Photo courtesy of Sean Patrick
Lauded lyricist Stik Figa teamed up with producer Heather Grey for one of 2026’s best albums titled “Cold Comfort.” The duo created a concise piece of art containing contemplative lyrics over chopped soulful samples. The release touches on topics such as faith, morality, and remaining true to oneself while being unabashedly boom bap.
Cold Comfort is a 10-track album produced entirely by Heather Grey. The projects come to us courtesy of Mello Music Group and features appearances by Asher Roth, Sleep Sinatra, Defcee, Grvnola, and Blu.
Stik Figa conversed with The Real Hip-Hop about why our society is apathetic, feeling underappreciated as an artist, working with Heather Grey, and their new album, Cold Comfort.
TRHH: Why’d you call the new album Cold Comfort?
Stik Figa: The album was called Cold Comfort because of the idiom itself. It means, to get the comfort that you don’t necessarily want to hear. So, I was thinking about just being an older artist, but being a consistent artist and not necessarily being recognized in the way of some of my peers. It’s nice to have people checking out what I’m doing, but at the same time, I’ve been at it a while and I at times feel underappreciated. So, that was the heart of the idea of the record.
TRHH: Why do you think you’re underappreciated?
Stik Figa: A number of factors. Some in my control, some out of my control. I think the primary thing was it’s a crowded space. It’s a crowded space and the type of music that I make seems very specific for a specific audience, and everyone’s not always receptive to that. So, the comfort part is I’m comfortable knowing that I’m making the music that I want to make and it’s getting to the people that that have an interest in what I’m doing. But the cold part is, that it may not reach a swath of people. But I’m comfortable with that. That’s what the idea was.
TRHH: How long did it take you to get comfortable with that?
Stik Figa: Ooh, a good question. It’s probably been in the last five years. In the last five years, I’ve kind of come to peace with that. I had a partner that I made a lot of records with, Conductor Williams and he’s kind of taken off. I’ll admit there was a part of me that was like, “How am I not included in that?” Or associated acts — guys who make similar boom bap type records or whatever. I sometimes kind of just get missed in that. Lately, like I said, in the last five years, I’ve come to accept guys like yourself taking an interest in having a conversation with me. There was another piece that was done on Bandcamp. And it’s really just become a thing of a matter of focus. Keeping my eyes on own paper, not looking at everybody else’s stuff that’s going on.
TRHH: So, how’d you and Heather Grey get together and decide to do this album?
Stik Figa: This came together because of Sleep Sinatra. They had done a collaboration and I was featured on that project. And Sleep Sinatra said, “Man, you’ve got to reach out to Heather. He’s active and he’s working. I think it will be a really dope project.” And we talked about that. He sent me a bunch of beats for me to kind of live with. And yeah, it came together pretty naturally and pretty quickly.
TRHH: On the song “All is Fair” you have lyric where you say “Nobody asking why apathy metastasized.” Explain that line.
Stik Figa: We’re kind of in a culture right now where we’re watching things kind of fall apart, whether it’s democracy, whether it’s just interpersonal relationships. Just kind of an observation I’ve made is that people aren’t necessarily riotous or completely angry in the ways that you would expect when you look at how crazy things are. I think that’s a question that needs to be asked. How did apathy become the general consensus as opposed to more emotional investment? Whether that’s like in your community or on a national scale, things that we see, or things we internalize and take in. It just made me wanna put it on paper and ask that question. How did apathy become the status quo?
TRHH: That’s something I’ve thought about a lot too. I think we feel helpless. There’s nothing we can do. Either somebody said to me or I heard it somewhere, that if the shit that’s happening in America was happening in France, they would burn down the fucking streets. They would tear shit up.
Stik Figa: That’s where the thought came from, literally that! I was watching the news and I was seeing how the French were taking to the streets and heading toward their parliament and making that move as a group. And I’m like, we just watched them have a UFC fight on the front lawn of that White House. Nobody seems to be alarmed.
TRHH: We all think it’s stupid, but what are we gonna do about it? But this is how fascism starts. This is how we become, you know, North Korea or whatever. Nobody says anything. We just accept everything.
