:INFO
The Amen Break
In 1969 a Washington soul group recorded a B side called Amen Brother. Buried in it was a four bar drum solo lasting six seconds. Two decades later that solo became the rhythmic backbone of hip hop, jungle and drum and bass, sampled on thousands of records by people who never knew the drummer's name. This is where six seconds went.


:PROFILE [image:https://slatesource-media.s3.amazonaws.com/8/6/5/86554f88-3fc7-47cd-8576-93bb95ab1b0c.webp?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20260701T214405Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA6PWPI77XKVCG2MNW%2F20260701%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Signature=0aa09702ff78f84023d605cc923e7d1dc05ae04b88b7c6ada370d4fef8b8a2c7]
Gregory Coleman
Washington DC
Drummer of The Winstons. Never paid for the break.
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:COUNTER
Sampled on over 6000 known tracks

:TIMELINE
🥁🔁🎚️
1969-12-01 | The Winstons cut Amen Brother as a B side. The four bar solo lasts just six seconds.
1986-08-01 | The break lands on the Ultimate Breaks and Beats compilation and producers start chopping it.
1988-06-01 | It powers a wave of early hip hop records from coast to coast.
1992-03-01 | UK producers speed it up and jungle is born on the back of it.
2004-01-01 | It underpins a generation of drum and bass and even television idents.
2015-11-01 | Coleman has died with nothing. A crowdfunder finally raises money for the surviving bandleader.

:QUOTE [quotetype:plain, subtitle:Richard Spencer]
We never got a penny. But every time I hear it on the radio I think, that is our sound, still going.


:GALLERY [displaystyle:travel]

:LINK
https://www.google.com/search?q=Amen+break+history+most+sampled
Hear the original six seconds