“A friend of mine said that he had heard it some place,” original member Jimmy Hayes told Billboard. “He said, ‘I just heard this song, he was sampling your song.’ I said, ‘Sampling what song?’ He said, ‘When I heard it, I said oh, wow, that’s the Persuasions! That’s Mr. Jimmy!'”
Hayes told Billboard that another member of the Persuasions was contacted by Jamie’s representatives “a few years ago” regarding the possibility of clearing a sample. However, he says the two parties hadn’t been in recent touch.
“I like the idea of the younger artists going back in time and dealing with what they call ‘old-school,’ he said. “It doesn’t bother me that they wanted to sample, but the thing is we have to sit down with management and make sure that everything is recognized and on the up-and-up.”
“I don’t want to think that these people just went on their own to sample our music without any notification to us,” he said.
However, Hayes said he’d like to meet Jamie, and maybe even perform his part live.