DJ Quik Paranoid Over YG Dispute: “It’s Changed The Way I Do Business”
Veteran producer DJ Quik caused a scene when he threatened to sue YG and Stampede Management for failing to give him credit on “My N***a” on Sunday (August 7).
In an exclusive interview with Billboard, the Compton hitmaker, who has produced hits for the likes of West Coast heroes Tupac and Snoop Dogg, clarified his series of now deleted tweets aimed at the Still Brazy rapper.
Quik reveals that he’s responsible for fixing what was initially a “muddy” record. “I pull the song up, clean it all up, put it through that SSL board — SSL is one of the best recording systems ever. I made it really dynamic, cleaned it, did all the little stuff that needed to be done,” he said of the certified platinum hit.
Although someone else blended the final track, Quik says it’s hard to deny how he transformed the song into what it is today. “I took the time to give it the same treatment that we did with [2Pac’s] All Eyez On Me, the same treatment I did with [my album] Safe + Sound,” he continued. “I’ve spent a lot of money and a lot of years and worked under the tutelage of a lot of great producers just to learn those chops. Just to be giving them away for free because I’m not relevant anymore or because somebody wants to be a d**k and give somebody else my credit because maybe there’s a kickback involved? I don’t think that’s the way to do business.”
Quik didn’t address why he is revisiting the dispute in 2016, three years after “My N***a” debuted to critical acclaim, but he made it known that it has certainly changed the way he moves in the studio. “I’m not even angry about it anymore. I’m paranoid,” he admitted. He later added, “It’s changed the way I do business. I’m like a professor. I really know sound, if nothing else. I’m not walking up into a studio [from now on] without letters of intent being signed.”
