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. 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 Top 30 Greatest Hip-Hop Drum Breaks of All Time!!!
- 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 Isis
- Kool & The Gang – NT
- Isley Brothers – Footsteps In The Dark
- Q65 – Get Out My Life Woman
- Jeff Beck – Come Dancing
- Mountain – Long Red (Live)
- Manzel – Midnight Theme
- The Meters – Here Come The Metermen
- The Headhunters – God Made Me Funky
- Dexter Wansel – Theme From The Planets
- Young Holt Unlimited – Wah Wah Man
- Roy Ayers – The Boogie Back
- James Brown – Funky President
- Orange Crush – Action
- Joe Tex – Papa Was Too
- Funk Inc. – Kool Is Back
- Silhouettes – Fonky First
- Bad Bascomb – Black Grass
- Kool & The Gang – Jungle Jazz
- The Turtles – I’m Chief Kamanawanalea
- Donny Hathaway – Magnificent Sanctuary Band
- Little Richard – The Rill Thing
- Funkadelic – Good Old Music
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can people please read the page before posting….no more posts asking for the AMEN break or FUNKY DRUMMER…. we get it! lol
“Amen” to that!
Ooh glad to see Skull Snaps and Q65’s Get of My Life Woman on this list.
Speaking of the latter this guy has got 107 Get Out My Life Woman breaks!!!!
http://www.versionsgalore.com/2010/10/28/get-out-more-often/
If people keep asking for Amen and Funky Drummer without reading all the comments, it’s because their exclusion is absolutely inexplicable. It’s not even a matter of taste or personal preference…they are both Top-10.
Other than that headscratcher, this is a great list for those looking for a starting point to digging for drum breaks. Kudos.
Scratchin Disco Magic Machine, I Cant Stop – JOHN DAVIS & THE MONSTER ORCHESTRA, CATH A GROOVE – JUICE, APACHE- INCREDIBLE BONGO ROCK BAND. NYC FAVORITES ORCHESTRA
BROTHER BLACK !!!! November 29, 2010 at 8:41 am
Scratchin Disco Magic Machine, I Cant Stop – JOHN DAVIS & THE MONSTER ORCHESTRA, CATH A GROOVE – JUICE, APACHE- INCREDIBLE BONGO ROCK BAND. NYC FAVORITES
Wow no Amen or Funky Drummer. Nice list though.
little feat’s (fool yourself), Al Green’s Im glad your mine? Those are such weak breaks compared to an Amen Brother, September 13th, or when the levee breaks. Melvin Bliss at number one? Sad.
oh man… the most notorious sample (not on the list):
Bob James’ “Take Me to The Mardis Gras”
good list…
Um, why are these called “hip hop” breaks? Because most of them weren’t invented by hip hop artists, even if they got used by them. “Breaks” would do just fine.
And yeah, no Amen Break is just bizarre.
sooo.. How can I download these ?
Download link would be nice..
Lee Dorsey’s Get out of my life woman is way more popular and sampled than Q65’s version are you Dutch or something lol??
I would add
Black Sabbath-Wasp
Cerrone-Rocket in the pocket live
Graham Central Station-The Jam
Johnny Jenkins-I walk on gilded splinters
Bit-A-Sweet-If I needed someone
James Taylor’s Flying Machine-knockin’ round the zoo
Oh and don’t forget Aerosmith’s-Walk this way drums very heavily sampled.
Should be in top 10.
No “Do the Funky Penguin” by Rufus Thomas or “Breakthrough” by Issac Hayes?
7 minutes of funk
DANCE 2 THE DRUMMERS BEAT
POT BELLY
T PLAYS IT COOL
NAUTILUS
BROTHER DISCO GREEN
The The Honeydrippers Impeach The President is so overrated. But top ten non the less.
hmm at first i was thinking this was your personal top 30 list. Because then a lot of this criticism would be invalid. There’s nothing wrong with drafting a list, but allow me to continue it for you…
ADC band, Long Stroke
Stanley Clarke, Slow Dance
muddy waters, i just want to make love to you
cold blood, kissing my love
les mcCann, north carolina
Thanks for heads up on the Les McCann track – so great! And plus one on Cold Blood, Kissing My Love – one of my faves.
yo…..THE #1 all-time most sampled groove of all time, is the solo groove in “The Funky Drummer” by James Brown, that is the All-Time champ in sampled breaks, how could you not have that on this list???
Speaking of breaks… where the hell is “Where the levee breaks” by Led Zeppelin?
yo, please pop a DL link @ comments. much luv
This is great-Thank you. Shared with my breaks nutter friends, and Mashup groups.
Thanks for posting this, this is really interesting!
I would have added Tom Sawyer, Animate, and Mystic Rhythms from Rush.
And where’s dance to the drummer’s beat by Herman Kelley?
Good to see Skull Snaps and Ashley’s Roachclip, but Take Me To The Mardi Gras is a bit of an omission, and beings will be throwing down to Apache long after the human race has gone extinct. That the Amen Break and Funky Drummer are seen as better breaks than Apache… I think that’s one of the greatest cultural injustices in human history.
Somehow I feel there are greater injustices… lol. The amen break is pretty brilliant
Apache break equally as good.. definitely cleaner.. but an injustice? i think not 
I say this with the friendliest of intentions btw.. gotta love a passionate connoisseur of classic breaks. I write liquid/ambient drum&bass myself (link to a song of mine above and below if your interested) http://soundcloud.com/zenstep/zephyr
If you liked Zephyr then heres another!
https://soundcloud.com/zenstep/tomahawk
Kind of happy that I can recognize what songs these are from.
At this time it sounds like Wordpress is the preferred blogging platform out there right now.
(from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your blog?
Wow! After all I got a website from where I be able to really obtain valuable facts regarding
my study and knowledge.
Hmm is anyone else having problems with the pictures on this
blog loading? I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Hello! Quick question that’s totally off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My weblog looks weird when viewing from my apple iphone. I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be
able to correct this issue. If you have any suggestions, please share.
Thanks!
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