Zombie Killers' Delight

(A couple of anti-zombie novelty records for the holiday, and a tangent on Rappin' Duke.  Happy Halloween!  Youtube version is here.)

Questionable Lyrics #6: When MCs Talk E.F. Hutton, Do People Listen?

It all started in 1984, when Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five released "The Truth" on their Sugarhill Records album Work Party.  Before they start rapping, and even before the music kicks in, they declare in unison, "rap is our way of life; that's why we do what we like.  Born to rock the mic like E. F. Hutton, so don't say nothin'.  Just listen!"  It's the type of line to leave younger listeners puzzling, "who the hell is E.F. Hutton?"  But old school heads will remember the reference.

E.F. Hutton was an old stock brokerage firm founded in the early 1900s by the Hutton brothers, Edward and Franklyn.  It became most famous thanks to a series of ubiquitous television commercials in the 70s and 80s that all followed the same basic premise.  Two business people are walking in a crowded - airport, park, elevator, etc - discussing vague business dealings amid the constant murmur of bustling people.  One of them will say, "well, my broker's E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says..." and everyone around them suddenly falls silent.  Then a narrator comes on and says, "when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen."  The end.  They'd tart setting it in more absurd situations, like swimming pools, garden parties or little children in a classroom, because it had become such a thing in pop culture.  As a kid, everybody in the schoolyard would quote that line, and it mostly just left us wondering "who the hell is E.F. Hutton?"

Well, the 80s also saw E.F. Hutton run an early check kiting scam (something made popular again with the recent "Chase glitch"), a major mafia money laundering scheme, and go broke during the stock market crash, eventually dissolving in the early 90s.  But we just knew the commercials.  Not just in the playground, but in Hip-Hop, where it took off as a major, recurring punchline.  It's not witty; everybody was just basically repeating a popular commercial tagline line in reference to themselves.  It wasn't generally punny or making any kind of statement about crooked financial institutions.  You wouldn't even accuse anyone of biting anyone else, because it was so basic and even kinda dumb, though of course everyone used it their own way.

Let's dive into all the instances!


"When my voice gets cuttin', everybody listens up like I'm E.F. Hutton."

Also in 1984, over on the west coast, the Triple Threat Three had already turned it into a more traditional punchline for their record "Scratch Motion."


"You know what I notice all of a sudden? When I speak people diss E.F. Hutton."

Then, in 1985, Kool Doobie of Whistle made it more famous by spitting it on a much more popular record, their debut classic "(Nothin' Serious) Just Buggin'." [And yes, I did come up with this post idea when quoting that record in my last article about P-Man.]


"I'm like E.F. Hutton, E.F. Hutton, E.F. Hutton when I start to talk; 'cause everybody listens.  If they don't, then walk."

That same year, obscure Connecticut rapper Terrible T tripled it up it on his surprisingly catchy record "He's Terrible," where he employed similar commercial slogans like, "I'm finger lickin' good like Kentucky Fried Chicken."


"Like E.F. Hutton, when I talk, people listen."

The great Grandmaster Caz used the line sometime in '86-'87.  We don't know for sure because "Good, Fresh, Down, Time" wasn't released until the 2006 Tuff City Ol' Skool Flava compilation.


"I'm Hip-Hop's E.F. Hutton, 'cause all the people listen."

In 1989, the not as great MC Twist used it on his album track "B-L-N-T" (which stands for "better luck next time").


"You talk shit, I get like E.F. Hutton: BLAOW!!  Oh, y'all sure got quiet all of a sudden."

And the trend continued on into the 90s.  On Greek's 1993 posse cut "Rhyme for Ya Life," K-Rino got finally started getting a little more clever with it.


"It's goin' through me, got me struttin'. When E.F. Hutton talks, everybody listens."

One of the ones people probably remember most is Mystikal closing out his breakout 1995 single "Mind of Mystikal" with this last line, though he kind of just lays it down as a random non-sequitur.


"Like E.F. Hutton, when I talk, niggas listen."

And other big names were using it to.  On Mase's "Will They Die 4 You?," Lil Kim says it, even though by 1997 E.F. Hutton had pretty much ceased to exist.  What did that matter?  It was just clutter floating around in our collective subconscious.


"Like E.F. Hutton, don't say nothin'."

"Colonel nigga becoming the ghetto E.F. Hutton: holler 'UGHH' and every fuckin' soldier start stuntin'."

In 1998, Keith Murray used it on the Def Squad single "Ride Wit Us," as well as Silkk the Shocker on "I'm a Soldier."  See if you can guess which is which.


