Props to LL Cool J for the nomination. The original version of Rock The Bells is one of the hardest tracks of all time. If the beat sounds eerily similar to Run DMC’s Peter Piper, that’s because it was. Rick Rubin decided to give it to JMJ instead. link
There’s a lot of talk about ghostwriters but there’s also the aspect of collaborating with people. Certain Run-DMC records sounded like you were involved. Is that fair to say?
Yeah, here and there. I wrote ‘Can You Rock It Like This’, and then after that Run kinda had a general feel for what we were doin’ and we worked on stuff together. The ‘Peter Piper’ beat was originally gonna be the beat for ‘Rock The Bells’ but Rick Rubin gave it Run and them, because I guess Jam-Master Jay had the same idea as me at the time – may he rest in peace. You can see what I mean, if you think about it.
