Should we consider sampled artists like Stubblefield victims of theft or contributors to hip-hop’s artistic legacy?Clyde Stubblefield was a drummer for James Brown’s band and played the iconic drum break on Brown’s 1970 hit Funky Drummer. Uncredited as a songwriter on the track, Stubblefield wasn’t entitled to any royalties from producers like Dr Dre and The Bomb Squad who built careers off of Funky Drummer’s signature groove. Yet, whilst Brown is revered as a funk legend, Stubblefield died of kidney failure in February 2017 with no health insurance – his treatment funded by the generosity of his fans. The titular drummer responsible for creating that breakbeat was Clyde Stubblefield, who first joined Browns band around 1965.What do N.W.A’s “Fuck tha Police”, Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, and the Power Puff Girls’ theme song all have in common? All three sample the ubiquitous “Funky Drummer” drum break improvised by Clyde Stubblefield on James Brown’s funk record of the same name. Even though it sounds more like a loose studio jam than a full-fledged song, 'Funky Drummer' is one of the cornerstones of James Browns musical legacy, thanks to its status as perhaps the most familiar and oft-sampled breakbeat in hip-hop history.
Songs That Sample Funky Drummer Free Funk SamplesAll free Funk samples are available to download 100 royalty free for use in your music production or sound design project. Browse our collection of free Funk samples and Funk loops, Funk sample packs, bass lines, drum loops and guitar loops. Likely its most famous use provides the drum track for Fight the Power , one of the greatest songs of all time in any genre, which even references the 'sound of the funky drummer'.Free Funk Samples. Funky Drummer is a track just calling out to be sampled, which it has more than 1000 times and more than once by Public Enemy.Description : Number One Soul Brother, Mr. In Febuary 2012 Emeli Sande won the critics’ choice Brit award for her debut album entitled Our version of events. Armed with their parents’ funk and soul record collections and affordable Akai MPC samplers, producers reinvigorated gems like Stubblefield’s break to articulate the African American experience through rap.Last year In 2011 the Funky drummer break beat was sampled and formed the basis of a chart topping single entitled Heaven written by singer/songwriter Emeli Sande and her production team. Characterised by David McNamee in The Guardian as the “working-class black answer to punk”, sampling spawned an underground sub-genre that democratised music as an art form. At hip-hop’s inception in the 1980’s, sampling allowed young African Americans to create full compositions without live instrumentation, studio space or classical training. The technique involves reusing or manipulating audio from one recording in another, ranging from entire bars of music to individual drum hits and melodies.![]() Overnight, hip-hop producers were forced into the lengthy and prohibitively expensive process of ‘clearing’ their samples with copyright holders. Citing the biblical commandment: “Thou shalt not steal”, the Court sided with Irish musician Gilbert O’Sullivan whose song “Alone Again (Naturally)” had been sampled by rapper Biz Markie without O’Sullivan’s consent. 1991) which irreversibly transformed sampling culture. Stylistically, the Bomb Squad’s approach to sampling typified the swaggering and heavy sound of late 1980’s hip-hop, whilst simultaneously offering thematic references for keen listeners who could identify the samples.However, this was all to change with the pivotal court decision Grand Upright Music, Ltd v. Public Enemy’s 1990 track “Welcome to the Terrordome” typifies this approach, employing 20 unique samples that include James Brown’s signature ‘uh’ ad lib and an excerpt from the 1983 mob classic Scarface. Shocklee’s group created dense soundscapes through dozens of eclectic samples. Established producers like Dr Dre ‘interpolated’ samples by commissioning live instrumentalists to recreate material. Diggers sought obscure samples from indie artists or niche record stores abroad hoping that litigation could be avoided. The mid-1990’s and 2000’s witnessed newcomers like J Dilla and Madlib become famous for ‘crate-digging’. Sampling was simply another degenerate act amongst drug-use, gang violence, and ‘black power’ activism.Sampling was simply another degenerate act amongst drug-use, gang violence, and ‘black power’ activism.Although sampling didn’t cease, its practitioners scrambled to evade the full force of the law. Whilst producers saw their content as transformative, broader American society viewed hip-hop as a subversive blot on the musical landscape which promoted a “callous disregard for the law”. With each of the three songs coming from three different genres, generations and countries, the samples each correspond to the three characters Kendrick mentions in his lyrics. The beat samples three records: Ted Taylor’s soul track “Be ever wonderful” (1978), Yugoslavian jazz-rock band September’s song “Ostavi Trag” (1976), and “Atari” (2015) by Australian jazz-funk band Haitus Kaiyote. The track’s producer 9th Wonder is truly a student of his predecessors, employing sampling as an art form to achieve thematic and stylistic goals. One perfect example is Kendrick Lamar’s “Duckworth”, the introspective conclusion to his Pulitzer Prize-winning album ‘Damn’. It is at this level of hip-hop where the creative potential of sampling is realised. Through this process, producers only required clearance from song-writers and not the original artist or record label.Nonetheless, there remains an upper echelon of successful artists with the resources needed to clear sought-after samples. JPEG’s music reflects the modern state of sampling, containing maybe one or two but regularly zero samples. “For me, sampling is a high art”, the artist said to Spin magazine, whilst soon after admitting that: “samples are annoying as shit”. It is therefore both exciting and regrettable to think of how creatively sampling could be used if more producers had access to the same resources as the duo.Contemporary Baltimore rapper-producer JPEGMAFIA is a notable critic of the music industry’s stifling impact on hip-hop artists’ creativity. When we look back at hip-hop’s past, it is clear that the technique can be employed masterfully and in an artistic manner. Describing himself as “fiercely independent”, JPEG is one of many modern hip-hop producers forced to create art within a restricted legal environment.JPEG’s music reflects the modern state of sampling, containing maybe one or two but regularly zero samples.Whilst sampling has arguably become ‘fairer’ for musicians like Gilbert O’Sullivan, it has clearly lost its original democratic essence. Such samples are brief, obscure and embedded enough within the beats to avoid protracted litigation that only the stars can afford. Maybe we should listen to the wise words of Clyde Stubblefield: “A lot of people should have gotten a lot of credit”. After almost 40 years of hip-hop’s existence, it is time for sampling to make a return as a celebrated art form and whilst the original artists deserve recognition, that recognition should not be shown through boardroom meetings and bank transfers. From its early beginnings with “Funky Drummer” to the poetic narratives of Kendrick Lamar, sampling empowered downtrodden African Americans with a means for their voices to be heard.
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