When news surfaced this week that
Nas had reportedly used rebel conscious duo
dead prez and fabled lyricist
Jay Electronica as ghostwriters for his politically-
charged 2008 album
Untitled (a.k.a. Nigger),
it was like the world had imploded. How could arguably hip-hop’s most
celebrated lyricist be exposed as a mere puppet. Indeed, veteran
journalist and
Jay-Z scribe
Dream Hampton and Frank William Miller Junior of the
Rappers I Know blog
co-signed the chatter, with Hampton even claiming to hear actual
reference tracks. Since then, both Jay and stic.man of dead prez have
vehemently refuted such talk. But there’s more to the story.
In an exclusive interview, VIBE caught up with stic.man to discuss
his and partner M1’s role in the making of Untitled. It’s an
illuminating interview that not only captures Nas as a fearless artist,
but also underlines hip-hop’s at times muddied view of what constitutes
as a producer. For stic, the message is clear. “We were the only three
in the studio,” he says of dead prez’ experience with recording with
Nas. “So it’s kind of like, well, who are all the people that are saying
how the record was created? They wasn’t even there.” Read on.
You dismissed all the talk about dead prez ghostwriting for Nas on
your Facebook page. Having produced and contributed to the chorus for
“Sly Fox,” what did you make of Dream Hampton’s comment that you did
ghostwriting for Nas?Stic Man: I don’t
know. At the end of the day, I just feel like the people who are saying
different things about the process of how that record was created I’m
wondering, where were you at? To be totally honest, me and M1 went to
Cali at the request of Nas. And we would be in the studio together
working on stuff with nobody else there except Nas, who would come in
and leave. I think people are making assumptions because of the content
of the record. It’s gone from the collaboratio
n that we did with
Nas, which involved producing, idea exchanging and writing hooks, which
is one thing, to us being ghostwriters
.
As a producer can you talk about how you approached your collaboration with Nas?
To me, ghostwriting
, as far as I know, is hiring somebody to write
words for you to actually say. That didn’t happen. The way we got hired
for Nas’ project wasn’t clear up front. M1 was in L.A. before I came to
L.A. and he was like, “Nas wants to bring you out here to work on this
project.” I remembered thinking we were just going to do a song
together. But I later found out we were there to work in general:
production, writing and ideas to help develop some of the songs on the
album. So of course I’m thinking, “It’s called the Nigger album so that
means you want dead prez type songs together, right?” But it was
revealed to me that Nas wasn’t looking for that. He didn’t want us to
rap. He wanted help with beats and concepts. And that surprised me
because I’m thinking, “You want beats??? Of all the people to make beats
for, you want us to make beats?” I was like, “Wow.”
So this wasn’t the typical guest spot?
No. To me we were there to make whatever contribution we wanted to make.
So I was like, “Shit…I’m playing beats, I’m coming up with some song
ideas…I’m going to do whatever.” And this is Nas, so I’m going to give
my best and give my all. Me and M started making dead prez songs in some
of those sessions because there wasn’t a clear direction of what Nas
wanted [laughs]. But later on Nas would come in and say, “I know I want
to do something that would get at FOX News.” And he would tell us, “Just
play me some shit…what ya’ll got?” We are talking about way beyond “Sly
Fox.” There was a moment he even expressed interest in signing dead
prez to his company. My impression was we were forming a team. That’s
how Nas presented it. But as far as the rumors, people are off-base.
They are all based on assumptions because of the content that we are
more [associated] with than what Nas does.
Can you talk about a specific instance of how a Nas/dead prez song came together?
Even some of the songs we gave input on, in terms of hooks and phrases,
it was Nas’ vision in terms of knowing what he wanted. He’s the one that
came up with the concept for FOX News. I would have said, “Fuck FOX
News…let’s do a song about something else.” [laughs] But this was a Nas
project, so that was the box we were put in terms of how he wanted us to
input. He wrote his verses. We just brainstormed about different
aspects of FOX News (“Sly Fox”). I work 24/7—so as soon as I knew that, I
started writing hooks just to present an idea. Because that’s what a
producer does.
Do you think the concept of producing in hip-hop equals—make a beat and give it to a rapper to rap over?
Yeah. But when I produce I compare it to producing a film…that was my
role on Untitled. That’s what I took away from the tracks that I worked
on. But Nas was the director. It was his vision on everything. My job
was simple: can you help make this happen whether it was music or
concepts. The only thing is they didn’t want [the standard] dead
prez/Nas collaboratio
n. They didn’t want to have me and M on the record with Nas. We were there as producers and collaborator
s.
So there was no period in time when Nas asked you to write a verse for him?
No. Take “We’re Not Alone.” That was a beat and hook that I already had
for dead prez’ Information Age album. But because it was Nas we just
felt, “Hey, man…let’s just give our best.” He happened to like “We’re
Not Alone” and he wrote verses from his own point of view of what that
song was about. My view of “We’re Not Alone” was about our connection to
the environment and each other. But Nas’ take on the song was
different—he was talking about aliens…he took it there. And that’s why I
say I was more of a producer than a director because I would have taken
that song to a different place.
In the end, what has this whole Nas “ghostwriting” talk taught you?
People don’t understand what [traditional
] producing is. I’m kind
of still like, “Wow.” I’m trying to understand what’s the big deal and
where it’s coming from. It’s weird. I’m like, “Hmmm…what’s going on
here?”
