With news of his passing most publications are “re-publishing” the commonly held view that Cornelius was “not a fan of the genre”. Here is one of his last intreviews from late last year where he refutes this perception.
Q: Do you feel like you gave hip-hop a fair shake when it was in its infancy? Has your opinion on the genre changed through the years?
A: I’ve been accused of not being up on hip-hop or not being a fan of hip-hop, which was never true. If you had a following and you were charting in the major industry magazines — Billboard, and before that Cash Box — we had a commitment that “Soul Train” was yours. And we lived up to that. We saw ourselves as a mirror of what black radio was doing. That whole criteria was part of what kept us going so long.
