Smokey Robinson shared his thoughts about D’Angelo covering his single “Cruisin.’”
While on the R&B Money Podcast, the legend was about how he felt when he heard the cover for the first time. “First of all, D’Angelo’s my little brother. I love him,” Robinson said. “What did I think when I heard it? I thought, ‘Yipee! Ooh 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 continued, “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.”
Robinson added, “So D’Angelo, like I said, he’s a talented young man and he sang it and I was flabbergasted. I loved when he did that man. He’s got such a funky version of it.” Smokey Robinson also gave his opinions about artists who don’t like having their music sampled.
“First of all, like I said, it’s flattery and then you gonna earn some money. So why would you protest that?” D’Angelo released his version of “Cruisin’” in 1995, it was the second single from his debut album Brown Sugar. The song landed in the number 10 spot on the Billboard Hot R&B /Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Robinson’s version was released in 1979 and went to number 4 on the Hot 100 and Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.