wrote a little sumtin sumtin about The Winstons…
http://www.djs-life.co.uk/2011/04/11/amen-to-that/
Let me know what you think! It’s only short but just wanted to highlight their contribution to our craft.
I can remember how shocked I was when I learned about the history of the Amen break! Crazy how famous it is yet little know where it came from.
DJTTs blog had a piece on the Amen Break last year? It included the 18 min video you posted.
It’s an amazing history. The list I link to has some real surprises as well!
kool herc man… kool herc
For those who haven’t seen this yet or enough. It’s obligatory!
/edit LOL you link to it in your page. And FYI that video was actually an art installation created to drive home the point of copyright, public domain, and how it enriches culture and society as a whole.
We need to start a ‘International Amen Break Day’.
What day was the record released?
THIS!!!
and
i think they say it in the vid. ill post when i get to that part. i watch this vid every time i come across it
OP, your post says “Now sit back, relax and watch 18 minutes of fascinating history… played from vinyl, of course.”
this was a dubplate.
sorry to multi post but
the vid was sampled. ill upload my personal and still unused dnb intro once i upload it
heres my sample form it that i use as a DnB intro. i never made this mix that it was meant for
https://soundcloud.com/00i/theorys-dnb-amen-break-intro
this would be at the right speed (the break is ~70 bpm) and the 2nd time he plays the break it gets looped as sigma - nexus gets brought in
also, all he says about a date is 1969
Definitely a classic. I have a copy of it somewhere, and I need to frame it. It’s in a very select class of historic sampled tunes. Here’s a couple others that I’m sure you’ve all heard, and may or may not know.
The really interesting (to me, at least) part of the story is the fact that it probably would have disappeared into obscurity, had it not made it onto Ultimate Breaks and Beats in 1986, with the slowed down re-edit of the breakdown, which is the same version that made it into Straight Out of Compton.
For the longest time, I assumed the original was that speed, and it wasn’t until I heard it mixed on DJ Pogo’s Block Party Breaks that heard it at it’s original speed.
To this day, it is my absolute favorite drum break, and I grin every time I hear even just one of those crash cymbal coated snare hits. Amen indeed.
the funky drummer himself, clyde stubblefield
at 4:18
cue a link to the copyright criminals video thread. or not since i just posted part 4 of it, and if you cant find the rest GTFO the internet (ironic, huh?)
*fixed.
Hahaha, dude, Kool Herc was the same guy who washed the labels off his records so no one could see what he played. In a pre-internet world this is a pretty effective way to make sure no one finds the records in your sets.
I think that’s why there was so much controversy among DJs and Producers when the UBB series appeared, all those “secret” breaks and incredibly hard to find records were suddenly exposed for everyone to hear, and more importantly, use. I know Paul Nice wasn’t super fond of UBB, for that very reason, and there are far more records that were made using the UBB version of Amen Brother than the original, that’s definitely a sure thing.
“But if it wasn’t for Herc this rap ish probably never would be going on…” to paraphrase Lord Tariq.
aaah i see your point. thanks for the history man, i wasn’t aware of all of that. interesting stuff, gonna look into it a bit more.
what i meant was herc was the man who revived those old soul records and started using the “break” as a sample in the first place. but sure you know that already.
on a semi-related note…
Guru- ” To whom it may concern, this goes out to anybody who’s doing the bullshit, straight up. Yo, everybody’s calling me, my lawyer, everybody on this, ‘yo did you scratch such n such name? Or this, that, and the third on the record for a hook?’ Y’all keep calling me on that shit and y’all supposed to be hip-hoppers and all that, and letting the industry control the rules of the hip hop world that we made? Y’all need to knock that shit off, that’s some greedy ass fake bullshit! Knock that shit off for real! And when that shit come and slap you in the face, that greed, I’ma be right there laughing at y’all… And one other thing… What’s the deal with you break-record cats putting out all the original records that we sample from and snitching by puttin us on the back of it sayin we used stuff? You KNOW how that go! Stop doing that, y’all are violatin, straight up and down! Word up mayne, I’m sick of this shit, y’all mothafuckas really don’t know what this hip hope is all about. So while you keep on faking the funk, we gonna keep on walkin through the darkness, carryin our tourches. Underground will live forver baby. We jus like roaches, never dyin, always livin… And on that note, lets get back to the program…”
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