Stik Figa: Just take it as it comes, I guess. If that’s the feeling, like you said, you’re putting your finger on something, hopelessness. Like that’s something worth discussing. Where does that feeling come from? And when I thought about it that way, I thought about it on a local level, like when you live in your community and things are happening and they upset you but you only feel like there’s so much you can do, apathy takes root. That’s what that was about, All is Fair.
That’s kind of about the juxtaposition of the trope of ‘life’s a game’ or ‘chess not checkers.’ I thought about it like well, what’s one of the most generic things, but how can I like flip it and make it something just a layer or two deeper? If you thought about it on that level. So, yeah, it’s like, all is fair in love and war. It’s more of a question than an answer. Have we been lulled to sleep? Have we been rocked to sleep? Have we been put in this gamified situation to the point where we’re realizing how serious it is?
TRHH: On “Floodwaters Run Deep” you say, “If it’s a hell below, we can’t tell the difference/The truth will set you free, but niggas find God in prison.” That is deep on multiple levels. Why do you think people find God in prison and also what’s your opinion on the 5% belief that hell is not a place where you burn for eternity, it’s a state of living on earth?
Stik Figa: I think there is room for an idea of how allegory works. I think humans wrote an idea of an emotion that extends and kind of transcends across these experiences that we have as humans. So, I always thought it was ironic that people would say, “this is hell on earth.” Or even people would say, “some people are having their heaven now.” But when a convict, somebody who was in the streets, was living as if there were no consequences they find themselves in a situation behind the wall, at least it’s been my experience, anecdotally, a guy who never thought about the concept of a God or the repercussions of these things, they get behind the wall, it’s like they are the most devout version of whatever faith they attach themselves.
Whether it’s Islam, Christianity, Five Percent, whatever it is, they take it to the extreme. And it made me ask myself, well, what is it about our freedom that makes us miss it and behave a certain way on this earthly plane, or this freedom that we have out in the world, that allows you to say, that’s not an important part right now? But you get that time in the can and it’s like, this is where it was the whole time. It’s just an interesting psychological thing to me.
TRHH: It is, but I think it’s rock bottom. I don’t think it’s just prison. People with freedom, if they hit rock bottom, they will find God.
Stik Figa: [Laughs].
TRHH: You know what I mean? Like, if people are going through financial issues, or health issues, or something really heavy, that’s usually when it happens. We all get acquainted with God at some point. If you follow through or not is the issue.
Stik Figa: There you go. There you go. That’s it. I always appreciate talking to you because you really be listening to my records, so, I appreciate that, for real [laughs]. But yeah, that was like the whole idea, that all of us have some sort of familiarity with some sort of religious concepts. But the level of investment changes depending on the situation. So, like, that’s like the most important lyric of the song, “If there’s a hell below, I can’t tell the difference, but man, niggas will find God in the joint.” We go run around doing it all.
In my living experience, your grandmother told you all the stuff you were not supposed to do. She quoted scripture to you. The elders in your community all did, whether they were living by it or not was another thing. But even the junkie in your neighborhood knew a couple of scriptures in the book and would try to tell you, “Don’t do X, Y, and Z, youngster.” But it’s not until you get a real sentence for whatever.
I got a buddy in particular that’s devout who will call me now and just be like, “Yeah, man, I’m jumping in the word. You know it says this and it says that.” It’s like, whoa, this dude was terrifying on the street [laughs]! I don’t know what he’s like behind the wall, but when he’s talking to me, he’s meek. He’s trying to give me lectures on ways to live, and look out for your kid, look out for your son.
“How many kids you got. How many baby mamas? Oh, you ain’t got no baby mamas? That’s good, brother. That’s good.” It’s like when you was out here with all that you could have, with all of the options, maybe you didn’t feel like you had certain choices, but the rest of us were looking like, I think you got a few options other than what you do. It just doesn’t click until, year ten in a twenty-five-year sentence. So, that’s what that was about.
And then just kind of the overarching thing too, again, the other layer is the Noah story in the Bible. It says that while Noah was building the ark, everyone was joking. And it was this a waste of time, nothing’s gonna happen, it’s just raining. You know, so that’s what that’s was about. It’s like you had the people around you telling you X, Y, and Z, and you didn’t want to hear it. And when it started raining, we’re having a different discussion suddenly [laughs]. You know?
