The classic song that Flea regretted playing on
No artist is limited to just one style of music. It’s all about trying to make as many twists and turns whenever you get behind your instrument. Some of the best musicians have been able to shoehorn their signature sound into whatever musical style they are playing with, from jazz to punk to blues rock. While Flea may have had many more musical aspirations beyond Red Hot Chili Peppers, his appearance on a hip-hop classic never sat well with him.
If the bassist hadn’t stopped listening to his favourites from his youth, chances are he would have been known more for the trumpet than the bass guitar. Before he had even picked up anything with strings on it, Flea was known for playing trumpet in his school band and being immersed in the world of jazz before practically getting struck by lightning when he heard punk rock.
While Flea would meet Anthony Kiedis in high school and pave the way for Red Hot Chili Peppers in the LA club scene, he was also leaving a career in punk on the table. Despite the magic that occurred between him, Kiedis and original guitarist Hillel Slovak whenever they played live, Flea was almost the permanent bass player in the punk trailblazers Fear until he realised that he would be better served playing in the style of Bootsy Collins than Sid Vicious.
Whenever a band is starting, you have to do what you have to do to make ends meet. Since there was only a little bit of money coming in from the Peppers’ first shows, Flea started to take on a few session gigs, including with a young up-and-comer named Young MC, then known for co-writing the pop-rap classic ‘Wild Thing’ with Tone Loc.
After getting the basic beat of a classic 1970s rock record, Young MC turned the sample into ‘Bust a Move’, but it lacked that one extra shot of funk. Before it became the hip-hop mainstay we know now, Flea was brought in to add a second bass line to the track, sounding remarkably similar to what he would be playing a few years later on Mother’s Milk.
For Flea, this was practically just another day at the office. No music was off the table for him, so he may as well try to get in on the ground floor of hip-hop, especially since Kiedis’s flow was a carbon copy of early rap. There was only one problem: no one bothered to give the bass player any royalty check for his work.
When talking about his work on the track later, Flea said that he regretted contributing to the piece because of how he was screwed over, telling Bass Player, “I have a bitter taste in my mouth about that, though, because I feel as though I got ripped off. The bass line I wrote ended up being a major melody of the tune, and I felt I deserved songwriting credit and money because it was a No. 1 hit. They sold millions of records, and I got $200”.
Flea didn’t have to worry about money for the next few years, with Red Hot Chili Peppers beginning to blow up with new guitarist John Frusciante on albums like Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The bass player wouldn’t lose the session bug, either, going on to work with everyone from Alanis Morrissette to the Mars Volta in the coming years. Any artist as versatile as Flea will always work as a session player, but if he comes out with a groove as infectious as this, some compensation might be in order.