I consider myself lucky that Sonu Nigam, Bikram Ghosh and Taufiq Quereshi came forward to create an original soundtrack to promote my book, something that hasn't been tried here before!
You can look at someone and get to know their music and say, 'This is someone who I want to work with.'
Since his childhood, Bappa has observed me singing and practicing and is well aware of all sorts of recording and singing arrangements. I have a studio at my home, so whenever he needs my help I make sure I stand by him. I often sing for the tunes that he composes.
I just being able to write songs I'm proud of and finding some women to play with is exciting.
I first met Miles Davis about 1947 and played a few jobs with him and Sonny Rollins at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. During this period, he was coming into his own, and I could see him extending the boundaries of jazz even further.
People told me that Miley's '23' wasn't hip-hop. Let me tell you, she went in and owned that track.
The thing about hip-hop producers, and the thing about hip-hop musicians, is that we listen to everything. And we're inspired by everything. I'd say even more so than any other genre of music.
Making music is what drives me - not awards, not Internet fame, not even exorbitant amounts of money. My fans call themselves 'Aadeez,' and they are the most loyal lot. I make my music for them. I love them.
I met Mos Def around that time but I didn't hook up with him until I was about 17 or 18.
So the Madonna thing, I wrote a song with Diplo, she liked it, tweaked it and then made it her own and it became 'Hold Tight.'
Honestly, a lot of pop records have beatboxing. Timbaland beatboxes on his tracks. Justin Timberlake beatboxes.
Joe Walsh is somebody who... he's a writer, obviously, and he's a singer-songwriter, whatever, but at the end of the day, when it comes to the Eagles, he's there to play guitar, and he's there to supply whatever is needed for that band, and that is what I feel with Metallica.
In the Troubadour days, it was all those songwriters that I hung around with all the time, so I could get songs and find out what was going on. So we all knew each other, and we just carried each other's word around.
Chance The Rapper makes some of the greatest music out, and he build his brand up organically, and the fans have reacted to it.
I think that my biggest influences are electronic acts. Daft Punk is probably my number 1, then Kanye West would be number 2 after that.
I played more of an advisory role with Public Enemy. I really trusted them to make the music that they wanted to make, and the way The Bomb Squad worked with the... they created their whole own world of music.
A couple of days working with Joe Jonas, I thought, 'This guy is a slayer of a singer; he's really funny, goofy, and sexy. We need to write that.' And that led to 'Cake By The Ocean.'
I have been working and composing music since 1986. Over the years, I have seen our music industry go through all kinds of transformation.
When we were starting out as a band in New York, we played a concert at a small club early on and asked Lady Gaga to open for us. We were big fans, and she had the same kind of approach to music as we did: not taking everything so seriously and just having fun.
I met Drake. That was crazy. Chief Keef, that was another crazy one. Obviously, people like Ski Mask The Slump God, that's my boy.
A lot of people have been sending me beats, I've just been getting it in.
With 'Love Shack,' once we put that chorus in, it did have more of a song structure. Even though the verses are all kind of different, the chorus was there along with 'The Love Shack' - I think that really made it a hit. Once we heard it in the studio, we played it for R.E.M., and they were like, 'Yes this is a hit.'
Kanye and T.I. both engage with what I'm doing.
When Def Jam wanted to sign Method Man, they wanted to sign Method Man and Old Dirty. And Old Dirty wanted to be on Def Jam - everybody, that was like the dream label. But if I had Old Dirty and Method Man on Def Jam, that's two key pieces going in the same direction, whereas there's other labels that needed to be infiltrated.
I know Pentatonix. I knew them before they were even a group.
