Throughout his career, Nipsey Hussle referenced Sam Greenlee’s 1969 novel, The Spook Who Sat by the Door. Yet during a conversation with Cipha Sounds and Peter Rosenberg on their Juan Ep Is Dead podcast, Stic of Dead Prez revealed that Hussle was going to use this story to fulfill his album obligations to Atlantic Records.
Stic tells Rosenberg and Sounds that Hussle invited the duo onto a jet to talk about his three-album mission and his plans following Victory Lap.
“He was going to do another album,” Stic said. “His final album he owed Atlantic—which would be his final album—would be called The Spook Who Sat By The Door.”
Along with being based on the novel, Hussle told Dead Prez that he wanted to use their critically acclaimed 2000 album, Let’s Get Free, as the blueprint.
“He told me he wanted to re-do Let’s Get Free and he wanted our permission to sample and to really re-do for what he called his generation,” Stic continued. “We just had a heart-to-heart, back-and-forth and obviously, we didn’t get to go there. But I just wanted to speak to the type of heart Nip had.”
In many ways, Hussle’s life and career mirror a lot of the themes that are explored in The Spook Who Sat by the Door. This is probably why Hussle was drawn to the novel and referenced it on many occasions. Most famously, Hussle referred to himself as the book’s title on “Blue Laces 2” from his first and final album.
“Think it’s time we make arrangements/Finally wiggle out they mazes,” Hussle raps. “Find me out in different places/I’m the spook by the door, this the infiltration/Double back dressed in blue laces.”
