Smokey Robinson was super impressed when D’Angelo put his spin on his 1979 hit, “Cruisin’.”
During a recent chat on the R&B Money Podcast, Robinson was asked about his reaction when he first heard D’Angelo’s take on the track.
“First of all, D’Angelo’s my little brother. I love him,” Robinson shared around the 40:40 mark. “What did I think when I heard it? I thought, ‘Yippee! Oooh great!’ That’s the same thing I think when I hear anybody doing any of my songs. As a songwriter, I hope that that happens all the time.”
He explained, “I know when the kids first started to sample music and during all that, people come to me, ‘Hey man, they sampled your music. Ain’t you upset?’ No, sample all of mine. Sample every song I ever wrote in my life, please. Because when you sample it, that says to me that out of the billion songs that are on Earth that you had a choice of, and plus you a songwriter yourself—you chose one of mine to incorporate in your music or to just sing, period? Thank you.”
“So D’Angelo, like I said, he’s a talented young man and he sang it and I was flabbergasted,” Robinson added. “I loved when he did that man. He’s got such a funky version of it.”
When one of the co-hosts mentioned artists who hate having their music sampled, Smokey called them “fools” and “stupid.”
“First of all, like I said, it’s flattery and then you gonna earn some money. So why would you protest that?” the legendary singer questioned.
D’Angelo dropped his cover of “Cruisin'” in 1995 as the second single from his first album, Brown Sugar, which came out that same year. The song hit No. 10 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Robinson released his original version as a single in 1979 through Motown Records’ Tamla label. It climbed to No. 4 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Hot Soul Singles.
D’Angelo is set to make his first stage appearance in nine years at Roots Picnic, with The Roots backing him up. The festival runs from May 31 to June 1 in Philadelphia.
