The great White Lines robbery: How a bassline by art-rockers Liquid Liquid became one of the biggest hip hop anthems of all time

Doug Wimbish of Living Colour performs live during a concert at the Frannz on July 15, 2016 in Berlin, Germany.

Doug Wimbish can look back on an esteemed career that began when he was recruited by Sugar Hill Records for the rap label’s house band in the early '80s. Along with guitarist Skip McDonald and drummer Keith LeBlanc, Wimbish played on some of the biggest hip hop anthems of the time, including That’s The Joint, Apache and White Lines (Don’t Do It).

“On some days you would go in and it would be cool,” said Wimbish in the September 2009 issue of Bass Guitar Magazine. “Then you would find out some big-name star is coming in and you would start to get nervous. I was just a kid, and I was around a lot of talent. It was fun and frightening because you never knew what you were going to get. I just tried to be prepared.”