Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars have a hit song together, but the pair haven’t spoken in some time.
In 2010, McCoy tapped Mars for a feature on the song “Billionaire,” McCoy’s debut solo song. But in a recent conversation with People, McCoy said Mars “doesn't return my calls.”
The Gym Class Heroes frontman reminisced on meeting Mars through his A&R rep. At the time, Mars was in a writing-producing trio called The Smeezingtons—consisting of himself, Philip Lawrence, and Ari Levine—and they were fans of Gym Class Heroes.
"I can't remember the first song they played me, but they played me a rough demo of 'Billionaire,'" McCoy recalled. "And the original top line was part of it, 'I want to be on the cover of Forbes Magazine standing next to Diddy and the queen.'"
McCoy claimed he wanted to tweak the song.
"I've never been to [Diddy's] White Party, but I was like, 'Bruno, I don't want to say Diddy's name every night. He's like, 'All right, cool, easy fix.' So he changes it to Oprah,” he said.
“And I'm so glad I made him change that shit, because ... I probably wouldn't have been subpoenaed, but my fans would have probably been asking questions. You know what I'm saying?"
McCoy added, "I don't want to stand next to Diddy in anything.”
“Billionaire” peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the lead single from McCoy’s debut solo album, Lazarus. The track predated Mars’ own debut as a solo artist by just a few months. “Billionaire” arrived in March 2010, and Mars’ first single and breakout hit, “Just the Way You Are,” dropped that July.
Earlier this month, "Just the Way You Are" became certified 21-times Platinum, making it the highest-certified single of all time.