If you know me outside of the internet world, you know that I absolutely love lists. I make lists for things that I need to do when at home, on my way to work, at work, and even while I’m at the movies (watching The Pursuit of Happiness). There’s one list that I’ve been thinking of for the past three weeks and has caused me agony beyond reasonable comprehension… The top 10 drum breaks of all time! Can you imagine that such a thing might exist? After all we are talking about, at the most, a ten second snippet of a couple of kicks, snare, and maybe even some high hats. This is madness, right? Well, for over a fortnight I’ve tossed, turned, gritted my teeth, and had more arguments with myself than the American Psychological Association has deemed mentally healthy, but I’ve finally finished my list. The closest I was able to get it down to was the greatest 30 breaks with only the top 3 being in any particular order. So, here it is, for your listening and debating pleasure… The Crate
- Melvin Bliss – Synthetic Subsitution
- The Honeydrippers – Impeach The President
- Skull Snaps – It’s A New Day
- Little Feet - Fool Yourself
- Billy Squire – Big Beat
- Al Green – I’m Glad You’re Mine
- The Soul Searchers – Ashley’s Roachclip
- Power of Zeus – Sorcerer of
- Isley Brothers – Footsteps In The Dark
- Q65 – Get Out My Life Woman
- Jeff Beck – Come Dancing
- Mountain – Long Red (Live)
- Manzel –
- The Meters – Here Come The Metermen
- The Headhunters – God Made Me Funky
- Dexter Wansel – Theme From The Planets
- Young Holt Unlimited – Wah Wah Man
- James Brown – Funky President
- Orange Crush – Action
- Joe Tex – Papa Was Too
- Funk Inc. –
- Silhouettes – Fonky First
- Bad Bascomb – Black Grass
- The Turtles – I’m Chief
- Donny Hathaway – Magnificent Sanctuary Band
- Little Richard – The Rill Thing
- Funkadelic – Good Old Music
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Dude.
This is f*cking hot.
My only hate is that the streams are only 12 seconds long.
I WANT 30 second clips.
A pod cast.
Something.
I HEART BREAK BEAT LISTS.
Good choices. A few that should have been on here
William Bell- Born Under a Bad Sign
Jimi Hendrix- Flashing
Rolling Stones- Honky tonk Woman
EdwinStarr- Rapper Dapper clapper
nice nie…….but i was wondering why the amen brother break isnt in there?….it is one of the most famous breaks as what i know of…….its being used is striaght out of compton nwa……plus the snares and kicks have been use in alot of dnb songs
This list is completely FUBAR! You left out the #1 break of all time. Not only did you not make it #1 but its out of the list completely!!!! This is surly a crime! Punishable by being forced to stay awake in a chair while listening to said break for a week, no less.
Winstons, The “Amen Brother” (Metromedia MMS-117)
http://www.discogs.com/release/423956
This one record is so influential, it started a seperate dance music genre called Jungle or as it is called today, Drum & Bass. It was best used as the back beat of UK ‘Ardkore tracks pre-jungle such as in DJ Seduction’s “Come On”, Harmony & Extreme’s “Music”, and Carl Cox’s “I want you (forever)”
Hey there. The Skull Snaps are playing at the Knitting Facotry this Friday opening for Slick Rick. Also, would you be interested in interviewing Skull Snaps leader, Erv Waters, for your blog?
Caddis
THE WINSTONS: AMER BROTHER!
Aside from the aforementioned Winston Brothers….another glaring omission is James Brown’s Funky Drummer, which admittedly, is one of the most overused samples in Hip Hop history…but not without reason.
^^^*Winton’s Amen Brother*
If i bought one of your sample packs, would it still work on my Mac running reason even though the download says windows only?
props on posting the skull snaps. just saw them (like, JUST saw them) at the knitting factory tonight before slick rick. they killed.
thanks for the sample wednesday mention as well. keep doing your thing. peace!
Scheme
Palms Out
“This list is completely FUBAR! You left out the #1 break of all time. Not only did you not make it #1 but its out of the list completely!!!! This is surly a crime! Punishable by being forced to stay awake in a chair while listening to said break for a week, no less.”
thought you were going to say Funky Drummer!
Long Red is str8 Pi$$ though
(Chuckle.)
http://rushmidi.com/wavs/kellys-heroes-burning-bridges.wav
More Eastwood beats:
http://rushmidi.com/wavs/dirtyharry-opening-scorpio.wav
http://rushmidi.com/wavs/dirtyharry-creed.wav
Good list but what about George McCrae I Get Lifted or Vernon Burch Get Up?
I’m sorry but there’s no arguing this. 2000 rappers and dj’s can’t be wrong.
James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” is the IT!!!
After that, take your pick. How could you not have it in your top 30???
Trying too hard to be avant garde? Fess up!
I totally agree with your #1 spot, however Funky Drummer and Amen should be on the list. Although Amen is a bit over-rated, it’s a classic but it’s over-rated.
kick ass list man. i’m w/ hotmouth: i wish the clips were longer.
Anyone know where I can find drum transcription for these???
ive been working on transcribing these for a minute. but its for a drum machine or mpc sequencer 001.01.00(language) . Im assuming your looking for transcription for a live drummer. Ive seen drum transcription books which is more like written music for drums. I would definetly be interested in help working on this i need to figure out how to write it in transcription language. You can do it yourself, time consuming though. i have a some methods kinda hard for me to explain unless you know how to use step record on a drummachine/sampler. hit me up with any further info or i could try to show you the ones i have.
Man, A Different World has sampled most of them beats. He’s made some himself with the wooden drums.
hey guys,
i just wanted the name for the drum break that Kanye uses in “heard em say”
u know, the one with the echo effect on it. cheers
you forgot 45 king- 900 number. that shizz is funkiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee
FIRST OF ALL THIS NEEDS TO BE A FUCKING MIX.
THIS POST IS LIKE A GOOD DATE THAT ENDED EARLY,
WHO I NEVER SAW AGAIN AFTER THAT ONE HOT JULY NIGHT.
YES ALL CAPS!
~m.
“Apache” by Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band?
What no Average White Band?!
this shit is def the ultimate collections HOT SHIT!
The # 1 song i think yall forgot about is …………The Funky Drummer,now tell me how many song you heard that on.And the real Greatest of all time is Planet Rock,Shakin that ass is a way of dance ,Stippers Stand Up !
What about the Amen break?
I feel that some of these individuals don’t have these breaks that are posted, so
get out there and dig and it’s an education like none other.
WHAT THE FUCK ABOUT BOBBY BYRD’S HOT PANTS (I’M COMING) BREAK THEN ??? THATS ABOUT AS IMPORTANT AS THE WINSTON’S AMEN BROTHER! YOU YANKS ARE UNEDUCATED IN BRITISH MUSIC, YOU IGNORE EVERYTHING WE DO (AND WE DO D’N'B BETTER THAN YOU DO!). LATER!
As has been mentioned numerous times, Amen Brother being excluded from the list is a unforgiveable error. So is ditching The Funky Drummer. Although I’m not surprised from an author who starts off his article with “I love lists.” Lists are reductionist and detrimental. Instead of discussing the breaks and contextualizing their importance within hip-hop and the artists that have used them, what you’ve done imo is obscured their importance and relevance. Moreover, lists inherently always leave shit out but they never seem to acknowledge that. Music isn’t about rows and columns, that’s for the industry people to fight over, not us music lovers.
I like this…cool
how do you download this amazing shit