Music Innovator Quotes

Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist.

David Bowie - I definitely knew some of his music as a teenager, but I didn't actually listen to his music as much until I was in my 20s.

Michael Jackson carried urban America and eventually American society on his vocal cords for a good 25 to 30 years before even hip-hop became the vox populi of America, and then as an adult he shattered racial barriers.

I don't think anyone can measure up to what my father had achieved. I'm just happy to at least play some of his music, but he is really the one who was the pioneer, the one who started all this. He's really The King.

I personally think Miles Davis is a lot funnier than me. And he's working more.

Rick Rubin is super intriguing to me because he has become this god producer in completely drastically different genres, which very few people have done.

Jazzmatazz' was Guru's thing, but Gang Starr was his baby. I don't care what anybody says. That dude loved Gang Starr.

Cudi should be a top tier artist... I think he fathered a lot of the style of music. He's a good influence and a good help.

I can think of no one more relevant and credible in the hip-hop community to build upon Def Jam's fantastic legacy and move the company into its next groundbreaking era.

I am the innovator. I am the originator. I am the emancipator. I am the architect of rock 'n' roll!

Brian Eno is an iconic and omnipresent pioneer in the world of ambient music, but he's gained real staying power while working behind the boards. He's produced albums for some of modern music's most influential artists, including Devo, David Bowie, U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel and Talking Heads.

There's every other guitar player and then there's Chet. He transcended musical boundaries for more than fifty years. God only lays Chet Atkins on you once in a lifetime.

Frank Ocean is our modern-day Marvin Gaye. In our house, we have nothing but respect for him.

Don Cornelius was a genius. He created a show where he was breaking artists' songs. If you were on his show, he made the consumer want to go out and purchase your music. He will be greatly missed. If they ever try to recreate what he did, it has to been done right, authentic and real with soul! That's what Don displayed.

Louie Vega was a huge influence on me.

Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock-and-roll sound than anybody else.

Erykah Badu - she's timeless, that's my second mom.

Without David Bowie, popular music as we know it pretty much wouldn't exist.

I want to be what Kenny G. and Carlos Santana were, but for this day and age.

Madonna is the ultimate pop star of all time, hands down. She wrote the playbook for it. There is no female pop star - and probably few men today, for that matter - who are not indebted to her in one way or another for her contributions to the industry.

I love Dilla, and who knows where this beat thing would be without him.

If I have one hero in music, it's John Cale.

If it wasn't for John Peel, there would be no Joy Division and no New Order. He was one of the few people to give bands that played alternative music a chance to get heard, and he continued to be a champion of cutting-edge music throughout his life.

Lemmy is, I think, for anybody in the world of rock n' roll - you don't have to be a bass player - he is a pioneer, and he was true to his music and also the lover of a lot of different styles of music.

In my eyes, there's no one better than Stevie Wonder. He's a top dude.