The song that inspired him: “What’s Going On” (Renaldo Benson, Alfred Cleveland, Marvin Gaye), 1971
“That takes you to another place,” Jam said. “That changed the whole world, like, put you in a different place, and that’s one of those songs. What I really love about it, first of all, the fact that it’s lyrically so relevant is very bittersweet, because it shouldn’t be. Those lyrics that he’s saying should not be happening now, but what I liked about it was it’s almost a lullaby, the way he sings it. You can just listen and let the music happen, but then you can dig into the lyrics, and the lyrics are very provocative.
“The other thing I like about it was he wasn’t trying to solve the problems, because it wasn’t — you couldn’t really have a solve the problems moment. But the fact that he’s asking a question, and the first two songs actually on that album are ‘What’s Going On,’ where he’s asking what’s going on, and then the next song after that is ‘What’s Happening Brother.’ So he’s kind of asking the questions and letting the discussion happen, and then he’s observing other things like ‘Inner City Blues [Make Me Wanna Holler],’ and so on and so forth. But yeah, ‘What’s Going On’ to me is just — it’s so good that I can’t even be jealous of it, because that’s not even anywhere in my… I can’t even be jealous.
