Jack said. “He let his attorneys turn him against me and that’s the part I’ll never forgive him for because I’m going ride or die with you, home. I expect you to do the same. See, that’s what I call a fair-weather friend.”

One of the biggest mysteries in rap history is what exactly took place that night. Jackson was clearly assaulted. Shakur and his road manager, Charles Fuller, were both convicted of first-degree sexual abuse. At his sentencing in February 1995, Shakur apologized to her while denying that he had committed a crime. It’s a stain that never left Shakur’s career, one he admitted left him with regret.

“Even though I’m innocent of the charge they gave me, I’m not innocent in terms of the way I was acting,” Shakur said. “I don’t know if she’s with these n—as, or if she’s mad at me for not protecting her. But I know I feel ashamed because I wanted to be accepted and because I didn’t want no harm done to me. I didn’t say anything.”

Shakur, who also was charged with weapons possession that night, spent much of 1994 proclaiming his innocence. The thought of being remembered as a rapist haunted him. Naturally, ‘Pac and Jack’s relationship deteriorated. Through the press, he called Haitian Jack a “hanger-on” and on Nov. 29, he delivered one of his most emotionally charged interviews when he pleaded his innocence once more and expressed resentment his rape case was being tried separately though he wasn’t the only one charged that night. From prison, boxer Mike Tyson was telling Shakur he was “out of his league” hanging with Haitian Jack. Biggie Smalls also told him to be careful about some of the street guys, Haitian Jack included, that Shakur was courting and later taunting.

On Nov. 30, hours before he was due in court to hear the verdict in his sexual assault case, Shakur was shot five times in the lobby of Manhattan’s Quad Recording Studios. Within a minute of the shooting, Haitian Jack — who says he told his soldiers in the streets not to touch Shakur — received a phone call saying what had happened. He said that person, whom he knew, had the wrong number and hung up.

The entanglement between Shakur and Haitian Jack also extended to Madonna, who had taken up with the rapper. How Madonna and Shakur’s relationship fizzled is ultimately a matter of perspective. Haitian Jack says in Hip Hop Uncovered that the pop star discovered that Shakur’s image didn’t match his reality. And that people close to Shakur were feeding him this information.

“He really liked her and she realized he wasn’t who he said he was. ’Pac wasn’t no gangsta. And they told her I was that dude,” Haitian Jack said. “Some [people] are like, ‘Jack’s with Madonna. Madonna doesn’t seem to be into you anymore.’ He was like, ‘F— that n—a and f— that b—-.’ Don’t bring no man into this. Cause I’m a man, my n—a. Don’t play those games with me, playboy. Cause I’ll take you there.”

In a letter written from Rikers Island on the same day of his historic Vibe interview, Shakur apologized to Madonna for their fallout. He admitted their relationship ended partly because of how he would be perceived dating a white woman. His ego was crushed when she, in an interview, boasted about “[rehabilitating] all rappers and basketball players.” This caused him to lash out, but in the letter’s postscript lies an ominous request:

“If there is any information you can share with me regarding Jack & crew, please do,” Shakur asked. “It could very well be a matter of life & death.”

Haitian Jack had been in the orbit of two transformational moments in rap history between the night of the reported rape in Shakur’s hotel room and the shooting at Quad Studios. Shakur served time while Haitian Jack didn’t — something Shakur never forgot in the short time he had left.

Hip Hop Uncovered also explores Haitian Jack’s connection to the event that would ignite the East Coast-West Coast strife. It’s often assumed that Suge Knight and Death Row’s actions at the August 1995 Source Awards were the starting point for the feud. Though indeed a cultural harbinger, it was only the undercard. On Sept. 23, 1995, the same night as Biggie Smalls’ hilarious appearance on the hit sitcom Martin, Death Row and Bad Boy Records camps partied in Atlanta at Jermaine Dupri’s birthday party. Of course, Haitian Jack was in attendance.

“Suge and Puff got into a screaming match,” Haitian Jack recalled. “It looked like it was getting serious.”

The end result was that Knight’s close friend, Jake Robles, was killed in the parking lot. Many reported Sean “Puffy” Combs’ bodyguard and close friend Anthony “Wolf” Jones as the culprit. The Source Awards may have been drenched in pettiness. But now blood had been shed. How the next year panned out is as common knowledge: The disputes between Death Row and Bad Boy intensified and led to Shakur’s 1996 slaying and Biggie Smalls’ death six months later.

One interesting twist Hip Hop Uncovered reveals is Haitian Jack’s feelings about the diss record from Shakur, “Against All Odds,” (and the unreleased liner notes) in which Haitian Jack is labeled a snitch. Rap had seen scathing diss records before — including from Shakur himself in the venomous ode to Biggie Smalls on “Hit ’Em Up.” But this was the first time a rapper was openly dissing actual street figures such as Haitian Jack, Jimmy Henchman and Walter “King Tut” Johnson, though at the time of its release the confrontational rapper was already dead.

“Listen while I take you back and lace this rap/ A real live tale about a snitch named Haitian Jack,” Shakur spewed. “Knew he was workin’ for the feds/ Same crime, different trials/ N—a, picture what he said.”

“ ’Pac wouldn’t have put no song out like that before he died because he’d have to see me. Cause I’m gon’ ask him some questions,” Haitian Jack says in the documentary. “That’s not something I can let somebody get away with, dog. The code of the streets is this, man. ‘If you got proof, then show it.’ ”

Agnant’s career in the music industry involves far more than the short time he spent with the genre’s most beloved martyr. The music business enabled Haitian Jack to go legit over the next decade, working with names such as the Fugees and Clive Davis. His reputation in the streets earned him respect in an industry that, in its dog-eat-dog ethos, was not all that different from the business that turned Jacques Agnant into Haitian Jack. But even the music industry wasn’t enough to satisfy a man that saw the right way to make money as the ski mask way.

“All that [music industry money] added up, but now if you said when I was sticking up drug dealers, right? I was making millions in one shot,” Haitian Jack said. “I realized I missed that … that street life.”

With being a gangster, though, there’s always a downfall. His biggest setback was a 2004 shooting in a Los Angeles nightclub that led to prison time and, ultimately, his deportation in 2007. Haitian Jack hasn’t seen the United States since.

He says he’s living comfortably in the Dominican Republic, with the material possessions to prove it. But, he acknowledges, it’s a far cry from the life he once lived. In his most vulnerable moment in the series, Haitian Jack acknowledges there are itches he can’t scratch.

“Family and my paper,” he says about what he misses the most. “That’s it. In that order.”

Haitian Jack knows his connection to Shakur is a lifetime scar. Some will always see him as the man who sent an icon spiraling toward his demise. Even with this opportunity to tell his own story, it’s Shakur’s voice that carried the larger cultural weight.

Hip Hop Uncovered is an unabashedly subjective presentation because of how rare it is to get these figures to speak on the record on such sensitive topics. For so long, their stories have been told only by those in their orbit. With Haitian Jack, in particular, it’s a revealing presentation of a true hip-hop boogeyman.

“I need to get out there and let n—as know, ‘Hey, homie. Don’t get this s— f—ed up,’ ” Haitian Jack pledged. “I’m gonna stop you from running away with this story.”

We still don’t know the complete story of Haitian Jack. Given how the streets operate, we likely never will. It’s almost foolish to expect otherwise.

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[Roland Barthes 5,838]

While promoting Bedtime Stories in Paris in october of 1994, Madonna told the french TV Guide like magazine Télé 7 Jours she intended to see Mylene Farmer's movie Giorgino that was out in the theaters at the moment, nobody knows if she was one of the very few who did (it was a major flop)