The Real Hip-Hop

Two years after the release of “Pookey: Stik Figa Finds Himself…” Stik Figa and DJ Sean P reunited for another album called “A Small Fortune.” Stik, originally from Topeka, KS, in true Midwestern fashion spits pensive poems over music inspired by the East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and South.

A Small Fortune is a 10-track album produced entirely by DJ Sean P. The project comes to us courtesy of TWLVS Studio and features appearances from Oddisee, Str8jakkett, Radio Na-Im, Feezi Cash, and Booga Bang.

Stik Figa spoke to the Real Hip-Hop about learning to give energy to positive things, possibly closing up shop on Hip-Hop, and his new album with DJ Sean P, A Small Fortune.

TRHH: What’s the meaning behind the title of the album A Small Fortune?

Stik Figa: I named the album A Small Fortune because as an independent artist who is aging and doesn’t have a ton of mainstream press or visibility I wanted to redirect my goals a little bit and focus on the people that still tune in. And focus on gratitude in a way. Even though it’s small or even though it’s not a ton of people and I’m not Jay-Z or Drake or whoever, I still have things to be appreciative of, so, I named it that. And that’s why a lot of the focus on the project is on the things that I find valuable, which is being able to create the way that I do and still have people who check for it, no matter how many of them it is. So, that’s what led to that title.

TRHH: How would you compare this album to Pookey?

Stik Figa: Pookey was way more personal. Pookey was more about a specific story about myself and trying to communicate that throughout the record. Like, this is what my adolescence was like, these were the things that were shaping the way that I saw the world and the way I colored the world, as small as that was at that time. This record, I had a discussion with Sean P about what sort of sound we wanted to go with.

I wanted to find a way to meld some of the influences that I have from the local music scene in the Kansas City area with traditional Hip-Hop. Even though there is still messaging and things like that there, just focusing on something that could play, whether it’s in your headphones or in your car. So, those were the main differences where it’s less story driven and more sonically trying to create an atmosphere in a world.

TRHH: You have a song called “Working Class” where you say, “Everything I gave my energy to became true.” This could apply to negative and positive energy. How long have you had that mindset that putting your energy toward something allows it to come to life?

Stik Figa: 1000, yes. Because I did it with things that were negative and then I took inventory on some of that and was like, “Whoa, you spoke this, you made this happen.” Whether you realize it or not you had something to do with the direction that you ended up in. So, I think I’m wired kind of pessimistic, so, it’s been like an active goal of mine to work towards thinking more positively. There’s so much we see in the world that can jade you, that can make you feel like it’s hopeless, and I’ve succumbed to that. I’m not above it. I have this thing about motivational speakers and things like that where I just kind of get repelled to it because I think they’re just trying to sell me on something, and that’s part of my defense for that kind of stuff.

I had to tell myself the opposite can be true, everything is not negativity. It’s hard, but it’s work because there’s so much to the contrary that you see all the time. That’s the good point of that record because Radio has a verse on there as well and he’s talking about how you just got to focus on the right things. Even if your reality is something else if you can align your focus with things that are positive you get a lot more out of it. No one says it’s going to be perfect — it’s not going to be, but it’ll be more ideal than when you focus on the negative stuff. That’s what that was about.

TRHH: On the second part of “Cold Train” you say “We all feel pain, it’s better we don’t nurse it.” Explain that line.

Stik Figa: This is kind of like the idea of relativity, right. We all suffer because it’s part of the human experience and it’s unavoidable for most of us. Even those who have more materially or otherwise, even though they don’t share it there’s some form of suffering that they’re experiencing. I think it’s been easy for me to focus on mine like it’s unique or the pain that I’m experiencing is unique. But what I learned was if I didn’t feed it, if I didn’t give it so much space that I operated better as a person. The pain is real — it’s not neutral, it’s happening. Just growing to re-framing things that are happening in my life as opposed to saying “this is happening to me” or I’ve been selected to experience this particular sort of suffering and pain.

