You’d think after (accidentally) creating “Nautilus,” Bob James would take it easy for the remainder of his musical career, content with composing one of the most sampled tunes in music. He’s not though, not by a damn sight. “Nautilus” aside, there are many other contributions to music that he’s made and is still making. Fondling the keys of his Fender Rhodes in the 1970s led to him create the jazz subgenre fusion/smooth jazz, which he’s been deemed the father of.

All that easy listening got chopped up into villainous, threatening soundscapes by The RZA, Large Professor, and Eric B to create some of hip-hop’s most famous neck-snapping beats. Even out west, Souls of Mischief were stepping away from P Funk heavy sounds and using songs like James’ “Angela” to create a new wave in California rap.

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Pianist and composer Bob James may very well be the most sampled jazz musician in the history of hip-hop. Pieces of his now famous compositions like “Nautilus” and “Take Me to the Mardi Gras” have been endlessly loaded into MPCs, SP-1200s, and various other sampling devices for well over two decades. And those loops and chops make up the sounds of some of rap’s dopest records ever, like Ghostface Killah’s Wu banger “Daytona 500,” and Warren G and Nate Dogg’s West Coast classic “Regulate.” And that’s just two of hundreds. Scroll through Bob’s WhoSampled page, and you’ll find the names and sounds of seminal songs by Run-D.M.C., Gang Starr, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Main Source, Slick Rick, and countless other renowned rap acts. They all recognized Bob’s brilliance, and chose his music to be a part of their sample-based hip-hop masterpieces.

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“I’m flattered to be a part of hip-hop’s history,” says Bob James nonchalantly. “But I believe we’re still at the beginning of understanding how young people make music.”

Bob James’s career developed during a time when radio ruled, records sold, and Roberta Flack had the country’s number one song. Things were different then. Popular music was changing, and over in New York, kids were priming themselves for a burgeoning hip-hop scene. James was thirty-five by 1974 and had just released his first solo album on CTI Records. His subsequent projects for the label were both commercially successful LPs and unsung flops. Regardless of units sold, it was those very records that would lay the foundational sound for some of hip-hop’s most coveted records. It was those kids in New York who initially took James’s music and adapted it for themselves to use and the world to see.

James’s first three CTI releases—One, Two, and Three—are amongst the most sampled records ever. And if we’re truly beginning to grasp how younger generations make music, it’s safe to assume that James’s catalogue is a resource that’ll be continually sifted through and sampled from.

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