Recording
Funky Drummer
James Brown
Independently chosen for3 of our lists. Here is what each of them said.
- Released
- 1970
- Label
- King
- On
- Funk, The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred, and The Waxonia Desk — The Soulquarians Room
- Updated
- 2026-08-29
Ranked No. 3 in Funk
Twenty seconds of Clyde Stubblefield alone became the most sampled bar of music in existence. Hip-hop, jungle and big beat are all, at some level, arguments about what to do with this loop.
Picked by The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred
Twenty seconds of Clyde Stubblefield alone, and then thirty years of other people's records. The most consequential drum break in existence.
Picked by The Waxonia Desk — The Soulquarians Room
The bar underneath everything above it. A generation of drummers learned Clyde Stubblefield from a sampler rather than from the record, and played him differently as a result.