From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Swank Yanker

Miramar's Ralphige is a crank caller with the digits of Jay-Z, Paris Hilton and Michael Jackson.

by Colleen Dougher

June 19 2007

For a man with access to some of the biggest celebrities on the planet, Ralphige is a mystery. He refuses to reveal his real name and will disclose only that he's a 24-year-old Cuban-Brazilian business owner from Miramar, where he lives with his wife and their two kids. Reveal anything more than that, and Ralphige would risk having Hulk Hogan knocking on -- or more likely, knocking down -- his front door.

You see, Ralphige has become infamous for crank-calling unsuspecting stars such as Jay-Z, Method Man and Paris Hilton, each of whom he riles into a frenzy while recording the conversation. He releases these recordings to radio stations, on Web sites such as YouTube and on his own CDs, available at Ralphige.com. The results are often hysterical, though several of his celebrity victims may disagree.

So far, Ralphige has let only his friends, family and some co-workers in on his secret. But increasing attention from media outlets such as MTV News and the Los Angeles Times is making it difficult for his confidants to keep quiet.

"There were a couple of co-workers who knew and weren't supposed to tell anyone," he explains. "But once they saw the MTV article, I guess they couldn't resist. They told one person. Now, the whole place knows."

Ralphige worries that former friends may expose him by posting his photo online. In the meantime, he continues to harass celebrities, mostly rappers. "I love rap music, and [rappers' entourages] are probably the most disloyal," he says. "So they're the ones who contact me and say, 'Hey, get my artist, get my artist!' "

He currently receives about five phone numbers a day via e-mail. So far, he has called -- or "Ralphagized" -- about 50 celebrities, including Michael Jackson (who initially believed he was speaking with Akon), Patti LaBelle, Young Jeezy and Scott Storch.

While posing as someone else, Ralphige has offered his victims better jobs, accused them of accepting bribes and even claimed to be having sex with one's 17-year-old daughter. (That would be Hulk Hogan's daughter, Brooke.) Occasionally, he'll reveal the call as a prank -- news that some people take better than others.

Ralphige released his second CD of crank calls, Phone'kd, May 22, but the disc is now unavailable pending the resolution of some legal issues, including a cease and desist order Ralphige received relating to a Remy Ma recording he'd acquired and released online.

A lawyer Ralphige once consulted told him his approach was illegal, but the prankster isn't concerned with legal repercussions. "Unless I sell a million records, these people are probably not going to bother going after me legally," he boasts, "just because they're filthy rich already."

City Link recently spoke to Ralphige by phone.

Your first crank call resulted in the police coming to your house.

Yeah, I crank-called a car wash in Coral Gables. The name of the place is called The Wash. This was around the same time the movie The Wash came out with Snoop and Dr. Dre. I called the owner and pretended like I was one of the movie producers and told them we had people in his car wash all day long just watching how they operate and that we made the movie based on his car wash and said we wanted to give him a check, that we thought he deserved it. So I gave the guy my beeper number. The guy ended up beeping me every single day after that … "Hey the limo never came to pick me up." So I would have to make up an excuse every day, and every time he beeped me, he actually had cops in his house tracing the call. So one day, I'm at home; I had completely forgotten about it. The cops come and knock on my door. I get arrested and charged with stalking, harassing and obscene phone calls. I was kind of young back then, so I just wanted to make sure I didn't go to jail. I [pleaded] no contest, but if I would have known, I probably could have beat it.

Today, you mostly crank-call rappers but also record-label execs, wrestlers and Paris Hilton?

Yeah, I got Paris Hilton, Patti LaBelle, [Interscope Records co-chairman] Jimmy Iovine, [Street Records Corp. (SRC) CEO] Steve Rifkin and Hulk Hogan.

What are your criteria for pranking someone?

They have to have at least one platinum [album]. Everyone has to know them. They have to just be famous. There's an application that needs to be filled out, and then, you can be approved. [Laughs.]

Who was the first celebrity you crank-called?

It all started when I crank-called a rapper here from Miami. He's not that known yet, but he was on the cover of City Link: Garcia. [See sidebar.]

The first time you called him, he didn't fall for it, but the second time, he did.

I called him once. He knew right away it was me. He's like, "Hey, Ralphige, you're never going to get me; you're never going to get me." So two months later, I had a girl call him and start flirting with him. He was like, "Oh thank you, but I'm married. I like the fact that you're my fan, but it's not going to get any deeper than that." So I had her call, like, six times, just flirting with him, pretending to be a stalker. After the last phone call she had with him, I called him and basically started telling him, "What are you doing talking to my girlfriend?" It just went crazy from there. I told him I killed her and wanted him to help me bury the body.

