Q: Rappers Don’t Identify With Musicians Or Singers

Word magazine spoke with music legend Quincy Jones on a variety of subjects including rap musicians viewing themselves as “the 3rd entity”. Jones said, “I remember L.L asked me when I first met Russell Simmons in 1985, I went up to his place and L.L, who was 15 then, said, ‘Mr. Jones, what do the musicians and singers think about us?’ And I got it. That’s the first time I realized that rappers do not identify with musicians or singers. It’s the third entity. What they don’t know is their real roots are praise shouters, praise singers from Africa and griots — oral historians. Rappers have a platform that’s amazing, but they ain’t talking about nothing. I mean there’s always an exception, with Roots and Mos-Def, KRS-One, you know who they are.” Check out the full interview with Quincy here.