Arrested Development's "People Everyday"

One of three Arrested Development singles to wiggle into the Billboard Top Ten charts in 1992, “People Everyday” features Speech’s loose, near-rambling MC style a la De La Soul over peaceful samples, basic beats, a strummed guitar, gospel-style call and response, and handclaps. These elements present a folksy approach to what many would see as just another violent inner city episode; it’s a feel-good song on the surface that ends with an admonition in line with AD’s overall philosophies of community and Afro-centrism.
The original version (appearing on the album 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of…) gives listeners a different angle to the same story. Dub/Reggae seasoning mixes with tough urban funk samples and scratches behind Speech’s best attempts to sound “hard,” somewhat of an anomaly on the album as a whole.
Speech has pointed out that before releasing his semi-autobiographical “People Everyday” as a single, they remixed it to reflect their trademark sound that had already brought them success with “Tennessee.” The two different versions magnify the tension present in the song. Even while providing an alternative to the then-prevalent hardcore gangster rap and championing positive lyrics – according to Speech, a direct influence of Public Enemy) – Arrested Development and this song itself seems to admit that sometimes even if you “ain’t Ice Cube,” a guy’s just got to “take a brother out for being rude,” unabashedly using the n-word to distinguish between different lifestyles and behaviors. Knowledgeable hip-hop scholars and artists alike explore these tensions constantly, and truth be told, the issue existed amongst black poets, essayists, and novelists for decades before hip-hop came along. When Arrested Development takes on the topic, however, we also get a video that includes the MC wearing such a great straw hat.

P.S. They're back!