The Story Behind "Treat 'Em Right"

People ask me all the time — "Chubb, how did 'Treat 'Em Right' happen?" And the honest answer is: it happened the way the best records always do. Organically. No formula. No label pressure. Just me and my cousin Howie Tee locked in, chasing a feeling.

It was 1990. We were working on The One, and I wanted a record that said something real — something that would hold up. I was watching how people treated each other. In the neighborhood, in relationships, in the music business. And the message kept hitting me the same way: just be decent to people. That's it. It ain't complicated.

"The hook wrote itself because it was true. Treat 'em right. Three words. That's the whole sermon."

Howie built that beat and I felt it in my chest from the first bar. We cut the record fast — when the energy is right, you don't overthink it. The call-and-response, the swing of it, the way it made you want to move and think at the same time — that was the whole point.

When it hit No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rap Singles, I was grateful. When VH1 ranked it No. 82 on the 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs in 2008, I was humbled. When Michelle Obama said it was on her "get me going" playlist? Man. That's when I knew it transcended me entirely.

Thirty-five years later, I still close shows with it. And every single time, the crowd raps every word back. That's not nostalgia — that's a record that told the truth.

— Chubb Rock  |  The Chubbster