Throughlines, no. 2: Guy, Nas, and Gap Band

Uncovering lineage of Gap Band’s “Yearning for Your Love”

Mar 21, 2025

Welcome to the second issue of Throughlines, my music column here on my newsletter where I dig through the lineage of some of my favorite Soul music tracks.

Psst, you can skip past my blabbing and listen to the tracks here.

Covers and samples are two different ways that music artists pay homage to the work of other musicians.

A cover is specifically when another musician or group of musicians replicate a song, rerecording its lyrics and/or its composition. Covers may stay true to the original sound of the parent track, or it could deviate widely. One example of a surprising cover that comes to mind is Hozier’s cover of “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child, which I wouldn’t have heard if it wasn’t on a playlist at a Stretch & Restore class I took at my local yoga studio.

On the other hand, a sample takes elements of an original recording to make an entirely new track that features different lyrics and other elements altogether. Producers sample any element of a track and use it to provide texture to a whole new work. Some samples are easily recognizable, such as those that loop a key part of one song to make up the melody of the new song. Other uses of samples might simply take a short vocal element, such as the female voice that says “Hey!” at the beginning of James Brown’s “Funky President (People It’s Bad)” that can be heard in many R&B and Hip-Hop tracks of the late ‘80s through early ‘90s and beyond—its WhoSampled page has 1,054 recorded reuses of the track.1

In today’s issue of Throughlines, I’ll be diving into the lineage of Gap Band’s “Yearning for Your Love”—which is hands-down one of my favorite songs of all time—featuring both a cover and sample tribute to this R&B classic.

The Gap Band was an R&B and Funk band hailing from Tulsa, Oklahoma consisting of brothers Ronnie, Robert, and Charlie Wilson on lead vocals. The group named themselves, jokingly at the start, after the names of the streets they grew up on in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa: Greenwood, Archer, and Pine. It stuck and eventually was abbreviated to GAP. The band entered the mainstream when they got the chance to perform as Leon Russell’s backing band on his 1979 album Stop All That Jazz.

With their introduction to LA-based producer Lonnie Simmons, the group would be signed to Mercury Records, and adopted a sound of Funk reminiscent of George Clinton’s notorious “P-Funk” style laden with synth and spoken elements. After moderate commercial success with their second Mercury album, The Gap Band II, the band would soar to number 1 on the R&B chart and peak at number 16 on the Billboard 200 with their third Mercury-label album The Gap Band III. The Gap Band III featured three singles, two of them charting high on the U.S. R&B charts: “Burn Rubber (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)” at #1 and “Yearning For Your Love” which peaked at #5.

“Yearning for Your Love” was composed by Ronnie Wilson and Gap Band keyboardist Oliver Scott, dedicated to Wilson’s then-wife. Brother Charlie would take lead vocals on this song—his baritone and distinct vocal styling setting the tone for the next generation of male R&B crooners, such as the likes of K-Ci Hailey, Horace Brown, and Aaron Hall. The track itself has been covered and sampled several times2, including Guy’s 1990 cover and L.E.S. production of “Life’s a Bitch” by New York rapper Nas.

Guy was an R&B group formed by original members Teddy Riley, Aaron Hall, and Timmy Gatling in 1987. They were signed to the fresh, up-and-coming Uptown Records label distributed by MCA Records, of which Andre Harrell was founder.

Their debut culture-shifting self-titled album, released in 1987, marked the start of a new era and sub-genre for contemporary R&B music. Riley, known as the father of New Jack Swing―a sound that Guy popularized―was the primary producer and songwriter for the group. Aaron Hall would mark the sound of Guy’s music with his distinct, strong lead vocals, comparable to that of Charlie Wilson. In fact, Hall cited Wilson as one of his mentors when he had the opportunity to collaborate with him on the track “It’s Gonna Be Alright” for the Boomerang soundtrack in 1992.

Their 1990 sophomore album, now featuring Hall’s younger brother Damion to replace Timmy Gatling, featured a cover of Gap Band’s “Yearning for Your Love.” Reimagined by Teddy with a New Jack Swing edge to it, the cover features Aaron’s lead vocals mirroring that of Wilson’s in the original.

⇢ Fun Fact: Blackstreet, also formed by original Guy member Teddy Riley (and featured in my first issue of Throughlines), performed a cover of “Yearning for Your Love” on Season 3, Episode 5 of New York Undercover.

Nas (born Nasir Jones) is a rapper and entrepreneur originating from New York. His early sound was that of boom bap, a subgenre of Hip-Hop sonically recognizable by the use of looped bass and snare drum samples in East Coast Hip-Hop. “Boom bap” is onomatopoeia—derived literally from the sound that the drum samples make. The first recorded use of the expression can be traced back to 1984 in T La Rock’s “It’s Yours,” which was notably sampled3 in the lead single from Nas’ debut album Illmatic, “The World Is Yours.”

A storyteller, Nas’ music reflected His perspective of a young Black man growing up in the inner city. “Life’s A Bitch” featuring rapper AZ, also from Illmatic, references these experiences:

I'm destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it
'Cause yeah, we were beginners in the hood as Five Percenters
But somethin' must've got in us, 'cause all of us turned to sinners
Now some restin' in peace and some are sittin' in San Quentin
Others, such as myself, are tryin' to carry on tradition4

The song also features Nas’ father, jazz and blues musician Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), on the cornet—a brass instrument similar to the trumpet—at the tail-end of the track. Dara himself was born to a father, Charlie R. Jones, who was a traveling musician. After learning piano and clarinet as a child, Dara went on to pursue music theory and composition at Tennessee State University, ditching his earlier pre-med plans.5

He moved to New York City in 1964 where he changed his name to Olu Dara, which means “The Lord is good” in Yoruba, and played for a variety of jazz and blues bands throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. Dara released his own debut album by the name of In the World: From Natchez to New York in 1998. Beyond “Life’s a Bitch,” his instrumental work can be heard throughout the Illmatic album, as well as on Nas’ “Dance” released in 2002. He additionally contributed vocally to Nas’ “Bridging the Gap” and “Street’s Disciple,” both released in 2004. His influence can surely be heard throughout his son’s catalog.

Now, without further ado, the tracks.

Take a listen:

The Parent

“Yearning for Your Love” by The Gap Band

from the album Gap Band III, released 1980 on Mercury Records

Genre: R&B

Composed by Ronnie Wilson and Oliver Scott

Produced by Lonnie Simmons

The Cover

“Yearning for Your Love” by Guy

from the album The Future, released 1990 on Uptown/MCA Records

Genre: R&B • Style: New Jack Swing

Produced by Teddy Riley

The Sample

“Life’s a Bitch” by Nas featuring AZ and Olu Dara

from the album Illmatic, released 1994 on Columbia Records6

Genre: Hip-Hop and Rap • Styles: Boom Bap, Jazzy

Produced by L.E.S.

What I love about the cover

The lyrics to the song are a heart-wrencher. Aaron’s vocals absolutely do this song its justice—matching Charlie Wilson’s energy over Teddy’s refreshed, future-forward instrumental.

What I love about the sample

I love how the melody is used and looped as the foundation for the track, how the melody gets a new texture with the cornet at the end of the song. It feels cinematic, but it’s not merely a vibe: the storytelling of Nas and AZ transport you to a hot night in the concrete jungle. You feel you are there with them, and music is the balm.