What is your favorite crank call?

Scott Storch and Hulk Hogan. That's been my favorite crank call of all time. I think it's the best crank call ever throughout the whole history of crank calls. [Find it on YouTube by searching for "Ralphige."]

And your least-favorite crank call?

My worst was a crank call to Pharrell. I did it maybe a month or so ago. His aunt recently died, and from what I hear, he was really close to her. So I came up with the evil idea of calling and pretending to be a psychic and some kind of spiritual person. [I told Pharrell] I saw his aunt, and she gave me his phone number, wanting me to call and say she loves him and she's doing good, just shit like that. He started crying on the phone. I hope he can forgive me. I never told him it was a crank call. I tried calling him back, and he just wouldn't answer. I don't think I'll ever put out that call.

Whom did you piss off the most?

DJ Khaled. During the call, he was angry. If you mean afterward, I would say Scott Storch. But during the call, DJ Khaled was just flipping out, making threats and wanting to meet up and fight.

Tell us about that.

I called and told him I sent a CD to the radio station, that I sent him my CD with one of my singles along with $5,000 in cash and that the UPS tracking system said he received the money and the CD, but I hadn't heard my song on the radio. I said, "Hey you took my $5,000. Where the fuck is my song? How come you haven't played it?" He just started going crazy.

Did you tell him it was a prank?

Oh, yeah. He wouldn't pick up afterward, so I sent him a text message. Then, he was really cool. He called back. He was laughing it off. He was like, "You motherfuckers are crazy." So he was a good sport after he found out it was a prank. But during the prank, he would have ripped my head off.

Jay-Z got pretty angry with you.

The phone number I got was to his house. I guess he has that service where he won't accept any calls if the number is blocked. That was the biggest celebrity I had at the time. I said, "I'm going to get him; I don't care if he gets my address. I'm just going to make sure I don't threaten him or say anything that will get me arrested." So I call him and pretend to be the CEO of Universal Music, which is Doug Morris, and I offer Jay-Z a job to leave Def Jam and come work for me, and I will double his salary. He was really interested, ready to sit down and have lunch or dinner and discuss numbers and discuss the transition. I thought the call was getting a little boring, so I started ragging on Beyoncé and him and things like that. And then, I told him, "Hey this is just a prank. I'm going to use it on my CD." He goes, "No, you're not going to use it on your CD. Give me a second." He put me on hold for, like, 30 seconds and he came back on the line with my address. So right there, I said, "Right, no problem. You don't want me to use it, I won't use it. Don't worry about it. It's getting deleted right now." That was the end of it.

Has anyone pranked you?

Yeah, I get phone calls all the time. They usually don't try to prank me. What they do is just rehearse lines that I say during a prank, so I'll just pick up the phone and hear, "I'm Gregory the Gregster" or things I say during my pranks. That's about as close as it gets.

Whom have you kept on the phone the longest? The Michael Jackson call was pretty long.

Yeah, that was pretty long. I think it was, like, nine minutes. One of the longest calls was to Ted Lucas, the CEO of Slip-N-Slide Records. He [handles] Trick Daddy, Rick Ross. He had just won a $9 million lawsuit against TVT over some Pitbull recordings, so I called pretending that Lil Jon sent me to kill him. And he's just saying prayers for me over the phone: "That's the devil, my son. You don't have to do that; that's the devil. I'm going to say a prayer, which is going to free you from the demons. You need to drink the blood of Jesus."

Have you ever met the people you've crank-called?

Oh yeah, I've been to plenty of parties and run into all of them. I'll never let them know I'm the bastard who crank-called them. I just pretend to be, like, a regular person who admires their work and say, "Hey good job, I love what you do" and keep it moving. That's about it.

Have you ever overheard people talking about Ralphige and they didn't know it was you?

Just recently, actually. I was at Taco Bell. I'm at the register and I'm ordering food, and there's these two kids just sitting down eating and they're talking about the crank calls. I sit next to them and start eating, just to listen to everything they're saying, and thinking in the back of my head, "Wow they're talking about me."

Is there a celebrity you've always wanted to prank but couldn't?

I would say I'm really after 50 Cent's phone number right now. That's about it. I mean, a lot of people keep asking about George Bush. I don't really want to prank him. I think he pranks himself all the time. But I'm definitely after 50 Cent's now. His number should come through soon.