It started in a smoky trap house in East Oakland, teens banging on a table, freestyling about scrounging up enough cash to buy a twenty sack.
A chant: “I got five on it.”
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What happened next was part accident, part alchemy. That beat, that hook, a young rap duo repping Oakland coming together to create one of the most iconic West Coast rap singles of the ’90s. Now 30 years later, Luniz’s “I Got 5 On It” featuring R&B singer Michael Marshall remains a timeless weed anthem, a pop culture staple, and the unexpected horror soundtrack for Jordan Peele’s movie Us. But the story behind the song is more twisty than its perfect hook, unfolding kind of like a rolling paper in the wind—never where you thought it’d go.
Luniz themselves were barely out of high school when they released their debut album Operation Stackola on July 4, 1995, tapping producer Tone Capone, who went on to mint a number of Bay Area classics, including Celly Cel’s “It’s Goin’ Down” and Mac Dre’s “Not My Job.” “I Got 5 On It (feat. Michael Marshall)” peaked at No. 8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and No. 2 on Billboard Hot Rap Songs. And while Luniz’s sophomore follow-up, Lunitik Muzik, in 1997 did not chart as high, it drew the likes of E-40, DJ Quik, Raphael Saddiq, Redman, and Quincy Jones III (QDIII)—a testament to the duo’s staying power in the ’90s.
Then there’s the crooner, Michael Marshall, featured on “I Got 5 On It.” In an alternate timeline, Michael Marshall would have continued to soar as the Bay Area’s Nate Dogg and even has the same gospel origin story. Instead, Marshall is mostly a hip-hop footnote, though he has worked to get his due, getting credits for the song on Us and even appearing and singing in indie darling film The Last Black Man in San Francisco. What Marshall wants you to know is that he wasn’t just a hookman on one of the biggest rap records of all time, but also laid down the original 1986 R&B sample for the song—though most critics only draw a direct line to a Club Nouveau track released around the same time. “‘Why You Treat Me So Bad?’ That’s from a song that I did called ‘Thinking About You,’” Marshall told me. But we’ll get into all of this later.
To celebrate 30 years, we spoke with the artists behind “I Got 5 On It (feat. Michael Marshall)”: Yukmouth of Luniz, producer Tone Capone, and singer Michael Marshall to get the full story behind the ’90s classic.
“We turned a dope deal into a record deal”
Yukmouth (Luniz MC): I was raised in East Oakland. In junior high school, I linked with Num [Numskull] and we started rapping. He had this group called Brothers With Potential. We was rapping since the eighth grade with a few other brothers. Me and Num were best friends. Once we left high school, everyone kind of separated but we stayed together hustling. When I was in jail for a year, that’s when I came up with the concept of the LuniTunes, which later became Luniz. This was 1992. Once I came out, we hit the block freestyling, traveling from school to school battling on the bus just trying to get our name out there. That was basically the come-up before we got our deal.
We were looking up to [MC] Hammer, Too Short, of course. New York had a big influence on us: Kool G Rap, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane. It started from there and then got influenced by gangsta hip-hop with storytelling. That definitely comes from Ice Cube, NWA, Scarface, and Geto Boys.
So here we are with a new plan, with the Luniz and whatnot, but it didn’t work quick at all. So we went back to hustling. We got plugged in with an individual that was down with [Too Short’s] Dangerous Crew. I noticed a dude that was in Too Short’s videos, Baby Jesus [Al “Baby Jesus” Eaton]. I told him “Yeah, we rap. We the LuniTunes.” So we was at Dangerous Studios the next day rapping against Rappin’ Ron and Bad-N-Fluenz trying to earn our stripes in front of everyone. We held it down. From then on at the end of ’92 and the beginning of ’93, we was in the studio with Dru Down finishing up his album. We gave up songs that were supposed to be for our own album, like “Ice Cream Man.” It’s called paying your dues. But that’s how we got signed, man. We turned a dope deal into a record deal.
