Jim James

Explicit content warning

02/09/21 • 47 min

During the course of this week's People Have The Power James picks several protest songs, including Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," which he says, "That's my favorite album of all time."

He elaborates on the significance of the song both culturally and in his work. "Right after George Floyd was killed and I was in Los Angeles at the protest I saw several people holding up signs with lyrics from 'What's Going On' on them. That song and that record, to me, are the pinnacle of human achievement musically," he says.

So how does it influence his own work? "Everything about that record is what I aspire to be with music. I feel like that record haunts my dreams," he says. "That record, in my mind, is untouchable. So I'm always looking to it as the cornerstone of the building I'm trying to build. "

During the course of this week's People Have The Power James picks several protest songs, including Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," which he says, "That's my favorite album of all time."

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Ziggy Marley

"My first one was 'Get Up, Stand Up,' but I crossed it out because I was like, 'That's too obvious.' There's another one called 'Slave Driver,' which is less obvious that I like. In my deeper cuts that would be the one,'" Ziggy Marley says of why he chose his father's "Slave Driver" as his dad's protest song on this week's People Have The Power.

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Julia Stone

"Hearing great songs that make you move has been a huge part of what's inspired me to make this record. I really wanted to at some point in my life make a record that felt like I could move my body to it and have fun," Julia Stone says on this week's People Have The Power of her forthcoming 'Sixty Summers,' her first solo album in eight years.