Bob James Talks about Being the Most Sampled Man in Hip-Hop as Well as the Sonic Architect of Rap’s Golden Era

People's Party with Talib Kweli

UPROXX

Music

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Multi Grammy-winning Jazz keyboardist, arranger, and record producer, Bob James, joins Talib Kweli at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City to talk about his legacy as the most sampled man in hip-hop. James, who has become the inadvertent sonic architect of rap’s golden age by being sampled by everyone from Eric B and Rakim, to Run DMC Ghostface Killah, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliot, The Beastie Boys, and the Wu-Tang Clan (to name a very small few) breaks down why so many rappers love his work, and talks about the origins of the New Orleans Street beat. James also shares stories about cutting records with legends like Chet Baker and Quincy Jones and offers his thoughts on some of the most memorable sample flips of his work. For fans of the art of sampling and hip-hop in general, this is a must listen with a true GOAT of the genre.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Peace and love party people. This is Talib Kuala Lee to BKMC, the MCEO.
0:03.8	You are about to hear an excerpt of People's Party hosted by me and my lovely and talented
0:08.0	co-host, Ms. Jasmine Lee. What up Jasmine? What up Peeps to hear our entire combo and all of our
0:12.8	episodes with stars from the game to Lil Kim, to Anthony Anderson, to my sister Tiffany Hattish,
0:18.5	subscribe to the Luminary Channel on Apple Podcasts. I heard you tell a funny story about,
0:23.8	you know, that record achieved prominence again when a arrest of development sampled it.
0:28.8	Um, for their song, Everyday People, and it was like they had another version of the song that
0:33.1	wasn't worker for them. So they sampled your song, right? The metamorphosis mix of the song.
0:38.8	But I've heard you talk about the fact that it was hard for you to get involved with the
0:43.7	clearance of it because of it because they had also, uh, interpolated sign of Family Stone, right?
0:50.9	Yes, and we could have many, many long long discussions about that and the changes,
0:56.8	which I feel like I've been a part of because in the early days of hip hop, the whole legal thing
1:04.8	was not together. The record companies weren't paying attention. I believe a lot of the artists were
1:11.6	just very naive that there was such a thing as a copyright where music could be copyrighted in that
1:18.4	way and you had to get permission to use it. Right. So that wasn't happening and I found myself on
1:25.2	the policeman end of it or the, the, the confrontational end of it. It was uncomfortable. I,
1:32.7	I never wanted to be that and as a matter of fact, my whole feeling about why I chose jazz in
1:38.1	the first place was it was freedom. It was to do whatever you want, whatever comes into your mind.
1:45.0	And that feeling coming out of rap and hip hop was fun to me and I got that part of it. But,
1:53.8	but I also was more and more realizing that for any of us who deal with the arts and have
2:02.8	intellectual property, something we create and we can take it to the copyright office and we can
2:08.0	get a copyright on it and we can protect it, defend it, lease it, sell it, rent it and it's a,
	...

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