The beginnings of a weed anthem
Yukmouth: After Dru’s album was done, we started getting deal offers and whatnot. So we wanted to put out a mixtape before our own album. The first song we did was “5 On It” but we put that to the side while we finished up the mixtape. We had it tucked in ’93 and then released it in ’95 on our album. From the rip, me and Num was in one of C&H’s trap houses/[chill] spot where we write rhymes, smoke, and chill.
We at the spot and Num came up with the idea. He’s like “Everybody talking about smoking weed on their songs, but nobody talking about what it takes to get weed.” We young at this time, 18 to 19 years old. As youngsters, we used to have to pitch in: two people pitch in five and you get a ten sack, four people pitch in five, you get a twenty sack. That’s how the junior high schoolers and high schoolers was doing it. Num was like “man, let’s make a song called ‘I Got 5 On It.’” We just started freestyling and beating on the table. We didn’t even have a beat. We wrote the whole song without a beat. Next day, we go to Tone Capone’s studios. Everybody’s doing a remake, so I come up with the idea to do Club Nouveau’s “Why You Treat Me So Bad.” Everybody used “Rumors” but no one used this.
Lacing a beat
Tone Capone (producer): I spent a lot of the late ’80s hustling and trying to get the SP-1200 drum machine. I think in 1990, I finally got the cash to buy it. But right when I bought it, I got busted. They put me on probation and I stopped the hustling for a while and went straight to making beats and learning how to use that drum machine. Around that time, Bobby Beats, who is Money-B’s dad [From Digital Underground] and a Black Panther, discovered me and said he would manage me.
I ended up working with my boy Kenny Ortiz who asked me to do something with Brian Alexander Morgan on SWV’s album. My name is DJG on that. I didn’t come up with Tone Capone until ’92 or ’93.
For Dru Down, I knew Chris Hicks from the streets; he was a friend of mine and told me he had this group called the Luniz he was managing. So we all started working together. Another friend of mine who used to work at Priority Records and did promotion for NWA and Ice Cube, Eric Brooks, had heard some of my beats from back in the day. He said, “Hey man, when I get my deal, I’mma come see you. Be ready.” Brooks got a deal with Virgin. I showed him the stuff I did with Dru Down and sent him the full Fools From the Streets album. He’s like “I like that, I like that. But who are the two young dudes on there rapping? I like them.”
Yukmouth: So me and Num go to the record store on the way to Tone’s studio in North Oakland, pick up “Why You Treat Me So Bad?” and present it to Tone, like “We want you to remix this.” We freaked that beat and killed it. So we lay our rhymes and I lay the hook, which is the “5 On It” hook you hear now, but it’s not sung, it’s just me chanting it. Boom. We leave the studio and come back two days later and Tone says he has the surprise. He plays it and it’s Mike Marshall singing the chorus instead of me chanting it. It sounds 1,000 times better.
Why you treat me so bad?
Michael Marshall (singer): I was born in Berkeley, California, in 1965. Raised in Berkeley and Richmond. My mom was a gospel singer. So I started out singing gospel and then singing with a group of friends in high school. We were just trying to make songs, messing around at first. I created a group called Timex Social Club. There’s no other name.
When the kids [Luniz] came with that idea, Tone was going to try to take that opportunity to help me get publishing on music that I wasn’t getting publishing on before that. Club Nouveau took my idea for “Why You Treat Me So Bad?” That’s from a song that I did called “Thinkin’ About You.” I got that bass line from Malcolm McLaren’s 1982 “Buffalo Gals.” “Three buffalo gals go round the outside, round the outside.” I’m like a mockingbird. When I hear melodies, I lock in on them and then they just run around in my head. For years it was there in my head, until one day I got on the piano and played it all. And that changed my whole life.
The guy who paid for our studio time when I led Timex Social Club was Jay King. He was from Sacramento. Club Nouveau was never the Timex Social Club. It was just something that Jay King went and created because he couldn’t sign us. When he brought us a contract, it was for 10 years or more. At the time, we didn’t know much about the music, but we knew 10 years was too long, so we told him no.
