The story behind Dilated Peoples’ ‘Worst Comes to Worst’ success

The song ‘Worst Comes to Worst’ was something of a hit for Dilated Peoples, bringing the LA rap group to the attention of a whole new swathe of fans. But had it not been for a particular quirk of the song, it probably wouldn’t have become as big as it did.

The Alchemist-produced ‘Worst Comes to Worst’ is an understated single, laid back and somewhat melancholic. It does not necessarily scream chart success, but, for hip-hop aficionados, it is filled with little nods to the Golden Age past. Notably it features a sample of Havoc’s rapping from the Mobb Deep classic ‘Survival of the Fittest,’ while the Gang Starr rapper Guru also shows up to rap a few lines.

Guru’s appearance on the track was something of a coup for Dilated Peoples, given his stature within the rap community as the voice of Gang Starr. But, as it turns out, it wasn’t too complicated convincing him to jump on board, given that his Gang Starr partner, DJ Premier, was heavily involved with the production of Expansion Team, the album on which ‘Worst Comes to Worst’ sits.

“Premier and Alchemist made it happen,” Dilated Peoples member Evidence told The Bootleg Kev Podcast last year, reflecting on Guru’s appearance on ‘Worst Comes to Worst.’ “Premier mixed that record. People don’t even realize it.”

Evidence explained that, during production, it became clear that the track had been missing something—and Guru was the perfect person to help fix that. “We had a space,” he said. “We asked Guru, ‘Can you put something there?’ We thought maybe a chorus would come in and it came back as a rhythmic shout-out. And it worked, you know what I mean?”

Getting such a legendary figure to rap on the song, even for just a few moments, was a wonderful thing for Evidence. “I was so honored, you know?” he said, describing Guru’s appearance on the track as a “magical wishlist” sort of moment in which he got to work with the “best of the best.”

But it wasn’t just Guru’s part in the song that made it a success, nor was it simply down to the sample of Havoc. There was actually a far less romantic reason for the track’s success.

“The song is a minute and 50 seconds,” Evidence explained. “Capital [Records] said that couldn’t work. So we added the instrumental at the end for like two minutes. If you’ve ever noticed, it’s a short song on the vinyl and then the beat just runs for mad long. Once they saw it longer, they said, ‘Cool.’ We didn’t do anything different.”

By tacking this instrumental onto the end of the song, essentially to appease their label bosses, Dilated Peoples had stumbled upon a formula for getting more radio airplay. “What was dope is we had that long instrumental running at the end,” Evidence explained. “So, [radio DJs] would use that as the gap to talk about whatever the fuck they were talking and get the next DJ on. So our beat would just be running for like five minutes as an ad.”

‘Worst Comes to Worst’ was consequently given more airplay than it otherwise might have been, and it proved popular as a result. It brought Dilated Peoples their greatest success, with the track now considered to be a hip-hop classic.