“I REMEMBHER seeing their records in the house but I didn’t know their songs until I was a teenager hanging out], who’s also a huge fan. When De La Soul sampled ‘Peg’ for ‘Eye Know’, I already knew it. Steely Dan make music that’s very focused on pop melody but employing some of the greatest musicians around them. There’s that heady academic vibe to their music – kids get into Steely Dan when they’re in college for a reason! – but they were smart enough to understand which musicians should play these songs. That’s why they’re one of the white groups that black people really gravitate towards. They studied enough to know which direction to go. As someone who listened to R&B, funk, soul and jazz, you were able to hear something that related to you in their music. And they write counterculture lyrics! They’re talking about the seedy underbelly of society. Rappers get criticised for talking about drug use and violence, reflecting society around them. What I like about Steely Dan is that if someone were to criticise hip-hop, I could point to their lyrics and go, ‘Well no, it’s not just rappers that do this!’”