TC: I went to school with Mike. He went through some stuff with “Rumors” and he was kind of jaded because he felt like they did him wrong. It took me, I don’t know how many years, man. I want to say I started the campaign with him back in like, maybe 1987. I started campaigning with him just to get him back in the studio. I don’t know if he had trust in me as a musician, or he just probably looked at me as a DJ. So it took me some time to get him in the studio, and then we started working together on music. But he was over at my place that day when Chris Hicks came by with the Luniz. And I campaigned for him to be on the song. I knew the whole story. I was like, “Man, this was my chance to get Mike back in there and give him a piece of something that he didn’t have.” I think what it was that they were all working together on those songs, and Jay kind of just reflipped those songs. “Why You Treat Me So Bad?” was “Thinkin’ About You,” and then the song “Jealousy” was from “Rumors.” I felt it would be cool for Mike to be on this one. And this ended up being the biggest one of them all.
30 years later
TC: “5 On It” had a big impact. A lot of people got deals. I know Richie Rich didn’t have anything out at the time. But in an interview, he said that “5 On It” was so hot that Def Jam gave him a deal. Things were starting to go. Then Dru Down and Mac Mall get signed to Relativity. We did the “5 On It” remix because the record was so hot. We had a chance to get everyone on it but Pac. We probably would’ve had him too if he wasn’t locked up at the time, I think. The music video was shot in L.A. at a mansion.
I knew the song was catchy and I knew it could’ve been a hit. But I just didn’t know how big it would hit. With the whole California smoking lifestyle, it really just all mixed at the right time. Marijuana was getting ready to become legal [in 1996 for medicinal use] and that helped kick it off too. People are even using it today for viral clips. I don’t mind any of it, because it helps the record stay alive.
Yukmouth: I knew we had something for Oakland that could go on the radio. We knew it was going to pop here definitely, but as far as it being worldwide and the anthem that it is now, we never expected that. I later got a solo deal with Rap-a-Lot. This is the same record label that signed my big homie Seagram, the first West Coast artist signed to Rap-a-Lot.
This is the 30-year anniversary of “5 On It.” It’s a classic, that’s all you can say, and I think the ’90s was the mecca of hip-hop. The ’80s lined it up, it was great, but I think the ’90s is when people started breaking the barriers, making more money, and saying what they really wanted to say. People going 10-times platinum. 5-times platinum. It was original and it was a blessing to be a part of it. When we shot the “I Got 5 On It” remix, all of us—E-40, Dru Down, Spice 1, Richie Rich, Shock G, plus everybody from the Bay to L.A.—was in that video. That’s when we felt that we made it.
MM: After we mixed the song, I told them [Luniz] that I knew it was going to be a hit. It was so clever and how things got down in the Bay. But I didn’t know the whole world was kind of moving like that, too. It’s a song about weed and getting weed, but not blatantly saying it.
They called me to come to a strip club in San Francisco for the music video, that’s where you see me with the two girls and I’m singing. But I wasn’t invited to the house. This hurt me in the long run because no one really knows my face, but they know my voice.
The song came out in 1995 but I wasn’t getting my publishing payments from BMI. I wasn’t asking for it because I didn’t know I had it. Once I got a lawyer and found out that I had publishing, BMI agreed and said that they would start paying from that moment on in 2005. But they would not go back and pay me back pay. When the Us movie came out, more people knew I have a publishing percentage, and so more people reached out to me for clearance to use the song. The last thing we cleared was the NBA wanting to use the song during the All-Star Game.
I just had a show on Juneteenth in Berkeley and told the audience that the success of a few artists is because of my melody: “Why You Treat Me So Bad,” “Rumors,” “Thinkin’ About You,” and “I Got 5 On It” all encompass the same melody. This dude recently told me, “You know your song is big in the South. If the song would come on the radio, my super religious grandmother would say ‘I Got God On It’ instead.” The light went off in my head. So that’s what I’m working on next, my new gospel single, before the summer’s over. So I’m still playing off of that after all of these years.
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