And then another layer is the political climate. People had said years, years, and years in the past the danger of racism and how it affects more than just us. How it affects white people, and how it makes them dull, and how it makes them not pay attention to how it will affect them in the future. And then it comes home to roost in the current administration.
There’s always a warning. There’s always a conversation. There’s always academics and people writing books and all this stuff is happening. It don’t count ‘till the water starts coming. A little precipitation [laughs]! Like you said earlier, like this looks a lot like fascism, don’t it? A song about warnings and how long should you wait until you take heed.
TRHH: On the chorus of the song “Joyride” you say “We ride for nothing, slide for nothing.” I can’t help but think about how little we value life as a society. We tend to focus on black on black crime, but it goes beyond that. You talk about apathy, we see the indifference every time there’s a school shooting. It’s like it’s nothing. Babies being killed is just another thing. Do you think it’s possible to shift our culture in a way where we value the lives of others?
Stik Figa: I hope so. The thing about Joyride was there’s an E-40 song called “Practice Lookin’ Hard.” It was one of my favorite songs when I was younger. If people go watch that video there’s a 2Pac appearance, Boots Riley from The Coup, Mac Mall, a lot of guys from the Bay. But the thing about the song was I just always thought that phrasing was interesting, “practice looking hard.” ‘Cause that would say that it doesn’t come natural. It’s something that happens, it’s a process.
So, with Joyride, I was thinking about again, guys I grew up with when we were like kids who played with He-Man toys, we played tether-ball, we played hop scotch, whatever. And it’s like somewhere down the line the adaptation, the socialization, the desensitizing takes place. And somehow, I kept my sensitivity, which I think is the reason I write, and I’m a writer, and I make music, and I do art, because it’s like I’m still feeling things.
On a personal note, an uncle of mine was just murdered. He was fifty-seven. He was in a small town called McGehee, Arkansas. The people who did it were ages 13 and 15. Broke in his home, stole like five dollars’ worth of change. After I got past being angry about it, I was just like, what happened to a child that could do that to an old man? You know?
And I’m sure it’s always been bad. You know, I have my own biases, but I don’t remember it being that bad. ‘Cause it’s like this grading scale of toughness growing up. We used to hear this thing about no women, no children. I don’t know if it was ever true [laughs]. But it’s not even part of the conversation anymore. There’s no thought.
TRHH: No rules. Man, that breaks my heart, man. I’m so sorry to hear about your uncle.
Stik Figa: Yeah, man. Uncle Michael Ray Keyes. But when I wrote that record, it was actually about the conversation I was having with some of my young nephews and stuff, guys who are in the street. And I asked one time, “I know there have been losses and this has happened and that has happened, but what’s it gonna take for y’all to just like…” The way they looked at me it was like a realization that I’m an older guy. They looking at me like, “Man, he ain’t never killed nothing. He can’t even talk to me. We can’t even have that conversation, with you.” And it was just disheartening.
To circle back to what you were saying earlier, hopeless. You don’t know what you can do. You could throw money at it, send older guys at it. I don’t know if I’m right or wrong, I just sometimes I feel like only the youth actually know the answer. Somebody within that group who can actually tell us what needs to happen, so that some thirteen, fifteen-year-old don’t break into a small apartment complex and steal a jar full of coins and kill a man. Throw your life away for it. You know, you’re getting a capital murder on your first try. Thirteen? So, shit is heavy. Very, very heavy. Very heavy.
TRHH: Very heavy. Last question, man, what do you want people to take away from Cold Comfort?
Stik Figa: Meditation on the current experience. You know, it’s really just a snapshot into what I was experiencing, things that were going on back home in Topeka, Kansas, or Memphis, Tennessee, the places that I frequent. And just hopefully you see some of your own thoughts in it. I really like these questions because that’s the way that I like people to interact with it. Ask yourself, is there something here that you agree with or if you had similar experiences and share them with people. Share the music with people and talk about it.
Purchase: Stik Figa & Heather Grey – Cold Comfort