Bob James

Aside from James Brown, Bob James is probably one of the most sampled artists in hip hop. Before his career went from fusion to entirely smooth jazz, James recorded, produced and arranged several albums for CTI. Bob James One, and Four are probably the two most well known to hip hop producers and fans of hip hop because of two of his most sampled songs, “Take me to Mardi Gras” and “Nautilus”. Steve Gadd plays drums on “Take me to Mardi Gras” (aka “Rock the Bells”) which is most famously used in Run DMC’s “Peter Piper”, LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells”, and most recently Missy Elliott’s “Work It”. Idris Muhammed (aka the Funky Drummer), plays drums on Nautilus which has been used in Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story”, Ghostface Killah’s “Daytona 500”, Jeru the Damaja’s “My mind Spray” and chopped and cut into dozens of other jams. These two breaks are as essential to hip hop as Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache”, James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” and the Winstons’ “Amen, Brother”. Bob James deserves all the props he can get.
Bob James - Take me to Mardi Gras
Bob James - Nautilus