Barry White came from a time when you had to take your craft seriously to compete with the greats.
When you have Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Marvin Gaye to compete with, you better learn how to write, compose and sing. Barry White could do all three.
When you have bands like Kool and The Gang, P-Funkadelic, Earth Wind And Fire pushing the boundaries, you better have an equally tight band. And that’s where Love Unlimited Orchestra comes into it.
Him and his ilk birthed the Princes, D’Angelos, Maxwells, Raphael Sadiqs. How many multi-instrumentalists today can write, produce and perform their own songs? If you wanted to be respected back then, you had to be the full package, in the studio and on stage.
I didn’t even get into the many artists Barry White wrote and produced for. And how many artists sampled his music.
Did you know one of 50 Cent’s biggest hits sampled a second of his songs? It was the last sample he cleared before he died. The GOAT.