Stick N Move

"Stick N Move"
Song by Xero
from the album Xero (Demo Cassette Tape)
Recorded:	1996
Released:	1997
Format:	Cassette
Length:	2:41
Stems:	Akai MPC 1000
Tempo:	108
Samples:	Giacomo Puccini - Madama Butterfly, Act II: Un bel dì vedremo The Melachrino Strings And Orchestra - Three Coins In The Fountain
References:	A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rhime
Live debut:	Unknown
Last performed:	Unknown
Writer:	Mike Shinoda, Mark Wakefield
Producer:	Mike Shinoda
Xero (Demo Cassette Tape) tracklist
Rhinestone Reading My Eyes Fuse Stick N Move

"Stick N Move" is the fourth track on the Xero 1997 cassette tape.

Background

"Stick N Move" was created by Mike Shinoda and Mark Wakefield when Linkin Park was still called "Xero" and had Mark on vocals.

The song was rewritten with a different beat and completely different lyrics after the Xero version and it was re-recorded with Chester Bennington on vocals. Mike described the lyrics as "really trite," but thought it was a fun song to play. In Jeff Blue's book "One Step Closer: From Xero to #1: Becoming Linkin Park", he explained that recording for Hybrid Theory began on March 7, 2000 at NRG Studios. Rob's drum tracking began on March 14 and he tracked drums for "Stick N Move" partially on March 15 and again on March 16.

The line "Record industry rule 4,081: Question my intentions and your whole world is done" is a reference to "Check The Rhime" by A Tribe Called Quest.

The main riff was eventually reworked into "Runaway" on Hybrid Theory. A short instrumental demo dating from 1998 was released on the LP Underground 9: Demos album in November 2009 and is the earliest known demo of "Runaway". Mike Shinoda said, "There's a song called Stick N Move, it was one of our early songs. Probably one of the first seven songs we made. Somewhere around there. I think, I don't know. But we certainly played Stick N Move at all the early shows with Mark, before Chester. And then when we went into the studio to do Hybrid Theory, Stick N Move was always a popular one at our shows, so we tried to make it work, and then Don just didn't like it. We were like "Yeah I get that. Like it's not as good as some of these other ones that are coming together. So we just broke it down into pieces and it turned into Runaway. Almost 0% of Stick N Move is in Runaway. Like we almost completely rewrote the song. Like it was kinda the tempo and the bounce of it and that was all that remained. We didn't take Stick N Move and re-record it in the studio. It never got that far. It was only its own thing, and then Runaway became its own thing. It was its own separate session and its own separate recording. They're not the same song."

In the Hybrid Theory (20th Anniversary Edition) book, Rob Bourdon wrote, "When we finally had the chance to go into the studio in early 2000, I think we had 2 weeks to track all the instruments for vocals. (It may have been shorter.) There was a song that we all wanted to let go of called Stick N Move. Our producer Don Gilmore insisted we keep the track. He kept on saying that there was something great about it and asked us to please just try recording it. We recorded just the instrumental and left it with Mike and Chester to rewrite the melody and lyrics and that song became Runaway."

In June 2019, two other instrumental demos of "Stick N Move" leaked online from Mike's MPC in the Hybrid Party Of A Thousand Things leak, one of which is similar to the full version of the demo on the LP Underground 9 album but with just a few missing sounds and is over three and a half minutes long. The second demo features a different beat which is used in the Forgotten Demos version. The strings in this second demo are sampled from both Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Act II: "Un bel dì vedremo" and "Three Coins In The Fountain", the fifth track on Rendezvous In Rome by The Melachrino Strings And Orchestra.

