The Doors’ drummer John Densmore says Jay Z sent him letter letter explaining hip-hop

The Doors’ drummer John Densmore has revealed that Jay Z once sent him a letter explaining hip-hop.

Speaking to HuffPo Live, Densmore said that he had been left perplexed by the genre and had not understood its appeal after Jay Z sampled The Doors’ track ‘Five To One’ for his 2001 album ‘The Blueprint’.

“Hip-hop was just coming on, and I was like, ‘What is this stuff? There’s no melody,'” recalled Densmore. “I was a curmudgeon.”

He was then sent a letter explaining rap music by Jay Z himself – as well as a Def Jam t-shirt. Densmore added: “Jay Z wrote me a letter saying, ‘Hey, we’re fighting the authority just like you guys did back then.'” The drummer also said that he subsequently turned to Jay Z for help when writing his tome The Doors: Unhinged, as he had inspired by the way the rapper spoke about fame in his own book Decoded and wanted to quote some of his lyrics. “I took a photo of me in this T-shirt, which I saved,,” he said. “And sent it to him and said, ‘Hey, would you give me some of these words?'”

Source: NME