Questlove Traces The Sampling Lineage Of Kool & The Gang At The 2014 Soul Train Awards

This past weekend brought r&b and hip-hop's foremost movers-n-shakers under one roof for the hippest award show in the land AKA The 2014 Soul Train Awards. For those that follow, every year's show has focused the tributary spotlight on a particular group of pioneers, and this year, found that light on the innumerable contributions (the endless funk) of boogie titans Kool & The Gang. While many of their contemporaries have faded into the funky abyss, Kool & Co have remained a part of the funk music cannon, being one of the most sampled catalogues in all of the frequency borrowing that's transpired over the last 30 years.

What would Mase's "Feel So Good" or ODB's "Harlem World" be without the sonic bones that lay in Kool's "Hollywood Swinging" ? What would D'Angelo's heavenly mid-Voodoo break (AKA "Send It On") be without it's roots firmly planted in KATG's "Sea Of Tranquility"? The answer, as our chief archivist, musicologist and historian Questlove was poised to reveal, is absolutely nothing. The award show blessed the sampledelic kings with The Legend Award, which found Questo (and all of your favorite MCs, producers and actors) tracing the sonic mark of Kool & The Gang down the family tree, well into the malaise of the contemporary musical landscape. No doubt a high honor from the group that keeps on giving. Watch Questlove, DJ Jazzy Jeff and so many more put one up for Kool & The Gang as they accept The Soul Train Award's Legend Honor down below.