The lead singer of a 70s English prog band has expressed his surprise after Kanye West and Tyler the Creator took his song to the top of the US charts.
Hip hop mega star Tyler is riding high at the top of the Billboard Chart with his number one album, Igor and with his single Puppet, alongside Kanye West, that has raised eyebrows with a veteran prog singer.
Mick Ware was the lead singer with Czar, who released a single called Today, back in the 1970s.
He expressed his surprise when he was contacted by Sony, who wanted permission for the rappers to sample the tune, and thought it was a ‘scam’.
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After originally assuming it was a hoax, Mick described the moment when he suddenly realised that one of the biggest hip hop acts in the world wanted to use his song.
Speaking to Chris Hawkins on BBC 6 Music, Mick said: “It’s all been done by e-mails.
“The first e-mail we got was from an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles saying one of their artists wanted to sample Today.
“We just thought it was a scam.”
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Mick admitted that he was a little behind with the hip hop scene, saying: “It was the first time we’d actually head of Tyler the Creator and then we couldn’t believe what a massive star he was in America.
“Kanye West is the other composer of this number so it was a very exciting e-mail for us. We can only hope it’s a very successful number.”
Mick was pleased to hear that Tyler and Kanye had kept true to his original, especially when it came to the vocals.
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He continued: “In this one number [Puppet] it does have a lot of harmonies in the actual part where the sample comes in and that sort of represents what we used to do which was lots of harmonies.
“It was the only number I wrote on the record and sung on.”
Mick revealed there was rock royalty in his presence when Today came to life, saying: “Bill Wyman was in the studio when we recorded it.”
The fact that it has been taken on by two of the biggest acts in the world at the moment will no doubt get Mick raising a glass in their direction.
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