A few of The Winstons; Richard Spencer (middle), GC Coleman (Right)
It may be about nine years too late and millions of dollars too short, but it’s something. One of the most sampled drum grooves of all time, the “Amen Break” from The Winstons’ “Amen Brother,” finally brought some cash to its creator via a gofundme campaign by two British DJs who wanted to do some right in the music world.
Also one of the earliest samples of all time, the copyright owner finally got some modest peanuts after having his work copy-pasted without consent for profit literally thousands of times. Those who profited gratuitously from the work — N.W.A., the show Futurama, Skrilex, Oasis, David Bowie, The Prodigy, an endless list of other modern heavyweights — didn’t pony up, but DJs Martyn Webster and Steve Theobald were able to crowdfund £24,000 ($36,500) for The Winstons’ frontman Richard Spencer from fans.
However, the solo was clearly an improvisation by its performer: The Winstons’ drummer G.C. Coleman. Ask any drummer or surviving non-Richard Spencer member of The Winstons. So Coleman is really the one who should be collecting this relative gesture of good faith.
The sad part is Coleman died homeless in September 2006 without seeing a dime but still having watched the ungodly riches roll in for those who borrowed his work.
There likely are thousands of more uses that didn’t make the notoriety cut of WhoSampled.com, but the nearly 2,000 famous uses we do know supported a full gamut of lyrical emotion. The pattern’s loose-yet-robotic feel fit just about any speed, and could lace just about any sentiment:
From morbid school-shooting threads of Tyler, The Creator‘s “Pigs;” [LISTEN]
To the intimidations of N.W.A.‘s “Straight Outta Compton;” [LISTEN]
To the empowerment on Salt-N-Pepa‘s “I Desire;” [LISTEN]
To the pride in the party that is hip-hop itself on: 2 Live Crew‘s “Feel Alright Y’all;” [LISTEN]
Hell, even the guy behind the overwrought (and also frequently sampled) Requiem for a Dream Soundtrack dabbled in breakcore.
Webster and Theobald certainly aren’t guilty for this injustice, they’re just trying to right that wrong, which is impossible as of November 2006. Our flawed intellectual property law system shoulders the blame. Sampling may have created the entire movement of hip-hop, but it did so entirely on the back of a funky-ass drummer uncompensated for his single-handed creation of the breakbeat, not to mention the countless cross-genre hybrids that popped up across pop culture in the past 40 years.
It’d just have been cooler if that check had come a decade or more ago. And for Spencer to admit that hip-hop was Coleman’s invention, despite Spencer’s technical copyright.
