8 Essential Roy Ayers Songs Sampled By Hip-Hop & R&B Stars #RoyAyers
Written by djfrosty on March 6, 2025
Roy Ayers, the towering jazz legend whose songs reverberated throughout the entire scope of music, passed away this week at 84, leaving behind a massive library of sounds. Throughout his long career, Roy Ayers’s music has been sampled several times, and we have ## essential songs from Ayers that were sampled by Hip-Hop and R&B stars.
Roy Ayers passed away on Tuesday (March 4) after dealing with a long illness, according to reports. In the early 1970s, Ayers and his group, Roy Ayers Ubiquity began to find footing in the music scene. In 1973, Ayers soundtracked the film Coffy, which starred the legendary Pam Grier. The latter half of the decade was fruitful for Ayers with hit albums such as Mystic Voyage and Everybody Loves The Sunshine among them.
Countless artists have sampled Ayers, including Mary J. Blige, Naughty By Nature, The Notorious B.I.G., Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, A Tribe Called Quest, and more.
Below, we’re sharing these eight essential Roy Ayers songs sampled by Hip-Hop and R&B below.
“Everybody Loves The Sunshine”
“Searching”
“You Can’t Turn Me Away” – Sylvia Striplin (Ayers produced this track)
“Running Away”
“The Third Eye”
“Ooh”
“Mystic Voyage”
“Shining Symbol”
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Photo: getty