That’s what that line means for me. I don’t wanna sit there and give it too much, I just wanna just let it be what it is. There’s like a simpler more cliché way of saying “sometimes the only way is through.” Any sort of rehabilitation is through, you’re going to have to work through pain, there’s no getting around it to heal, and to change, and to grow. All of those are painful processes and I try to pass that on to my kids too like, “Sometimes you want to be able to circumvent negative things, but there are going to be some things in life where it’s just the only way is directly through it.” So, that’s what that’s about.

TRHH: You have a line on the song “$elf Made” where you say, “Stand up guys be the ones y’all despise.” That could apply to Hip-Hop, politics, religion, or relationships. Why do you believe stand up guys are despised, in general, and in rap music?

Stik Figa: Because there is a lot of projection going on. People take offense to people who they feel are doing things that they could do if they hadn’t cut crooked, as it’s been said, or who haven’t cut a corner. When I say “stand-up” I mean we’re not talking about a perfect person, but we’re talking about a person who is generally trying to stick to the script. Like on the ground level street guys. You have some street guys who will say, “I did what I had to do, I was in a tough situation, so, I did the unlawful thing.”

You also have people who are doing the unlawful thing because it’s an easier choice. They could be in close proximity with somebody from the same set of circumstances and be resentful of the fact like, “What are you doing? You going to class? You ain’t cutting class? What’s that about?” And it’s not even a judgmental thing, it’s a thing of “I know what that is.” That feeling is that insecurity of like, “Man I’m coming up short a little bit here. I could be doing better than I’m doing. I want to put some distance between me and you.”

That’s a lot of what I think we’re seeing like you said in politics, in sports, whatever it is. We won’t even go deep into policy, let’s say this man Trump, he talks all this moral stuff but he uses strong language towards women, he was sleeping with a porn star, he got people pregnant during his marriage, so on and so forth. Most people would say that behavior is abhorrent, but to his supporters if you bring any of that to them they’ll say, “Are you so perfect? Are you so good? Are you so right?” It’s like, I don’t do ‘that’ [laughs]!

I haven’t done that particular thing, and got on stage and said these things, and behaved this poorly. So, there’s something happening in the minds of people and I think it’s just a projection that people know they could be doing better. And it’s some guilt too, like, “I could be doing something different, but I’m not doing it.” People aren’t honest about it, so, it inverts. This is my personal belief on why that happens. There’s a lot of projection going on.

TRHH: Without going on a tangent, those same people that support Donald Trump and think he’s a moral person despise Barack Obama.

Stik Figa: The irony, right?

TRHH: Yes. He was a bad guy to them. He’s a guy with one wife and two kids by the same woman. He’s an educated guy — he’s a lawyer, he was a Senator. He was qualified, they tried to say he wasn’t, but they think a game show host is qualified.

Stik Figa: [Laughs] There it is. A very structured family. All the things you could be!

TRHH: None of it makes sense.

Stik Figa: And it’s not sitting on strong ground. The foundation is not very strong. If the discussion is about Christian values and the way that Americans should be behaving and all of that, you would have never put that guy in that position. If that was truly what your concern was.

TRHH: You’re correct, but I know more than one Christian who voted for him because they said he’s a Christian.

Stik Figa: Which there’s no even evidence of that.

TRHH: None. Zero. On the album you touch on Common’s classic “I Used to Love H.E.R.” on a song called “Estranged.” On that song you mention how immature Hip-Hop is at over 50-years old. That part hit me. If Hip-Hop really were a woman she’s literally doing worse in life as she gets older. Is there a way to get her back on track or is she too far gone?

Stik Figa: That’s the question that we asked on the record. The guest artist on there, my man Str8jakkett, shout out to him, he’s my senior. He’s an older guy from my town, and when I thought about the idea for the record I was listening to I Used to Love H.E.R. I’m a big Common fan and what I remember about that record was kind of to the same other point, how mad it made Ice Cube and a bunch of other artists where they ended up beefing and the whole thing. I used to love Ice Cube — he was one of my first favorite rappers, and I remember thinking like, “Well, I think they both kind of have a point.”

