While the music world mourns Roy Ayers, the Godfather of Neo-Soul and a jazz-funk pioneer who died at age 84 on March 4, the hip-hop community will always remember him as one of its brightest inspirations.
“Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” the enduring hit from Roy Ayers Ubiquity’s 1976 album of the same name, became the highlight of his legacy — and everybody loved it so much they couldn’t help but borrow a bit of its brilliance. The New York Times‘ obituary for Ayers reported that “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” has been sampled nearly 200 times.
“Well, I have more sampled hits than anybody,” he said in a 2004 interview with Wax Poetics. “I might not have more samples than James Brown, but I’ve had more sampled hits. Oh, man, and there’s a few I don’t know about.”
Mary J. Blige — who sampled “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” for “My Life” from her 1994 album of the same name, which was later interpolated on “MJB Da MVP” featuring 50 Cent, on her 2005 LP The Breakthrough — opened up about the song’s indelible impact on her in her 2021 documentary My Life. “I don’t know what’s in that record, but it was something in it that just cracked open everything in me. That was the first music as a child that stuck with me because it made me forget that we lived where we lived,” Blige said in the film. “‘My life in the sunshine’ was something I wanted.” The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul also heavily sampled Ayers’ 1976 track “Searching” on her 1997 album Share My World.
Like Blige, Dr. Dre, TLC, Juvenile and Joe Budden also have songs titled “My Life,” while Scarface and Naughty by Nature have songs called “Sunshine.” Thirty years after he sampled “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” on “Book of Life” from his 1994 album Resurrection, Common dug back in the crates and dusted off the sample for the Grammy-nominated song “When the Sun Shines,” featuring Posdnuos, from his and Pete Rock‘s 2024 Grammy-nominated joint LP The Auditorium Vol. 1.
Outside of being sampled and interpolated by hip-hop heavyweights, Ayers also collaborated with Tyler, the Creator on “Find Your Wings,” also featuring Syd and Kali Uchis, from Tyler’s 2015 album Cherry Bomb; Erykah Badu on “Cleva” from her 2000 LP Mama’s Gun; The Roots on “Proceed II” from the deluxe version of the band’s 2005 album Do You Want More?!!!??!; and Talib Kweli on “In the Mood,” also featuring Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), from his 2007 album Eardrum as well as on “Something Special” from Kweli and Madlib‘s 2024 joint LP Liberation 2.
“Roy Ayers called me like ‘tyler, hey man, those changes are amazing, your chord selection is just beautiful my man’ OMG MY HEART MELTED,” Tyler tweeted in 2015. The Chromakopia rapper also sampled Ayers’ 1982 track “Ooh” on “Pothole,” featuring Jaden Smith, from his 2017 album Flower Boy. Later that same year, Ayers performed at his Camp Flog Gnaw festival. Questlove hailed him as “the cat who birthed us all in the ‘vibes only’ movement. The Soundtrack that ALL the incense you ever burned was truly made for. Thank You Roy Edward Ayers Jr for EVERYTHING you gave us. taught us. showed us. soothed us.”
Billboard rounded up 21 hip-hop and R&B songs that have sampled and interpolated Roy Ayers Ubiquity’s “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” in order from newest to oldest.
Common and Pete Rock’s “When the Sun Shines Again,” featuring Posdnuos, loops the word “sunshine” in the intro and Bilal and Posdnuos’ chorus for some extra luminance. “When the Sun Shines Again” was up for best rap performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards, while its parent album The Auditorium, Vol. 1 was nominated for best rap album.
Joey Bada$$‘s “Shine” from his 2020 EP The Light Pack samples the sprightly piano chords and high-pitched synths as well as the word “shine” and the “My life, my life, my life, my life” line, while cutting up the final verse of “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” in the chorus: “Shine, when I do, what I do, when I’m doin’/ … Shine, when I feel, what I feel, when I’m feelin’.”
Larry June‘s “Watering My Plants” from his 2020 album Adjust to the Game injects his signature West Coast bounce to the instrumental of “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and samples the “My life, my life, my life, my life/ In the sunshine” hook throughout the lively track.
Teedra Moses’ “You’re so Different” from her 2015 album Clair Voyant chops up the chipper piano chords of “Everybody Loves the Sunshine.”
Joe Budden’s “My Life” from his 2007 mixtape Mood Muzik Vol. 3.5 samples the “My life, my life, my life, my life” line twice in the hook.
J. Cole‘s “Rags to Riches (At the Beep)” from his 2007 mixtape The Come Up Mixtape Vol. 1 samples the vibey instrumental of “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” throughout the track and its “My life, my life, my life, my life/ In the sunshine/ Everybody loves the sunshine” hook as well as the “Folks get down in the sunshine” and “Just bees and things and flowers” lines in the outro.
Mary J. Blige’s “MJB Da MVP,” featuring 50 Cent, from her 2005 Billboard 200-topping, Grammy-winning album The Breakthrough interpolates “My Life” and many of her other hits (“Real Love,” “I’m Goin’ Down” and more) on the bridge: “You remind me of a real love (You don’t have to worry)/ Real love/ All night long I’m goin’ down/ Reminisce on the love we have/ You are everything, love without a limit/ What you gonna do without my life, my life, my life, my life?”
Juvenile’s “My Life,” featuring TQ, from his 2001 album Project English interpolates the “My life, my life, my life, my life” line in the chorus while adding its “sunshine” from another soulful ’70s track by a late legend: Bill Withers‘ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” “My life my life my life my life/ My life my life my life my life/ Ain’t no sunshine ’til they gone/ Ain’t no sunshine ’til they gone,” TQ sings in the chorus.
2pac and Outlawz’s “Tattoo Tears” from their 1999 joint album Still I Rise borrows the “My life, my life, my life, my life/ In the sunshine” hook in Napoleon’s third verse.
2pac’s “Lost Souls,” featuring Outlawz, from Gang Related – The Soundtrack for the 1997 crime film Gang Related interpolates the “My life, my life, my life, my life” line in 2pac’s intro and chorus: “‘Cause I hate to spend my life/ My life, my life, my life duckin’ one-time.”
Scarface’s “Sunshine,” featuring Lisa Crawford, from his 1997 album The Untouchable lifts the hook from “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” in the chorus: “Sunshine/ Everybody needs/ Sunshine/ My life, my life, my life/ Sunshine/ Everybody needs/ Sunshine/ My life, my life, my life.”
Naughty by Nature’s “Sunshine” from the trio’s 1995 Grammy-winning, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 1 LP Poverty’s Paradise samples the word “sunshine” throughout the golden track.
Mary J. Blige’s “My Life” from her 1994 Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 1 LP of the same name samples the warm, feel-good instrumental of “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and the “My life, my life, my life, my life/ In the sunshine” hook throughout the poignant track. My Life was nominated for best R&B album at the 1996 Grammy Awards.
Dr. Dre’s “My Life” from his unreleased album Dretox lifts the groovy instrumental of “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” before pitching it up and chopping it up ahead of the intro and samples the “My life, my life, my life, my life/ In the sunshine” hook in the chorus.
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