Quincy Jones Quotes

I grew up with KTSU, and that station gave me so much info about the pantheon of black sounds: reggae, gospel, blues, soul, hip hop, and mostly they played jazz. That was a major part of how I understood music.

Anybody under the age of forty knows hip-hop, gospel and R&B pretty well, and it's all a part of what we consider to be 'black music.' There is a natural synergy between the three.

From the spiritual came the blues, gospel, and rhythm-and-blues. I heard all of that music growing up, and that has influenced how I approached classical music. I'm sure of it.

Once you establish a foundation of knowing what the greatest recording artists of all time were... Wouldn't you want your kids to know this stuff?

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

The consolidation of the music business has made it difficult to encourage styles like the blues, all of which deserve to be celebrated as part of our most treasured national resources.

The blues echoes right through into soul, R&B and hip hop. It's part of the make-up of modern music. You can't turn your back on the blues.

We'll be presenting a broad spectrum of the music and looking at how the younger guys can carry it on.

The study of music was a family interest.

I grew up listening to Jay-Z, and I think the first time I really became obsessed with learning and thinking about lyrics was when I started listening to rap; I was 11, 12, and started becoming aware of music beyond the familiar.

I'm really a singer, so I love songs and I love singing. I like rap music, but I didn't grow up freestyling.

I think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, first of all, has got to be put into the context of being an American cultural showcase. It's there to be a museum showcase of all that's great about American music.

Unfortunately, the young generation, who I believe have their own place in the sun like I had mine; but I wish it was possible there were other ways to have them understand this music was here before they came, and the reason that it was here.

Their eagerness for the big-band music and their ability to grasp the essence of it made me realize that today's generation has not been properly exposed to the big-band sound.

There were people who incorporated melody before me, but I would deem myself the first person to successfully rap and sing.

Hip-hop educated me about other forms of music, because it sampled from all different styles.

Historically, black music has influenced other cultures and other genres and created other genres.

My parents were music lovers and collectors. It was around.

I never thought a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland or anywhere else was a good idea.

I spent a few years here in Memphis, in the late '70s and early '80s, where I was studying a lot of country blues players and their styles. So it seems like every record I'll do, I will appropriate these blues styles that I remember.

Isaac Hayes told me once, 'There's no such thing as old-school. Either you went to school or you didn't.'

I'm an Australian, and when I grew up much of my influences were American - blues music and country music, all that sort of thing.

A lot of people say I tried to emulate Tupac, but when I look back at my career, we're very different artists. I took pages out of Pac's book, of course, and lots of other rappers - Biggie, Nas - of course you take pages out of those books, but you eventually make it your own thing. And I think I did a good job of that.

People can look to me as a teacher, but I consider myself a student of hip-hop.

People my age don't always know where their music comes from.