Little Known Black Music Stories

There Is Always More To The Story…

Music is an emotional spirit. It is the soundtrack to our lives and it has the power to dictate emotions, inspire ideas, build confidence, increase awareness, induce love, hate or indifference, and change minds and moods. Sometimes that spirit can be found in the rhythm, the groove, but usually the lyrics. The artists that we love are awesome at singing, rapping, or playing our lives and feelings out for us, but do we really take the time to wonder what inspires them to make the music that we (in a sense) depend on? Or perhaps, what kind of people they really are? Here are 4 short stories on “Little Known Black Music Facts” that I found interesting. *Through research, I find these stories to be true, but I cannot guarantee this with 100% certainty. However, they have been thoroughly researched by me prior to this writing.

Bobby Womack & Sam Cooke’s DAUGHTER: Now THAT’S KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY…

Everyone knows about Bobby Womack marrying the widow of his friend, mentor, and colleague, Sam Cooke- Barbara Cooke. But not many people know that he also had an affair with Sam and Barbara’s daughter, Linda Cooke (who would have at one time been Bobby’s step-daughter). Linda also co wrote “Woman’s Gotta Have It”, a hit for Bobby Womack in 1972.

Years later, Linda married Cecil Womack (Bobby’s brother) and together they formed the duo “Womack & Womack” and gained fame in the R&B genre for such songs as “Baby, I’m Scared of You”, “Express Myself” and “Teardrops” (which Joss Stone would later have success with). Womack & Womack also penned the hit “Love TKO” which was originally recorded by David Oliver but made popular by Teddy Pendergrass.

Never Look Prince In The Eyes…

While Weird Al Yankovic is largely known for spoofing the works of many music artists including: Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Coolio successfully for over 30 years; there are two artist who have turned him down.

Paul McCartney declined Weird Al’s request to spoof his song, “Live And Let Die”, which Al was going to call “Chicken Pot Pie”. Sir Paul McCartney made his decision to deny his request because of his position on animal rights and because he is a strict vegetarian. Yankovic stated that McCartney is a really cool guy with a great sense of humor and that he understands that the former Beatle could not compromise his beliefs.

Prince has vehemently refused Weird Al’s invitations to spoof his work. Al asked “His Royal Badness” for permission to spoof “Kiss” and “1999” and was flatly rebuffed without explanation. To add insult to injury, it has been said that Prince sent Weird Al a telegraph instructing him to not even make eye contact with him at any time during the 1986 American Music Awards Show.

As we all know, Prince is very protective of his image as well as his work. He doesn’t even like for his music to be covered or sampled without his “Okay”.

In 1985, the Prince Noodle Company ran a television commercial for Prince Spaghetti that implied that there was a Prince concert in progress when in reality, there was only screaming fans and a box of Prince Spaghetti. The singers attorney in a letter to the noodle company stated that the ad “gives the impression that Prince has authorized and/or endorses” Prince Spaghetti. A lawsuit was filed and the commercial was pulled from television.

Weird Al has not requested to spoof Prince’s work in over 20 years. Well, giving up is not always a bad thing…

Did Nas Really Get Jiggy Wit It?

There has been a tale on the rumor mill for years about my favorite emcee, Nas. The story is that Nas ghost co-wrote “Getting Jiggy Wit It” with Will Smith and that they both won a Grammy Award for the recording in 1998.

This one really left me scratching my head because I hold Nasir Jones in the highest regards as an emcee. In my opinion, he is the greatest, BAR NONE! So I could not imagine how the writer of “One Love”, “The Message” and “Purple” could write, “Getting Jiggy Wit It” and win his only Grammy.

After thinking about it now and then over the years, I’ve deduced that a Hip Hop ghost writer would not write a song for someone else in their style, but in the style of the artist that they are writing for. With that being said, it is possible that even an emcee of Nas’ caliber could write such a corny song.

Before writing this piece, I went back to research this rumor to see if anything new has been said. Well, it turns out that Nas participated in a Reddit AMA on April 15, 2015 during which he addressed the rumor and said:

“Alright, let’s clear this up once and for all. I hung out with Will in the studio. And watched him write it. It was a fun studio session, and I said a line or two or three to him. It wasn’t that serious. Will Smith wrote that song. But seriously, I watched him have fun making that record on his own, and Will is a true MC.”

This does not necessarily mean that Nas did not write or receive credit for the song. If he really did ghost write this song, would he make that public knowledge? I don’t know Nas personally, but I don’t think he would. He seems to have too much integrity to do that.

The Godfather of Hip Hop?

Even James Brown himself often credited himself as a pioneer of Hip Hop. As self-absorbed as that sounds, it isn’t completely untrue.

James Brown is the most sampled entertainer in music of any genre. Since Hip Hop (especially in the early years) was mostly comprised of “break beats”, it can be said that Hip Hop would not be the genre that we have come to know and love was it not for The Godfather of Soul, James Brown.

In 1986, James Brown released “In The Jungle Groove”, a compilation of some his music that contained drum solos. This album was released as an attempt to capitalize on the Hip Hop genre which was already saturated with samples of his music. In 1988, Brown released a similar album called “The Motherlode” for the same purpose. That same year, James Brown collaborated with Full Force to produce the album, “I’m Real”. The title track was the first and most successful release from this album. On this track, Brown makes clear his feeling about having his music sampled by rappers:

“You better take my voice off your record, until I’m paid in full…”

~James Brown, “I’m Real”

The song is basically a diss track.

Maybe all of this is not “little known” but the fact that “Funky Drummer” has been sampled over 150 times might be.

Songs That Contain A Sample of “Funky Drummer”

• Rebel Without A Pause — Public Enemy
• Mama Said Knock You Out — LL Cool J
• The Theme To The Powerpuff Girls
• South Bronx — Boogie Down Productions
• Murder Rapp — Above The Law
• Gangster Glam — Prince
• Think — Main Source
• Fight The Power — Public Enemy
• Runs House — Run DMC
• Mortal Kombat — Big Daddy Kane
• Let Me Ride — Dr. Dre
• Get Down — Nas
• Save Me — Nicki Minaj

Just to name a few…

WhoSampled.com has “Funky Drummer” listed as sampled 1,163 times in a plethora of genres. Collectively, the site has James Brown listed in over 9,000 samples. Godfather of Hip Hop? YES!