What scores a hit with the hit maker?

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND

“Crush” (track from “Before These Crowded Streets”)

“I can’t get over that one: ‘Sexy lady, I am at your feet / I want you so badly.’ That record puts me in such a relaxed, amazing mood. I don’t even know what the rest of the album sounds like ‘cause I can’t get over that one track.”

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EMINEM

“The Eminem Show”

“I like whatever he does. He uses different patterns, he’s not lazy.

And he makes sense, he sticks to a subject for more than two bars. I can appreciate that.”

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NORAH JONES

“Come Away With Me”

“Very soulful.”

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MICHAEL JACKSON

“Thriller”

“That’s always got to come up. I ask Quincy Jones every time I see him, ‘How did you make that? It’s all hits! So many great records on this one CD. How do you do that?’ ”

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DEAD PREZ

“Turn Off the Radio” (single)

“I just got into them. I always thought they were just anti-

successful people, but they’re like ‘Pac and Sonny Carson. They’re revolutionaries.”