This is Later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews Podcast More of what You here weekday afternoons on the Drive. Bassist Robert Bell, along with his brother Ronald Bell on tenor saxophone, lead vocalist James J. T. Taylor and drummer George Brown were known as Cool in the Gang. And I can't believe we are now celebrating the fiftieth anniversary not only of hip hop but one of their
first releases, Jungle Boogie. But also we've noted that Cool in the Gang is going down in history as the most sampled band when it comes to recycling and redoing. I mean a lot of artists have drawn upon Robert's work and we welcome you. Robert. How does it feel to be the most sampled band of all time? And you know, although my good brother Foy, he was the fust sample bandool the game number two. Okay, so statistic Cool visit Bend. They just very good downs the fact and the beginning of
this year they were a both sepal Ban and uh as a band. It's just history. Yeah, Well it all started with you in jazz as you lived close to Thelonious Monk. And I can hear that influence in my favorite Cool in the Gang song too Hot. Well, you know I started my father. My father was a top five felloways and uh he used to in New York and he lived in the same apartment building that Thelonious Monk and then the ring people like Miles Davis. We want to come by and want to
smollow him. You know, my father told him his mouth, I can't do that because I hit you wrong, messed up. Well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's too hot. Yeah. After a few years, most bands slow down and fade away, but you guys are still going strong. Well we'll thank them, you know because after when COVID is that not the others out Yeah, yeah, but we were able to survive, and we thank God for that when we stay out here again and traveling around
the world although we got two years rest though on that time. Yeah. Well, nothing moving or Google? Well, yeah, great, Robert cool Bell of Cooling the Gang is where us when when an artist like um, well it was DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, when they come do they come to you and say, look, we want to sample part of your song for an idea we're working on, or do they just do it and then tell you about it later. Well, sometimes they do it and
they tell you about it later. They changed, you know, down in Washington, when everybody sampling your music anything like that, you know, you have to get the record company clicked. Yeah, and so that change a lot. Yeah, yeah, you have to splo well, I mean back in the day it was egregious. You know, when Pat Boone is doing a version of Blueberry Hill, I doubt I doubt Fats Domino got any of that. Yeah, well the whole change. Yeah, yeah, thank goodness,
Thank goodness. Robert cool Bell is with us of Cooling the Gang, celebrating fifty years of hip hop and a sampled celebration. Uh. It's not like when you're sitting down to write a song, you say, let me come up with something that's going to be sampled by other artists. Yeah. When when you sit down and write a song for Cooling the game, you're not you know, it's not like you're, yeah, let's come up with a song that everybody's gonna sample. That's not what's the first thing in your
brain, is it? No? No, no, no, that you know you come up lets you like it to the rest of the wild life, you know. But but the sampling camelop came along, you know, I think back in the day they deal maybe a little covered the one as for covering for sampling and all that rand new. Well, one of the things that made cool in the gang so tight, I think was almost a big band sort of um um arranging. I mean when when you all we were putting together your music, was there a lot of arranging or was it
all just made up in the studio? Was ione? Was wasn't an before we went into the studio and be coming with these di been ideas. But as we moved on, and like your mere dar Donald became a producer, a lot of it was you know, his infort on arrangements. Just we were pretty much coming from funck yad And then when we got at least thing a J. G. Taylor, Uh did that? I was saying, listen, you gotta make room for the singer. So we had to rearrange
it. Well, you did it really well. It's it's almost like I said, it's almost a big bandesque sound, but it's got enough of the hip hop and the funk in it as well. And I think to who are the two of The most used and reused songs in your library are Celebration and Ladies Night because they came about when there was a lot of nightclub action. Yeah. I was hanging out of New York. My wife and I. I stood up at the Flour and Regimes and j G had just h
we had just signed to j Yes, just joined the group. You know. Uh, I knowed that every weekend it was a ladies Night. I went back to the Yeah, great idea Ladies Day. They said, wow, it's one and old everywhere in the world. As Joe, Well, I want the main positive song, and I came up with the title and second for us sure was Cooling the Gang. Robert Bell is with us. They're celebrating fifty years of hip hop and a sampled celebration. Are you guys
still on tour now? Yeah? Thanks? Where the West Gat We're doing a regidency here. You know we shared the rule was very mental. Excellent, excellent. Well, we are so glad you joined us today to talk about Cooling the Gang in the fifty years of hip hop and a sampled celebration.
Robert cool Bell of Cooling the Gang. Thanks for joining us, hey man, thanks for listening to later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and I Heearts Media Presentation