'Jazz Is The Mother Of Hip-Hop': How Sampling Connects Genres

'Why do hip-hop producers gravitate toward jazz samples? For a mood, for sonic timbre, for a unique rhythmic component. Swing is a precursor to the boom-bap. "If you're a hip-hop producer that wants a lot of melodic stuff happening," pianist Robert Glasper says, "you're probably going to go to jazz first." In this short doc, Glasper identifies three jazz samples, from tracks by Ahmad Jamal and Herbie Hancock , that have served as source material for famed hip-hop producers J Dilla and Pete Rock .' -- +NPR