"40 talk like E.F. Hutton. Shhh, people listen."

And on into the 2000s, E-40 said it on 2002's "Mustard & Mayonnaise."


"I'm in the hood where the guns is nothin', and niggas don't say shit, like E.F. Hutton."

And Cappadonna brought it up on his 2003 posse cut "We Got This."


The Beastie Boys finally put it to bed on their 2004 album To the 5 Boroughs, specifically with the song "Rhyme the Rhyme Well," where they conclude the song with a big celebration of the throwback reference.  Mike D ends his last verse with the line, "now push the pause button, then start duckin'. Shh, you heard me like I'm E.F. Hutton."  Then, as Mix Master Mike cuts loose with a copy of "Public Enemy No. 1," they start repeating, "E.F. Shhh, Hutton!  Shhh, Hutton!  Shhh, Hutton!  Shhh, Hutton!"  Could the shush be a nod to E-40's record?  Maybe, but I'm more confident saying that the larger point of the E.F. Hutton routine was to embrace the endearing hoakiness of the random, and very old school recurring reference in our genre.  and maybe it was an intentional move to quash it, since they did make it hard for MCs to use it again after this, at least unironically; and I can't think of anyone saying it on a record since.

Meanwhile, the more business savvy or socially conscious amongst us will be interested to hear that E.F. Hutton came back in the 2010s.  Well, it quickly went into massive debt and closed down again.  But then it was resurrected a second time in the 2020s.  And now they've been uncovered as the company financially underwriting Donald Trump's Truth Social, and the new CEO has already been ousted for defrauding millions of dollars.  Good times!

Giving The P-Man His Props

For those that don't know, P-Man was sort of the third member of Young and Restless.  Like, if you looked at the back of their album, he seemed to be their DJ/ producer; though the conventional wisdom is that he was really just the money man, managing and financing the group while somebody else did all the music.  And he may not even really have been much of a money man if you heard what Dr. Ace and Prince P. said when they fired him after he got sent away for drug trafficking before their second album.  Well, that's all as may be, but P-Man was an actual DJ and he definitely did the music for his 1987 solo 12" from Bound Sound Records called "Rock it Baby."  And it's dope.

No, P-Man does not rap on this.  This is a DJ joint, in the tradition of "Touch of Jazz," "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration" and those other all-too rare songs where the DJ got to shine and his turntables were given the lead track rather than a rapper's vocals.  Admittedly, the scratching might sound a little rudimentary today compared to later examples guys like Magic Mike or DJ Aladdin would come up with just a year or two later.  This is more akin to, say, N.Y.C. Cutter (Marley Marl)'s "DJ Cuttin."  But that was an important record in its day.

One element that immediately makes "Rock It Baby" stand out is that it loops the same famous riff from Rick James' "Super Freak" years before MC Hammer's "U Can’t Touch This" blew it up.  The P-Man came first!  But this record doesn't rely as heavily on it, frequently flipping the script and changing the root samples and drum machine effects its instrumental is based on.  And then of course he's cutting up various soundbites like Kool Doobie saying "perpetrators praise me" from the Whistle classic "(Nothing Serious) Just Buggin'" on top of that.  Again, a lot of the scratches are fairly old school and basic, but if you pay attention, he lays in some trickier, more forward looking tricks in there, like some scribbles.

Oh, and it's worth noting that there are two versions, the Scratch Mix and The Other Mix.  Both actually feature full scratching and stuff; it's not like one is just a dub mix or something.  In fact, you might not notice the difference on a first, casual listen.  But they are different lengths with different edits throughout.  I guess you could say The Other Mix is an extended mix, lasting approximately two minutes longer and letting more of the beats ride unencumbered for a while.  As such, I'd say the Scratch Mix is the tighter and more energetic of the two, and it has a couple additional keyboard samples (it sounds like he's mixing in "Saturday Love" maybe, but it's hard to tell because he's juggling it so much), but The Other Mix is nice for when you want to just vibe out to a longer-lasting experience.

P-Man did return to music when he was released from prison sometime around 1993, including a group called If Looks Could Kill with his then wife, and the Polo Boyz/ Dynaztee.  He later changed his name to Sam Silvasteen and got into publishing Hip-Hop mags and websites, before he was tragically killed in 2009.  So his image has almost always been about his management, his various businesses (on both sides of the law), his beef with Rick Ross, etc.  But it's worth remembering he had this fresh little record with his own music to his name, too.