Few rappers realize the genre sprang from West African griots through Delta slave songs to jazz poetry and the comedic trash talk of 'the dozens.'
Interpretation
Quincy Jones emphasizes the rich cultural roots of rap music, tracing its origins back to African storytelling traditions and various musical forms.
In this quote, Quincy Jones highlights the deep historical and cultural influences that shaped the genre of rap music. He points out that rap is not just a modern phenomenon but has a lineage that includes West African griots, Delta slave songs, jazz poetry, and the playful yet poignant banter of 'the dozens.' This statement serves to remind listeners and artists alike of the profound connections between music, culture, and history.
In practice
A music history class discussing the evolution of hip-hop culture.
Just blow in it and sound bad for about a year and then make it sound a little bit better, and you get a little band together, and then you get a few jobs. You take four guys that sound half bad, but if they're 25 percent each, they can give 100 percent, you know?
Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.
When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it.
You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.
I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.
I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it's not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.
The E Street band casts a pretty wide net. Our influences go all the way back to the early primitive garage music, and also, we've had everything in the band from jazz players to Kansas City trumpet players to Nils Lofgren, one of the great rock guitarists in the world.
Young people have decided they like to listen to music in a certain way, through ear buds, and that's fine with me as long as it doesn't bother them that they're not hearing 90 percent of the music that way.
How much can you do with two voices? You can sing thirds or you can sing fifths or you can do a background harmony.
When I started playing music, people weren't selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus.
The blues has been the foundation of all other American music since the beginning.
With the Beatles, we'd been very spoiled because we had George Martin who worked for the record label we were going to be signed to. That was very fortunate, because we grew together.
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