Quincy Jones was a musical titan and pioneer in his prime, which never ended until his death at 91 years old on Nov. 3 

Jones, an indisputable Black pioneer in musical history, passed away from pancreatic cancer, according to his publicist. Jones remains a relevant factor in modern music, and his discography and over 50 motion pictures continues to stand the test of time. 

Jones first fell in love with music when he was in elementary school. He settled on the trumpet for his first few years and even befriended a local singer-pianist, Ray Charles. The two youths formed a combo, eventually landing small club and wedding gigs.

Once Jones turned 18 in 1951, he started to play with Lionel Hampton’s band on the road, which Jones said was the biggest band in the industry. It was bigger than Louis Armstrong, bigger than Duke Ellington, Basie and any other competitor. Jones called them one of the first rock ‘n’ roll bands. 

As Jones explored his own individual work, he had no other producers to source inspiration from and felt that some of them just weren’t articulate when it came to music. 

But while Jones grew in musical expertise, he had to learn how to also maneuver the predominantly white music industry and the ignorant discrimination Jones and his band began experiencing once touring and playing across America.

Jones’ long life allows fans to understand what life was like during segregation and how he was able to break though the ignorance of the music industry during and after the Jim Crow era.

Back in 1995, Jones appeared on The Academy of Achievement, a nonprofit interview-based organization whose mission “brings young leaders face-to-face with the extraordinary visionaries and pioneers who have helped shape our world.” He was inducted as a member earlier in 1991. 

The band would have their white driver go in and get food for the van when his predominately Black band played at especially racist states. Jones said during an interview, “North Carolina and South Carolina, they’d have $2.50- $3.50 general admission for the Black people, white spectators $1.50. I still have the signs.” 

While his feuds with Michael Jackson were the usual headlines, the two collaborated on “The Wiz” (a musical adaptation of “The Wizard Of Oz”) and some of their biggest hits ever like “Off The Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad.” While Jones wanted to integrate the disco and jazz elements that he grew up with, Jackson was much more focused on pop’s new sound. These two musical masterminds blended both to release a tremendous album sequence, which eventually broke through the whitewashed MTV shows.

Without Jones’ contribution to Jackson’s career, we could have been nowhere close to the diversity in American music streaming and media. Jones’ contributions to soundtracks and producing albums have sparked many hip-hop songs used by industry-leading rappers.

Jones and Jackson’s songs have been on monumental hip-hop albums like Kanye West’s Graduation. This album samples Jackson’s song “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” in his song “Good Life” featuring T-Pain. Jones produced this song, as well as Jackson’s “Human Nature” which was sampled for Nas’s “Ain’t Hard to Tell.”

While Jackson left Jones for rap producers to adapt to the changing music industry, Jones stuck to his roots yet still had an underrated profound impact on modern hip-hop samples. His song “Summer in the City” was used in 1992 for The Pharcyde’s “Passing Me By” one of the hip-hop group’s most popular song. 

He remains in modern hip hop like Big Sean and Metro Boomin’s “No Hearts, No Love” that was sampled in 2017 and Ludacris used Jones’ “Soul Bossa Nova” for his 2004 release titled “Number One Spot” proving Jones’ relevance in modern music. West and Jay-Z even released a song named “Murder to Excellence” that used a song from the movie “The Color Purple” which Jones produced titled “Katutoka Corrine.” 

While there are so many more to list, MF DOOM’s sample of Jones’ “One Hundred Ways” is one of my favorite MF DOOM songs; “Rhymes Like Dimes.” While Jones never got half the fame of Jackson, he deserves twice the credit for pioneering Black musicians in a racist and money-hungry industry.

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