Since it appeared in the trailer for Jordan Peele’s next horror flick, Us, Luniz’s “I Got 5 On It” has received tremendous renewed attention. But in a new interview with The Ringer, Bay Area singer Michael Marshall, who performed the hook, says he didn’t receive any royalties from the track for close to a decade.
“I’m one of the people you’re playing in your car all the time!” Marshall said. “I ain’t got nothing from it.”
The song is about pooling money together to buy weed, and Marshall’s hook relishes in that process. He sings:
I got five on it (Got it, good), grab your 40, let’s get keyed
I got five on it, messin' with that Indo weed
I got five on it (Got it, good), it’s got me stuck, and I’m tore back
I got five on it, partner, let’s go half on a sack
“I Got 5 On It” samples, “Why You Treat Me So Bad” by Club Nouveau, which was written by Marshall’s former collaborator Jay King, though Marshall alleges that he helped create it.
“‘When I heard ‘Why You Treat Me So Bad,’ I knew that was my song [too], but at the time I didn’t know what my recourse was so I never fought them on that,” he said.
Marshall and King were in the group Timex Social Club together, and scored a big hit in the mid-80s with “Rumors,” but subsequently fell out with each other. Rumors actually went on to be sampled on 2Pac’s “Soon As I Get Home” with Yaki Kadafi.
Tone Capone, who produced “I Got 5 On It” as well as songs by Scarface and Hit Me Up On My Celly-Cell, was the one who suggested Luniz put Marshall on the hook, since they expressed an interest in sampling “Why You Treat Me So Bad.” Marshall asked for publishing credits that Luniz’s label agreed to, but he said that paperwork issues caused the deal to never be formally finalized. As such, he said he didn’t receive any royalties for the song until that was fixed in 2005.
“It’s been a constant circle of fuckery in what seems like a conspiracy to not let me shine,” he said.
Marshall’s vocals are the only ones featured in the trailer, as Us uses the hook and the song’s opening line. It begins with the film’s central family played by Lupito Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Evan Alex, and Shahadi Wright-Joseph, listening to the song on a car ride, and as the trailer goes on it becomes more nightmarish, with slow, sinister strings added in.
The singer says he didn’t know the song was going to be in the trailer and saw it for the first time on TV. He has since contacted Universal Pictures and is receiving royalties.
Marshall, who also performs as Mike Marshall,has worked heavily with E-40, and says he is clean after many years battling drug addiction.
Genius broke down some important tips producers should follow to ensure they get paid in the video below.
Read the full lyrics to “I Got 5 On It” and other tracks from Michael Marshall’s discography on Genius now.
