How "Treat 'Em Right" Found a Brand New Generation Through Girls Trip

Here is something nobody planned and everybody should know. In the summer of 2017, Girls Trip opened in theaters across America and became one of the most talked-about films of the year. Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall, and Tiffany Haddish — four Black women at the absolute top of their game — carrying a film that was funny, honest, real, and completely electric. It grossed nearly $140 million worldwide on a $19 million budget. A cultural phenomenon.

And "Treat 'Em Right" was on that soundtrack.

Think about the arc of that for a second. A record I made in 1990 in Brooklyn — when these actresses were teenagers, when some of that audience wasn't even born yet — came back to life in 2017 inside one of the year's defining films about Black joy, Black friendship, and Black women living fully and unapologetically. That is not a coincidence. That is a timeless record finding its moment again.

"A great record doesn't have an expiration date. 'Treat 'Em Right' said something true in 1990 — and truth doesn't go out of style. Girls Trip proved that to a whole new world."

What I love most about that placement is what it says about the message inside the music. "Treat 'Em Right" was always about respect — between people, between friends, between communities. Girls Trip was a film about exactly that. Four women who'd known each other forever, lifting each other up, showing up for each other at full volume. The record belonged in that movie. It understood the assignment before the script was even written.

And for a whole generation of people who discovered it through that film — younger listeners, fans of Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish who'd never heard of a kid from Brooklyn named Richard Simpson — "Treat 'Em Right" became their record too. That's the most gratifying thing a song can do. Outlive its moment and find a new one.

From 1990 to 2017. From Brooklyn to Hollywood. The Chubbster keeps on treating 'em right — and apparently, so does the record.

— Chubb Rock  |  The Chubbster