Dead prez, the socio-political rap duo from Florida, has established their reputation with raw rhymes. So when Nas was putting together Untitled [click to read], his conceptual masterpiece album about the black experience in America, he knew who to call.

Even though Stic.man, half of dead prez, had a limited production resume that consisted mostly of group work and beats for other artists on their label, he and Nas meshed so well musically that three of the pair’s songs made it onto the album. In an interview with HipHopDX’s Producer’s Corner, Stic.man talks about the new dead presidents that Nas has to represent him.

HipHopDX: When did you first start producing?
Stic.man: I still consider myself a beginner producer. I’ve got such a high respect for what I consider producing that I know that I’m a beginner. All my life, since I got into Hip Hop—fifth grade, sixth grade—I’ve been listening to music and studying not just lyrics, but the sounds and the arrangements and things. I listen to a lot of Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones, because of the arrangements and the sound. To me, that’s a big part of being a producer is listening. Not just making music, but listening.

DX: As far as I’ve seen, you’ve only produced on your own records before all your songs on the Nas album. Had you done a lot of other work?
Stic.man: Yeah, I had. I did stuff for Erykah Badu, for some of our artists in our camp like the A-Alikes. I did a lot of shit over the 10-12 year period that we’ve been out. Big Pun, different little shit here and there. What I’m talking about isn’t really the industry, per se, about releasing records. … My boy Abu had an ASR-10. And I used to rap, but I didn’t make my beats. He said, “Why don’t you get in here and try to use the board?” I was like, “I don’t really make beats. I don’t know how to play keys or nothin’ like that.” But he’s like, “As an emcee, if you can figure your own sound, who can do that better than you?” He basically taught me to be one of those emcees who makes their beats, and that’s a culture in itself. There’s some great emcees that don’t touch equipment, and some great beatmakers who can’t write a day in their life. He introduced me to the idea of guys like Devin The Dude [click to view], who are producers as well as emcees. As far as my production credit, I feel like I’ve been getting my feet wet and building myself up to be able to release professional things to that degree.

A lot of time, people would say, “You’re a producer because you do stuff with dead prez.” I’m like, “Nah, I’m not a producer yet. I do beats so we can save money, but that doesn’t mean I’m running around thinking I’m some big producer. I’m just trying to rise to the occasion and do something decent enough so we can get the point across.” But in doing that, I had a lot of experience working with musicians, and being able to pull in different people to help out on different parts they’re skilled at. In that sense, I found that I have a real rapport with directing musicians to my vision. I play keys, I program drums and things like that, but I think it’s about putting in the right team members for a particular sound that you’re looking for, too. Knowing how to edit, knowing how to give direction. Like I said, I’m baby stepping.

DX: How did you start working with Nas for this album?
Stic.man: We knew Nas for a minute, [since when] we were on Columbia. This particular time, he just reached out. He actually reached out to M1 [click to read] and asked—I don’t even think he knew who did our beats. M1 hit me and said that Nas wanted us to come to the studio and hang out, write, produce, whatever, do some collab work. But he wasn’t real specific on what he wanted us to do, so I assumed he wanted us to rap on something. Just ‘cause that’s what people usually use our brand for, because of what we have to say.

So I went out to L.A. with my pad, ready to rap my ass off with one of my favorite emcees. [Laughs] He was totally like, “Yo, I want y’all to produce this. … Do y’all have any idea how you could develop this particular thought? … I want to get at Fox News, got any beats for that?” I found out over a few days that he wasn’t really interested in us rapping or being featured, but he wanted a sound and he wanted some help in conceptualizing his ideas. That’s pretty much what I do with dead prez, so M1 just sort of fell back, like, “Knock it out. Make the beats happen.” That’s pretty how we got into the mood. I ended up doing five or six things musically that he wanted for his record. I think he ended up choosing three. But it was good. He’d say, “Here’s a concept,” and we just started building on it. I’d play some tracks, I made some shit on the spot. Some stuff I produced, like the “Untitled” song, Nas hit me two days before his deadline. He said, “I need some shit about [Louis] Farrakhan. Hook me up with a track, nigga.” [Laughs] I did something that I felt, I wasn’t sure if he was going to fuck with it or not. I sent it to him, I hit him late that night, and he was like, “It’s done and mixed.” Before I even heard where he was going with it, it was mixed and ready to go. You know how industry shit goes, sometimes you don’t always [record music] in the same room at the same time. Continued on page 2 »