It’s a reworked rap song. Billy G said “it's based on a rap song from the 1990's entitled '25 Lighters' by Lil' Keke and Fat Pat. It was recorded at a Digital Services Recording in Houston and we worked there as well”. Songs from La Futura album from 2012, which was a great one.
Never heard this song, I thought it was another song with a similar name. IM BLOWN AWAY!! I know these dudes are hard but I do not think I've heard a more gangsta rock song in my life!! Wow that was dope. Glad I was here to hear for the first time. ✌🏼
This was some of their newer stuff - 2012 I think. Their recording studio was being remodeled so they came to another Houston recording studio. They met some of the local rap artists and this is a take off or collaboration of some kind as I understand it, from his song 25 lighters. In Houston, the dope dealers would empty cheap lighters, fill them with the dope & sell them. '25 lighters on my dresser, yessir, I gotsta get paid'... I absolutely love this song despite the meaning! Lol Thanks for the great reaction as usual guys! ❤
when i first heard these guys in the early 70s i thought these guys were the bomb and still listen to these guys today they never get old to me good texas rockin blues
As a band who usually record their own original material, ZZ Top weren't used to the machinations of getting permission to rework an original song. Said Gibbons to MusicRadar: "What we discovered is that when an artist covers a song, it's called a 'cover version.' When an artist begins to modify and change it, after a certain percentage, it's a 'derivative work,' and that requires the new version to be reviewed by the originators. If the originators like it, they can wave holy water over it and you're good; if they don't, you're stuck. The two original performers, Lil' Keke and Fat Pat, had passed away," he continued, "and it was the last day to decide if we could do it that we tracked down the executor of the estates. We played him the track over the phone. 'I don't know if I can understand this,' he said. 'I'm going to put the phone to my little girl. She's 14.' When she heard it, she said, 'Daddy, they're playing your song!' So the executor got back on and said, 'Looks like you've got a winner.'"
You just cannot go wrong with ZZ Top, they just rock out in their own style forever. For a banger from early on, try their Just Got Back From Baby's from their first album, they already were dope. That album was a hell of a debut. Enjoy! 🎵🎸🎤🎸🎶
25 letters on my dresser (I'm guessing those are letters/bills) - LOL. What a good way to put it. This was a great reaction and I had never heard this song before. It's a great song - hardcore blues rock with a heavy dose of stank on it.
No it actually is "25 Lighters," which is Houston ghetto slang for taking Bic Lighters apart, removing the innards and filling them with crack. The ZZ Top song is a cover of DJ DMD's 1989 rap hit "25 Lighters,". There is a RU-vid video of DJ DMD's original and it's worth watching.
In an interview, Billy Gibbons said, ""Yes, it's based on a rap song from the 1990's entitled '25 Lighters' by Lil' Keke and Fat Pat. It was recorded at a Digital Services Recording in Houston and we worked there as well, so we got to know those guys and that song just stayed with us for all that time. It really stayed in our head for all that time while we figured out how to deconstruct it and transform it into a guitar-based, blues-infused rocker as you hear it on La Futura. That guitar breakdown is something of a tribute to the great Lightnin' Hopkins, another of our 'heroes of the Houston ghetto.'"
The album that song is on is a goodie. I'm mainly a fan of their '70s music, but their later stuff has some really great music on it. Check out their cover of the Otis Redding song called "Tramp" from the 2003 Mescalero album. That's a badass album also.
Wikipedia: "The album's lead single, "I Gotsta Get Paid", is a cover of "25 Lighters" by Houston hip hop artist DJ DMD." Songwriters: Dorie Dorsey, Billy Gibbons, Kyle West, Al B. Sure!, Joe Hardy, G.L. Moon
"25 Lighters," refers yo Houston ghetto slang for taking Bic Lighters apart, removing the innards and filling them with crack. The ZZ Top song is a cover of DJ DMD's 1989 rap hit "25 Lighters,". There is a RU-vid video of DJ DMD's original and it's worth watching.
This song is a revamp of fellow Texan DJ DMD's 1989 rap hit "25 Lighters," which is Houston ghetto slang for taking Bic Lighters apart, removing the innards and filling them with crack. Peace out.
For all those confused, I was too until a little googling. 25 lighters… hid inside small crack rocks. They would sell users a ‘lighter’ with the drugs inside. The line is from a Rap song about selling some drugs to make some cash. So he could then buy some diamonds and a car with some big woofers for the bass to bang. Got it?!
I think this their 80s stuff. You see those vintage Hot Rods in the "Eliminator" song catalogue. I saw them in the early days in the mid 70s in concert in Seattle, and it was one of the best concerts I saw, and I saw Led Zeppelin, Credence, and many others live, but ZZ Top ranks right up there. The live music sounded just like the recorded version, because they didn't use a bunch of studio enhancements, that couldn't be reproduced in concert. Same for a lot of the Bands in the 60s and 70s. What you heard on the radio, is what you got at the concert live. Unfortunately, that began to change in the 1980s. Thanks guys
Most people, still, don't recognize this as "a cover" (of sorts) -and a "props" to Texas music (which is core to ZZ's being. Always!), as well!!- ...but it is. "I Gotsta Get Paid" is, actually, a ..."reconfiguration" (would be the most correct, accurate term; here) of "25 Lighters" by: D.J. D.M.D. (although, regularly credited to "Li'l Keke" (and "Fat Pat")-). This was a LOCALLY popular record, circa: Houston (prior to "the South" getting co-opted and popularized, in hip-hop circles!). ...in the late '90s ['97 or '98, I think 🤷🤷]. "25 Lighters" didn't, really, get (much) out of Texas, at that time. ...in 2010-2011, when ZZ Top were thinking about their new album (to be released in: 2012), Billy Gibbons remembered this track (I am guessing Rick Rubin -who was going to produce La Futura, with ZZ TOP- based-on his history in hip-hop, may, also, have been familiar with it [OR NOT!🤷]) and ZZ decided to "ZZ-fy" it and record it. The guitar parts, of course, are brand-new. The lyrics are, somewhat, rewritten. ...so: if you listen to "25 Lighters" you will, immediately, recognize the "lyric/chorus hook," of course ...but not very much more! --ZZ TOP made this a classic ZZ Top song. Out-and-out Texas blues groover, bad-ass, raunch-rocker. ...with Southern hip-hop roots. (which, in the late '90s, were, actually, unique!). In any case: bad-asd. Personally: I think "Chartreuse" is "THE song" from this ZZ album (but that's not saying, like: "I don't like" "I Gotsta Get Paid" (or some aspects of it!) - NO!🤘🤘). "Chartreuse" is a banger! Get to it!
Yo guys please play Stanley Jordan playing Stairway to Heaven on double guitar using finger tapping. It is awesomely amazing. He also is an African American brother.
