Compton, California producer/rapper DJ Quik has been a force in hip-hop since the late 1980s, carving out a creative path that put him at or near the top of all lists when talking about the greatest music producers. With classic solo albums to his name such as Quik Is The Name (1990), Way 2 Fonky (1992), and Rhythm-al-ism (1998), Quik has solidified himself as one of the grand architects of West Coast hip-hop. Having also provided the sonic backdrops for several artists’ classics like 2Pac, Suga Free, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Tony! Toni! Toné!, The Luniz, and many more, Quik has done more in music than most people could ever dream of.
As a recent guest on CIE Fashion Magazine TV, the multi-platinum producer recounted the story of how the Truth Hurts song came together. Quik tells host Meechie Renee that the song was originally done with hip-hop legend MC Lyte, and even though Quik says Lyte nailed the song, he wasn’t quite sure how to finish it. After giving the track to Truth Hurts as a birthday gift, she let Dr. Dre hear it and the good Doctor soon reached out to Quik and had him come to the studio.
The resulting collaboration ended up with Truth Hurts, Rakim, Static Major, DJ Quik, and Dr. Dre creating a masterpiece and the lead single from Truth Hurts’ debut album, Truthfully Speaking in 2002. The song would be the only one to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 9, and selling over 600,000 copies in the US, before eventually having a $500 million lawsuit against Aftermath due to its sampling of “Thoda Resham Lagta Hai”, a 1981 song by Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar, not being cleared.
Check out the DJ Quik recounting the story of how “Addictive” was created below: