90s Blue eyed soul singer Jonathan Buck aka Jon B, 48, made an appearance on a recent podcast, and had a few choice words for his musical peers.
Buck — who is of Jewish and Dutch descent — recently appeared on the Can We Talk R&B? podcast with Ian Von, and due to his unfiltered comments about a few artists is finding himself on the receiving end of cancel culture.
After praising Robin Thicke —another white, soulful crooner— and how he reportedly sampled the guitar lick from Jon B’s classic ballad, “They Don’t Know,” he spoke on how often the record gets sampled. Gunna and Chlöe used the sample on their song “you & me” in 2022, which Jon called “ratchet.”
“They put that ratchet record out,” he stated, adding, “I couldn’t stand it. I wish they never did it.”
Despite later trying to clean up his sentiments by saying that being sampled is a “compliment,” many aren’t happy with his aforementioned stance.
“A white man calling two black ppl ratchet is crazy,” one person tweeted.
Singer-songwriter Isadore Noir tweeted, “I 100% understand him not being happy about sample clearance, but issue a copyright strike or cease & desist or [whatever] you have to do but the scorn and way he’s talking about two young black artists is incredibly disappointing.”
Another chimed in tweeting, “It’s one thing to not like the sample of the song you don’t own, but watch your mouth! Also, this is why I don’t care for blue-eyed soul (excluding Teena Marie). This is why I’m not impressed/moved by what y’all perceive as soulful white artists or white musicians stepping above their normal mediocrity to perform at a level that’s basic for Black musicians. This is why I’m belligerently against those tired a** ‘cookout’ invites y’all love to pass out. #CloseTheGates.”
Others came to Jon's defense.
One fan wrote “Jon B ain’t said nothing wrong” as another added, “They didn’t get sample rights to a classic, used it and butchered it, but people hung up that he called the version ratchet. You youngins don’t understand Jon B’s contribution to R&B movement.”
It remains unclear if Jon B owns his masters, but the sample was cleared by Sony Music.
Also in the interview, Jon took shots at Justin Timberlake's latest flop of an album Everything I Thought It Was, and even called out the visuals on his latest single.
“That new single [‘No Angels‘] is trash,” Jon said after joking there would be no Timberlake without him. “I’m not feeling his music at all anymore. And the video is even more trash; I don’t like all this demonic sh*t. You would sell your soul to be popular or something? Or to give your allegiance some hidden power behind the scenes?”
He continued, “We making R&B music over here. Love music… and I stand in the face of fear and hatred and anger and sadness, like an angel of light.”
While Buck didn't really care for JT's latest album, he did praise the SexyBack singer for giving us some kids bops from the Trolls soundtrack.
Whether you agree or not Jon should be allowed to express his feelings. He wrote the track, so his feelings are valid. However I will also say if people are sampling your song you should be financially compensated and permission should be granted before you use someone else's sample.
I'm also getting sick and tired of these new generation of "artists" taking samples of 90s classics and turning them into uninspired trash.
Leave the classics alone and come up with something original that you can pass down to the next generation.
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