Dead Prez flipped the script when their label pushed for a hit – they mocked mainstream rap with what became their biggest track, “Hip Hop.”
M-1 and stic.man opened up to Okayplayer about creating the song, as they celebrated 25 years of their 2000 album Let’s Get Free.
Around 31 minutes into the video, stic.man shared how the label’s request for a commercial single got under his skin, since they’d almost wrapped up Let’s Get Free.
“In my mind, at the time, that meant sell out, be pop,” he said. “I was like, ‘How could I throw that insult back sat the system for asking us that?'”
He explained that growing up in Florida, the most over-the-top characters were the “drug dealing dope boys” flexing with gold teeth and Buicks.
Stic.man added that while their bass-heavy sound was “obnoxious,” he knew “streets love this shit.”
“New York has no idea about this stuff,” he said. “I’m thinking this is gonna be like a funny parody or satire, making fun of it all.”
He couldn’t remember if he had the hook ready, but when stic laid down the track and M-1 and their crew rolled into the session, their reaction told him they’d struck gold.
“I’m sitting there thinking, ‘No way, this that this song is getting that much.’ It’s literally a baseline and drums–there nothing else in the whole song.”
M-1 chimed in that when they first heard it, the track was super basic, but stic saw it as just “a joke” or “a sketch.”
“But the way they responded, long story short, saved me from probably putting it in the trash,” stic added.
The track ended up being their take on how the music industry was treating rappers and turning hip-hop into a commodity at the time.
