Keith Sweat is making it clear that if artists want to touch his classics, they need to do it the right way. 

In an appearance on Nick Cannon’s “We Playin’ Spades” podcast, the R&B legend said there is a “Right and Wrong Way” to sample his music, and the main rule is simple: artists must run it by him first. 

Sweat and the podcast hosts were discussing R&B, when he shared that he listens to Chris Brown and said, “You can’t take nothing from that brother.” He then mentioned that there’s too much sampling happening in music today. The hosts teased Sweat about his sampling grievances by letting him know that he reaps the financial benefits.

​“I do think they’re really giving me my flowers. My whole thing is, let me clear it,” he explained.

He feels some artists are “watering down” his music instead of treating it with care. ​“If I don’t clear it and I don’t like what you did, I’m snatching it off the internet,” he said bluntly. “I own my sh*t. Don’t just put it out there.”

​“Some is dope, some is wack. Let me be the judge,” he continued, adding that if a flip is good enough, he may not even charge the artist because they’re keeping him “relevant.”

Keith Sweat has long been one of R&B’s most recognizable voices, and his work has already helped shape the sound of the genre for decades. That legacy is exactly why his stance lands so hard now: he is not saying sampling should disappear, but that artists should respect the process, the history, and the man behind the records. It is about ownership, permission, and protecting the sound he helped make iconic.