Jazz legend Bob James’ 1974 single “Nautilus” has been sampled numerous times over the years by a small army of Hip-Hop artists. From Slick Rick and Eric B. & Rakim to Run-DMC and EPMD, MCs loved flowing over his smooth jazz. But James hasn’t always been impressed. In 2015, James sued Madlib and Stones Throw Records over copyright claims. He claimed they illegally took samples from “Nautilus” for “Sparkdala.”
“From my standpoint, I had to take a stand about it,” James said at the time. “The copyright and the maintaining of the ownership of copyright, are the most valuable and important things that we have in this business. And the control over the usage of it. To have someone attempt to take that out from under you is a very big deal. And it’s a bigger deal from the standpoint of the record companies than the artist.”
On January 11, longtime music exec Dante Ross said it was about time James did some graveling, especially to Hieroglyphics, who sampled “Nautilus” in the song “Cab Fare.” As he explained in a tweet: “Bob James owes Hiero an apology. He ain’t fooling nobody, he was anti-sampling , anti-hip hop, anti-culture for a long time. Now that its proven to be profitable he’s acting like he been down. FOH.”
Is Ross right? Did Hip-Hop only become “cool” when it became a multi-billion dollar business? James seemed to have a problem with Hip-Hop artists sampling his music since day one. He even got into it with DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince over his song “Westchester Lady” for their Grammy-winning album, He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper. But in an August 2022 interview, James explained he and Jazzy Jeff had made peace. They even worked on a project together.
“I contacted Jazzy Jeff after many years, and we were not enemies anyway,” he said. “We had a kind of a reunion having resolved our conflict with the original ‘Westchester Lady’ sample. And now he and I have collaborated on something new and looks like it’s going to come out on my new album.”
To people like Ross, it’s too little, too late—even if Bob James is working with Ghostface Killah.