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Stick N Move	Xero	2:41	1996	1997	Mark Wakefield on vocals. Contains a reference to A Tribe Called Quest's "Check The Rhime".
Stick And Move ("Runaway" Demo 1998)	LP Underground 9.0: Demos Compilation Hybrid Theory (20th Anniversary Edition)	0:54	1998	November 23, 2009	Shortened instrumental demo.
Stick&Mo	Hybrid Party Of A Thousand Things	3:40	1998		Original long version of the LPU demo. Released on LPLive for free download on August 5, 2019.
Stick2	Hybrid Party Of A Thousand Things	2:54	1998		Instrumental demo. Beat from the demo with Chester. Released on LPLive for free download on August 5, 2019.
Stick N Move (Demo)	Hybrid Theory (20th Anniversary Edition)	3:17	2000	October 9, 2020	Chester Bennington on vocals. Different lyrics. Drums in the chorus are more similar to "Runaway". Riff in the bridge is more similar to "Runaway".

Live

"Stick N Move" was played at all the early shows with Mark Wakefield on vocals. Mike said, "At all of our early shows, that was basically our big song -- people who would come to our shows for the first time, we would talk to them afterwards and mention that song." Despite the song being a crowd favorite, he said it never stood up to all the other songs on Hybrid Theory, so it was rewritten into "Runaway".

Personnel

• Mike Shinoda
• Mark Wakefield
• Brad Delson
• Rob Bourdon
• Dave Farrell
• Joe Hahn

Lyrics

Album Version

This is how it's done, going for the title and crown
Renowned emcees surround as the beat breaks down
Into elements, bobbing of those the buddha blessed
Finesse the M-I-C the way it ought to be finessed, yes
Yes, am I the one to keep you on your toes?
Most definitely in my b-boy pose
It's the Electric Boogaloo with a slight twist:
Touch your chin to your chest to the rhythm like this

Now I see what I have, I want you
Be with me or stick n' move
Now I see what I had, I want you
Be with me or stick n' move

Emcees dogging me since the first day I grabbed the mic
Now it's like Sit! Stay!
Cobra Kai flystyles I'm kicking
Sticking emcees real quick 'cause times ticking
At the drop of a tenpence, I let loose the venom
Sending a shot of verbal heat up in them
The ending is done, grab your family and run
Apocalyptic rhyme pattern taking shots at the sun
Record industry rule four-thousand-eighty-one:
Question my intentions and your whole world is done
Like Forrest you'll run, turn your eyeballs into Saturn
Full Metal Jacket, fully auto-rhyme pattern

Now I see what I have, I want you
Be with me or stick n' move
Now I see what I had, I want you
Be with me or stick n' move

Stickin / rock your whole clique and I'm wicked,
Movin / boomin of our tunes and you’re grooving
Stickin / rock your whole clique and I'm wicked,
Movin / boomin of our tunes and you’re grooving

Now I see what I have, I want you
Be with me or stick n' move
Now I see what I had, I want you
Be with me or stick n' move

Forgotten Demos Version

Everything you say sounds forced and fake
How long will it take before you make everything
Break down around you
Everything that you do reminds me of why it is I can't stand you
Everything I thought was real was not
Everything I remembered you forgot
Everything's a joke to you
I hope sometime you get hit by the punchline
In everything I do, I see a little bit of you
Reminding me of what you put me through
Cause everything that goes up must come down
And everything you do hurts worse when it comes back around

Now I see what I have, and I want you
To be with me, but you'll just stick and move
See what I have, and I want you
To be with me, but you'll just stick and move

You say could make me stay
All the lies disguised have done nothing but make me ask why
Nothing is what I've got
After all of the same pain
You've brought I thought would never stop
Nothing has changed
All the things you said to me then have begun to follow me again
Even though I know there's nothing to be afraid of
The same place the shape came from is making me hide
Inside a place where everything's gray
Constantly forcing the night over the day
Where nothing exists but the things that you say
And nothing could make me want to be further away

Now I see what I have, and I want you
To be with me, but you'll just stick and move
See what I have, and I want you
To be with me, but you'll just stick and move

Now I see what I have, and I want you
To be with me, but you'll just stick and move
See what I have, and I want you
To be with me, but you'll just stick and move
See what I have, and I want you
To be with me, but you'll just stick and move
See what I have, and I want you
To be with me, but you'll just stick and