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This is Later with Lee Matthews The
Lee Matthews Podcast More of what You here

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weekday afternoons on the Drive. Bassist
Robert Bell, along with his brother Ronald

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Bell on tenor saxophone, lead vocalist
James J. T. Taylor and drummer

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George Brown were known as Cool in
the Gang. And I can't believe we

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are now celebrating the fiftieth anniversary not
only of hip hop but one of their

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first releases, Jungle Boogie. But
also we've noted that Cool in the Gang

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is going down in history as the
most sampled band when it comes to recycling

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and redoing. I mean a lot
of artists have drawn upon Robert's work and

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we welcome you. Robert. How
does it feel to be the most sampled

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band of all time? And you
know, although my good brother Foy,

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he was the fust sample bandool the
game number two. Okay, so statistic

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Cool visit Bend. They just very
good downs the fact and the beginning of

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this year they were a both sepal
Ban and uh as a band. It's

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just history. Yeah, Well it
all started with you in jazz as you

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lived close to Thelonious Monk. And
I can hear that influence in my favorite

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Cool in the Gang song too Hot. Well, you know I started my

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father. My father was a top
five felloways and uh he used to in

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New York and he lived in the
same apartment building that Thelonious Monk and then

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the ring people like Miles Davis.
We want to come by and want to

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smollow him. You know, my
father told him his mouth, I can't

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do that because I hit you wrong, messed up. Well yeah, yeah,

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yeah, yeah, it's too hot. Yeah. After a few years,

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most bands slow down and fade away, but you guys are still going

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strong. Well we'll thank them,
you know because after when COVID is that

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not the others out Yeah, yeah, but we were able to survive,

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and we thank God for that when
we stay out here again and traveling around

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the world although we got two years
rest though on that time. Yeah.

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Well, nothing moving or Google?
Well, yeah, great, Robert cool

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Bell of Cooling the Gang is where
us when when an artist like um,

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well it was DJ Jazzy Jeff and
the Fresh Prince, when they come do

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they come to you and say,
look, we want to sample part of

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your song for an idea we're working
on, or do they just do it

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and then tell you about it later. Well, sometimes they do it and

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they tell you about it later.
They changed, you know, down in

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Washington, when everybody sampling your music
anything like that, you know, you

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have to get the record company clicked. Yeah, and so that change a

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lot. Yeah, yeah, you
have to splo well, I mean back

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in the day it was egregious.
You know, when Pat Boone is doing

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a version of Blueberry Hill, I
doubt I doubt Fats Domino got any of

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that. Yeah, well the whole
change. Yeah, yeah, thank goodness,

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Thank goodness. Robert cool Bell is
with us of Cooling the Gang,

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celebrating fifty years of hip hop and
a sampled celebration. Uh. It's not

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like when you're sitting down to write
a song, you say, let me

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come up with something that's going to
be sampled by other artists. Yeah.

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When when you sit down and write
a song for Cooling the game, you're

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not you know, it's not like
you're, yeah, let's come up with

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a song that everybody's gonna sample.
That's not what's the first thing in your

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brain, is it? No?
No, no, no, that you

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know you come up lets you like
it to the rest of the wild life,

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you know. But but the sampling
camelop came along, you know,

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I think back in the day they
deal maybe a little covered the one as

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for covering for sampling and all that
rand new. Well, one of the

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things that made cool in the gang
so tight, I think was almost a

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big band sort of um um arranging. I mean when when you all we

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were putting together your music, was
there a lot of arranging or was it

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all just made up in the studio? Was ione? Was wasn't an before

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we went into the studio and be
coming with these di been ideas. But

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as we moved on, and like
your mere dar Donald became a producer,

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a lot of it was you know, his infort on arrangements. Just we

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were pretty much coming from funck yad
And then when we got at least thing

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a J. G. Taylor,
Uh did that? I was saying,

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listen, you gotta make room for
the singer. So we had to rearrange

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it. Well, you did it
really well. It's it's almost like I

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said, it's almost a big bandesque
sound, but it's got enough of the

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hip hop and the funk in it
as well. And I think to who

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are the two of The most used
and reused songs in your library are Celebration

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and Ladies Night because they came about
when there was a lot of nightclub action.

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Yeah. I was hanging out of
New York. My wife and I.

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I stood up at the Flour and
Regimes and j G had just h

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we had just signed to j Yes, just joined the group. You know.

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Uh, I knowed that every weekend
it was a ladies Night. I

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went back to the Yeah, great
idea Ladies Day. They said, wow,

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it's one and old everywhere in the
world. As Joe, Well,

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I want the main positive song,
and I came up with the title and

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second for us sure was Cooling the
Gang. Robert Bell is with us.

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They're celebrating fifty years of hip hop
and a sampled celebration. Are you guys

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still on tour now? Yeah?
Thanks? Where the West Gat We're doing

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a regidency here. You know we
shared the rule was very mental. Excellent,

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excellent. Well, we are so
glad you joined us today to talk

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about Cooling the Gang in the fifty
years of hip hop and a sampled celebration.

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Robert cool Bell of Cooling the Gang. Thanks for joining us, hey

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man, thanks for listening to later
with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven

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and I Heearts Media Presentation