Hold up! The Music from Snoop Dogg's, Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode," Was Originated by the White Actor from NCIS?

What if I told you Shaft was based on a white character? Or, if I told you Black Panther was a Black take on a white comic book character called…the Snow Cougar…?

I know. Ridiculous, right?

Just about as ridiculous as a claim that the opening notes of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “The Next Episode” - the hook just before (and after) Snoop says “Da-da da-da-da” - was really the music of a white guy.

Hold up. That last one, the part about the opening notes of “The Next Episode?” That part is true.

No, really. Facts.

A guy named David McCallum put that music down on a piece he called the “Edge” in 1967. (Listen to the original in this link. Now listen to “The Next Episode,” by Dr. Dre in this link)

If you’ve been a fan of TV’s “NCIS” and remember a character named Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, you’ve watched the man in question.

Yes, McCallum, a Scottish actor who died on October 2 at age 90, gave Dre and Snoop that legendary opening bit.

I know there’s sampling and all of that. Artists freely “borrow” from one another and keep it rolling.

But the opening of “The Next Episode?” Can’t you just see Snoop pimp walking to it? Dre bopping his head to it?

That music was written by a white man from Scotland who played a character called “Ducky” on TV.

I mean no disrespect to McCallum. The man clearly had skills.

It’s just that, in Dre and Snoop’s hands, that music was the epitome of Black Cool.

I speak this as no great fan of rap or hip hop. I agreed with those who argued the genre accentuated materialism and degraded women.

And I held fast on my moral rock of Gibraltar…right up to those opening notes of “The Next Episode.”

All this time, I thought it was Dre and Snoop breaking me down, exposing me for the beat-weak hypocrite that I am.

I had no clue it was actually a dude who’d be called Ducky who did me dirty.

Rest in peace, Mr. McCallum.

Next, we’re gonna be told that old school R&B diva Teena Marie wasn’t Black…

Wayne Washington is a writer based in Florida.

(If you liked this story, check out how Bobby Caldwell inspired Common’s song “The Light.”