Stic.man and M1 — collectively known as the revolutionary Hip Hop group dead prez — sat down for an interview with the Juan EP Is Dead podcast where they talked to co-hosts Peter Rosenberg and Cipha about their massive single “Hip Hop (It’s Bigger Than)” and classic 2000 debut Let’s Get Free.
During the conversation, stic revealed Nipsey Hussle actually wanted to redo Let’s Get Free — with their blessing, of course.
“I had a conversation with Nipsey Hussle before he passed, maybe a year ago, actually a little bit before that,” stic said around the 26-minute mark. “He had just solidified his deal with Atlantic Records. I had met him before through a friend Zayd Malik. We got on a jet and had a talk, and he told me about what he had been trying to do up until that point as an independent artist, and how he wanted his situation to be with Atlantic, he had made certain personal goals so he could partner with them.
“He wanted to talk to me about his three album mission, which was to do Victory Lap, another album, and then his third one, which was his last final one he would owe Atlantic, and call it The Spook Who Sat by the Door and he told me he wanted to redo Let’s Get Free and wanted our permission. Right, to sample and redo it for what he called ‘his generation’ with all of the admiration he had for that record. We just had a heart-to-heart, back and forth, but obviously we didn’t get to go there. But I wanted to talk about the type of heart Nip had and where he was coming from, as it relates to that.”
M-1 then chimed in on how he felt the day he learned Nip had been murdered, saying, “It hit me hard man, the day he got shot, I had just landed in Cali for a boxing film I was a part of. As soon as I landed, it was blowing up on the phone. Where Nip was going with it man, is definitely in a lot of ways, tribally speaking, we were in the same space.”
Neighborhood Nip was shot and killed on March 31, 2019 outside of his Marathon Clothing store in South Central Los Angeles. Suspect Eric Holder was arrested three days later and is currently behind bars awaiting trial. While Nip never got to see the Let’s Get Free remake come to fruition, he released several impactful projects before his passing, including the Grammy Award-nominated album Victory Lap.
Bigger Than Hip Hop: How dead prez Is Improving The World
Earlier this month, Nipsey’s estate celebrated the 10-year anniversary of The Marathon with a special YouTube event called The Marathon Visual Album Experience. As the two-year anniversary of his death inches closer, fans can expect more from his team. According to All Money In rapper J Stone, a posthumous follow-up to Victory Lap is in the works.
“It’s gonna definitely be another Nip album,” he said during a December 2020 interview with Bootleg Kev. “But it’s All Money In, we ain’t gonna put out nothing Mickey or do it just because. Rest in peace in ‘Pac. If they would have held on to his music a little bit more, it would have been received different. But the music was still good and we needed it at that time. Nip has his brand and his image so strong and tight like, you can’t do the ‘Pac on him with the Makaveli 1, Makaveli 15.”
Well. I guess it’s too late for that now. Good lookin out Crip!
Dead Prez are the Kings of co-opting dead people’s legacy.
no he wasn’t but people will continue to fabricate his story to make him a big or pac, which he isnt even close.
Come on now. Nobody has tried to compare him to Biggie since they are very different artists. But even older cats in LA compare him to Tupac and many hold him in higher regards because he did a lot more for his community than most people’s top 5 rappers have done combined.
trash.. you section 8/rachet women are what wrong with blk community idolizing these lost rappers likes Niple hussle, xxxtanction, juice world…. when they was alive they was average at best. but since they was “street guys” you wanna talk about all the good they did, clowns
This article shoulda had someone in Husslez camp confirming this, no doubt this woulda been a Hussle smoke session conversation if he was gonna do it??
nipsey was rocking a malcolm x chain for a good minute he definitly had a revolutionary side to his perspective, even his hussle of buildin within his community was a strongly revolutionary act..if you have read the spook who sat by the door or watched the movie, it follows the revolutionary minded black man that infiltrates the fbi or us government…which is the perfect example of what nipsey sounded to be lookin to achieve by working to infiltrate the music industry and minds of the hood and streets of black america and then use his influence to introduce his revolutionary outlook from within the “machine” of the music industry, which does make perfect sense
I do however argue as much as nip wanted to reproduce another lets get free this would be a very difficult task as stic and m1 had put in so much work in the world of activism, education, real hard work in there community and buildin with some oldskool activist even to the point of living homeless on the street this is a dedication which is very much against the grain of the industry and just american lifestyle, very much easier said then done.
I do appreciate the fact that nipsey wanted to set such a high bar but I guess we will never know
I do however encourage any body keen to see what nipsey wanted to re-create I would suggest just goin to the source if you havent heard. Deadprez “Lets get Free” I strongly recommend checking it out and study exactly what they are saying use genius lyric to break down lyrics and concepts baring in mind this was recorded around year 2000, Stic and M1 were young and extremely militant at the time.