Rob Knox has been interviewed by Billboard.com where he talked about working with Justin Timberlake on ‘Man Of The Woods’ and being influenced by Timbaland.
With an interest in both rock and hip-hop, Knox first learned violin (which his aunt gave him as a present from Egypt) and then guitar (which his mom bought for 40 bucks). But it was the Timbaland-produced “Big Pimpin’” that served as the catalyst for the rest of his life. “When I heard it I was like, ‘Am I crazy or is this that song ‘Khosara Khosara’”? Popularized by the Egyptian superstar Abdel Halim Hafez, his “Khosara Khosara” is the flute riff sampled throughout the smash Jay-Z hit. (The choice of sample later landed both Jay-Z and Timbaland in court.) “At the time, I didn’t even know what a producer was. I thought these songs just magically appeared on a CD. But when I realized that Timbaland took this '60s-era Egyptian song and somehow made it into this crazy hip-hop record, I started doing research and realized he was doing that a lot, from Petey Pablo to Bubba Sparxxx and Aaliyah. That’s really what sparked my interest in production.”
Jay-Z - Big Pimpin' feat. UGK (Official Video) (1999)
Abdel Halim Hafez - Khosara (1960)
*billboard.com
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