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Lyn Collins encoded 'a bit of the future' into 'Think (About It)'

XPN | By John Morrison,
Kimberly Junod, Raina Douris
Published March 23, 2026 at 5:19 PM PDT
Courtesy of the artist

When soul singer Lyn Collins released "Think (About It)" in 1972, it was a moderate hit at the time. But according to World Cafe correspondent John Morrison, the song's popularity only grew from that point on.

"'Think (About It)' is not only a document of its time, but it has a little bit of the future encoded within it. That's why people keep coming back to it."

The single, produced by James Brown, has since become one of the most sampled songs in music history, recontextualized by everyone from Snoop Dogg and R.E.M. to Sabrina Carpenter and NewJeans.

Morrison says much of its popularity is due to the song's drum break.

"Breakbeats, in my opinion, act as a connective tissue between decades of popular music," he says.

Trace the journey of Collins' "Think (About It)" with us on a new Culture Corner.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod.  Our digital producer is Miguel Perez. World Cafe's engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

Copyright 2026 XPN
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World CafeNPR Music
John Morrison
John Morrison is a writer, DJ, and sample-flipper from Philadelphia. As a writer, his work has appeared in NPR Music, Bandcamp Daily, Jazz Tokyo, Grammy.com, and more. He is also the host of Culture Cypher Radio, a hip-hop radio show on NPR member station WXPN.
Kimberly Junod
World Cafe senior producer Kimberly Junod has been a part of the World Cafe team since 2001, when she started as the show's first line producer. In 2011 Kimberly launched (and continues to helm) World Cafe's Sense of Place series that includes social media, broadcast and video elements to take listeners across the U.S. and abroad with an intimate look at local music scenes. She was thrilled to be part of the team that received the 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award for excellence in music programming. In the time she has spent at World Cafe, Kimberly has produced and edited thousands of interviews and recorded several hundred bands for the program, as well as supervised the show's production staff. She has also taught sound to young women (at Girl's Rock Philly) and adults (as an "Ask an Engineer" at WYNC's Werk It! Women's Podcast Festival).
Raina Douris
Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She was also involved with Canada's highest music honors: hosting the Polaris Music Prize Gala from 2017 to 2019, as well as serving on the jury for both that award and the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.
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