Creativity Quote by Roy Ayers

Roy Ayers is quietly side-eyeing the gatekeepers. “DJs and people in the street know what they like” sounds almost too plain to argue with, which is the point: it’s a democratic flex disguised as common sense. He’s not romanticizing “the streets” as some mystical authenticity machine. He’s drawing a boundary around who gets to decide what counts as good - not critics, not A&R theory, not the conservatory, but the two groups who actually pressure-test music in real time: the selector and the crowd.

The intent is practical. DJs are trained listeners with skin in the game; they have to make a room move, not win a debate. “People in the street” are an even harsher jury. They don’t owe you attention, they don’t have to justify taste with vocabulary, and they don’t care whether something is “important.” Ayers is defending pleasure as a legitimate metric, and it reads like a veteran’s response to eras when jazz-funk, soul, and groove music were treated as unserious next to more “respectable” forms.

The subtext is also about power and access. Taste-making isn’t neutral; it’s often classed, credentialed, and policed. By elevating DJs and everyday listeners, Ayers champions the informal networks that built whole genres - radio mixes, block parties, club nights, bootlegs - long before institutions caught up. Coming from an artist whose work became a sampling goldmine, it’s also a reminder that longevity doesn’t always start with acclaim. Sometimes it starts with the right record at the right volume, in the right room.