Ongoing History Daily: The Amen Break
You may have heard about the Amen Break, a six-second drum sample taken from a 1969 song by The Winstons that crept into hip hop, breakbeat, jungle, electronica, drums and bass, techno, industrial music, pop and rock as an often greatly manipulated loop of beats. Coleman’s beat was fed into digital recording software and sped up, slowed down, stretched, distorted, and otherwise manipulated.
It has been used in hundreds of songs, ranging from Slipknot and Janet Jackson. You have most definitely heard it. Listen.
Years later, a crowdfunding campaign raised $50,000 to make up for The Winstons not making any money from this sample. Sadly, the GC Coleman, the guy who actually played that beat, died homeless in Atlanta in 2006.
