Based around a sample from “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” by Isaac Hayes, DJ Quik officially entered the rap game with an ode to his hometown of Compton, California. Quik released “Born and Raised in Compton” as the first single ahead of his debut album, Quik Is the Name, and the single peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. He also paid homage to the forefathers of gangsta rap by featuring a scratched sample of fellow Compton natives MC Ren and Dr. Dre of N.W.A on the chorus. Quik talked about the history of the song’s creation:

I fell in love with that record my mom used to play, Isaac Hayes “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic,” and I never forgot it. We just sampled all the records that we liked. And that track in particular, it just made me feel like a god. Like on top of the world. It just sounded big. Even though it wasn’t on the radio, even though I didn’t have a record deal. It was just something about that track that moved me.

I bought the N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton album and just scratched “Born and Raised in Compton” because I felt entitled to use it. And Eazy-E and them didn’t have a problem with it; they never sued me. Dr. Dre and Ren, they never got on me about it. They actually liked the record.

This motherfucker named Leroy broke in my mama’s house and stole my equipment. After he did that shit, he motivated me to write that record. And he, being the idiot that he was, he kind of gloated about it. He had this sense of almost pride that in some kind of dark twisted way, he helped to propel me into stardom.