Amen drum loop
The Amen drum loop or Amen break, by drummer Gregory C. C., member of the group The Winstons, is the most frequently used sampled drum loop in hip hop, jungle music and drum and bass.
It is 5.20 seconds long and consists of 16 beats of the drum break taken from the song "Amen, Brother" as performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons. The song is an uptempo instrumental rendition of an older gospel music classic. The Winstons' version was released as a B-side of the 45 rpm 7" vinyl single Color Him Father in 1969 on Metromedia (MMS-117), and is currently available on several compilations and on a 12" vinyl rerelease together with other songs by The Winstons.
As with many samples, the copyright history of the Amen break is complex. Neither the drummer, Gregory C. C., nor the copyright owner Richard L. S., the Grammy award winning composer and performer of the hit "Color Him Father", have ever received any royalties for the sampling.
Popularity[edit]
With the emergence of rave music in the United Kingdom around 1990, the amen drum loop began to appear in an increasing number of techno productions. Very soon, the famous loop became the sole drum element of many tracks and a whole style got its own name: Jungle. In the early 90s, jungle became an important part of electronic music. It borrowed largely from hip-hop and reggae but the amen break was always an inseparable part of every jungle track in many different forms: looped straight, as in oldschool jungle and breakbeat hardcore, or entirely rearranged. Over time, the majority of the jungle movement evolved into drum and bass. The new style became more sophisticated, more complex and producers started using other drum loops. At the end of the 90s, some producers focused on the amen break and took it to the next level. Artists like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin started a new sub-genre of hyper-edited drum and bass called "drill and bass".
The amen drum loop can still be found in many new productions today, and it is probably the only time in the history of music when a five-second drum loop created a completely new style of music and managed to influence other musical styles to such a degree.