The point I'm trying to make is that there is a distinct percussive sample that links them all together. To find its root you have to go back to 1969, When James Brown called out an impromptu drum break during a recording session of his "New New Super Heavy Funk". (And that's not a typo; J.B. thought it was so new it had to be named "new" twice) The name of this recording would be "The Funky Drummer" and due to that improvised drum break, it would become the most sampled song in all of recorded music's history.
This song is a repetitious vamp with Brown pushing every member of his band to give all they got. About 5 minutes through the song James Brown, notorious for working his musicians very hard, dictates to the band "Give the drummer some". He then calls on his drummer Clyde Stubblefield directly "You don't have to do no soloing, brother, just keep what you got." Don't turn it loose, 'cause it's a mother." All the musicians, and Brown himself, go silent. For 8 bars Clyde Clyde Stubblefield does what his bandleader commands. No fills, no solos, just that raw exposed backbone of the James Brown sound...the snare hits... the bass kicks. Then they all come in on the "1" and take the song on home. Released in 1970 on a vinyl 45, The 7 minute track had to be edited into two parts so it could be put on both sides of the record and sold as a single. It reached #20 on the R&B charts and that was that. They moved onto the next gig, in the next town, for the next song. Life moves on.
I don't think anybody in that studio could have ever conceived what that 8 bar break would do to the landscape of music in the coming decades.Spin forward 40 years later, it has been credited with 182 identifiable sample credits and that's just the major label recording artists who have to credit the song openly. If you take into account the hundreds of songs that were produced using that break by underground artists during the 80's, 90's and into today, that number would grow exponentially. Now add to that all the studio musicians who have mimicked this 4/4 staple and you have good idea of how much this has impacted music as we know it.
Here is a Youtube Clip that has the last :20 seconds of the actual song, then the immediately recognizable 3 minute loop of the beat.
The influence is not limited to that Rap/Pop genre of the last decade. That funky little niblet moved forward into all sorts of other genres. For example, industrial electro-rock like Nine Inch Nails' "Piggy", Irish pub music in Sinead O’Connor’s "I Am Stretched On Your Grave", the smooth jazz realm with Kenny G's song "G-bop" (Yeah, I know...) and even as far as metal with Slayer's collaboration with Atari Teenage Riot in "No Remorse". (Yes, my metalheads, Kerry King is down with the Funky Drummer) Even James Brown himself has sampled... well... himself! for 1988's "She Looks All Types A' Good".
What about Clyde Stubblefield you say? The session musician that played the actual drums. He was paid for the recording session but never made a dime from being the actual "Funky Drummer". James Brown allegedly made millions from the sample royalties alone. Clyde now tours and produces albums under his nickname "The Funky Drummer". In my humble opinion, I feel that Clyde Stubblefield is pretty much an honorary member of Public Enemy due to the fact that they use the "Funky Drummer" sample on 7 different tracks! (Clyde is key to the public enemy sound just as much as Chuck D's angst and Flavor Flav's Clock)
So when you hear it in the back, think of James. More importantly think of Clyde. The "Funky Drummer" break is a staple of our modern culture and it is American as apple pie. It is interwoven in our musical traditions and when I think about it, it’s like we have a decade worth of music from one song.
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