At that stage in 1993 I think it was worthier of debate. Now it’s 2025 and the level of nihilism and indifference from the art is just glaring at this point because of where it started versus where we are. When I asked my man to do the idea he cut straight to it. He’s somebody who’s been a purveyor of the foundational way we thought Hip-Hop was supposed to be. His indignant delivery on that is coming from a real place.

I’m of two opinions; I’m of one opinion that says maybe we should just stop calling it that. The kids have it now and they’re doing what they can do with what’s left, let that be something else. I’m also of the opinion of like, maybe it’s time to close up shop. Maybe we’ve already hit the peak? I think it happens to all genres.

Some people say the best of the Hip-Hop genre was in the 90s, right? So, if it never gets better than that and we’re only just doing a facsimile at a 90s, that’s some of my pessimism popping back out [laughs], maybe we’re done here? Maybe we’ve hit the max. They say jazz hit its best in the Fusion era, like the 60s or 70s. Some people feel that way.

TRHH: I’ll use the Stevie Wonder analogy. Stevie Wonder in the 70s was a beast!

Stik Figa: Still untouched in my personal opinion.

TRHH: Yeah, but he kind of dipped in the 80s. He made some corny stuff in the 80s and I love Stevie. I went and saw him November or December. It’s my second time seeing him — he’s amazing. But I don’t want to hear “I Just Called to Say I Love You.”

Stik Figa: If you’re a real Stevie fan you don’t.

TRHH: I don’t want to hear that. That doesn’t take away from his overall body of work. So, yeah he’s not at his peak. He wasn’t at his peak 35 years ago, but he’s still Stevie. That’s kind of how I look at Hip-Hop. Everybody says the peak was the 90s, I’m older than you, to me it was the 80s.

Stik Figa: 80s, okay.

TRHH: For me 88 to 91 was like everything to me, maybe 92ish. But 88-89 was just mean! If you go back and look at the albums that came out then, they were genre changing albums. So, can we ever re-live that? It’s not possible. But there’s still people like you.

Stik Figa: Trying. I’m just trying. That’s the thing about me. I’m so aware of how great the music is as somebody who just researches. I couldn’t be there, I was born in 82, so, I was there as a child. But my dad played The Great Adventures of Slick Rick constantly. I still listen to that record and I’m like, “This is too good!” I don’t know how you make a record that good from that long ago. My thing is always like, less technology and less information about how to make popular music. Because in the 80s it was so new. I still love this record.

TRHH: It’s the definition of a classic. It’s so good and Ricky does not get the credit he deserves for being, to me, the greatest storyteller of all-time.

Stik Figa: I promise! I’m a Slick Rick truther. And then he popped back up on that Mos Def record with a guess feature on The Ecstatic. It doesn’t make any sense how he’s still so good.

TRHH: What do you hope to achieve with A Small Fortune?

Stik Figa: I hope the same thing I hope for all my projects, that if it’s your first time hearing it and you love it, you tell somebody about it. If you hate it, you tell somebody about it [laughs]. If it’s average, you probably won’t say anything. But that’s what I always hope for — just to keep creating a clearer picture of how I see the genre and what I hope to contribute to it. Sincerely, every time that’s my only goal. I’m trying to add my view and give something back to what was given to me.

I always say I want to synthesize my influences. I don’t want to steal, and I don’t want to bite. I want to synthesize the things that I like and put it through the filter of my viewpoint, and put that out in the world and share it with folks. That’s all I can ask for at this point. That’s all I can ask for. If you heard it, tell somebody, spin it a lot, and I hope you like some of it — at least some of it.

Purchase Stik Figa & DJ Sean P – A Small Fortune