Sajaad, 808 Mafia Ash and the making of “Sic Em”
Sajaad wanted an anthem for Athens. He made it with a producer signed to Southside’s 808 Mafia.
For “Sic Em,” Sajaad returned to a collaborator he already knew. He and Athens producer 808 Mafia Ash had worked together on his 2022 single “Can’t Buy This.” For this record, Sajaad wanted to bring the football audience and the city’s music together, as he explained in Ella Kroll’s December 2024 Red & Black interview.
Ash, whose name is Ashton Garrett Murrell, is a producer signed to Southside’s 808 Mafia. The collective’s work reaches across Future, Drake, Kanye West and Travis Scott.
808 Mafia co-founder Southside called Future’s “DS2” the album that changed how the industry treated him. His 2022 single “Hold That Heat” paired Future with Travis Scott. Fellow founder TM88’s credits include Lil Uzi Vert’s “XO Tour Llif3” and Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy”.
Southside has traced his sound to the darkness of Three 6 Mafia’s music. A Splice studio feature describes him making 30 or 40 beats in a night, with some sessions stretching to 36 hours.
Southside expects the producers around him to earn their own placements. “I tell them all the time that they’re competing with me,” he told Lyrical Lemonade in 2022.
Ash has his own reason for building with Sajaad. He told Kroll that producers can pursue placements with established artists such as Future and Drake, or find an emerging artist and grow together. Making music with Sajaad meant working with someone whose vision was already clear. Sometimes Sajaad chose a beat Ash had made; other times they made something new together.
Ash described the appeal simply: “Best friends hanging out versus a business interaction.”
“Sic Em” arrived on November 15, 2024. Sixteen days later, Georgia football used it in an official Instagram video built from its Georgia Tech game footage. Kroll reported that Alex Caputo, then assistant director of Georgia Football Creative, selected the track. The footage was cut to the hook: “Sic ’em / If they ain’t a Dawg, sic ’em.”
The collaboration continued on Sajaad’s six-track EP “From The Apt,” released October 31, 2025. Apple Music lists Sajaad and Ash as composers on all six songs.
Listen to “Sic Em” and “From The Apt,” and watch the Georgia football video.