Music

Lou Reed made all the money from A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It?"

by Dan MacRae

Can A Tribe Called Quest kick it? Yes they can. Can they plump up their bank account as a result? No they cannot.

The beloved hip-hop classic “Can I Kick It?” ranks as one of the group’s signature songs, but according to Phife Dawg none of the money earned from the track went their way. Why? Their use of Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” has sucked up all the potential earnings.

“I remember with [record label] Jive, there was a problem with the sample being cleared,” Phife told Rolling Stone. “I don’t think they cleared the sample, and instead of Lou Reed saying, ‘You can’t use it,’ he said, ‘Y’all can use it, but I get all the money from that.'”

Phife says A Tribe Called Quest “haven’t seen a dime from that song” because all the money was earmarked for Reed. He places the blame for the lousy deal on the record label rather than the deceased Velvet Underground frontman.

“I’m grateful that [the song] kicked in the door, but to be honest, that was the label’s fault,” he explained. “They didn’t clear the sample. And rightfully so. It’s his art; it’s his work. He could have easily said no. There could have easily been no ‘Can I Kick It?’ So you take the good with the bad. And the good is, we didn’t get sued. We just didn’t get nothing from it.”

Maybe they can shake some cash out of Robbie Williams for plucking a bit of their song for “Rock DJ.”