Amen Break: The world’s most sampled drum beat

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Music, Design, Arts, Music Commentary

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2018

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There’s a sample of music that’s been heard in over 2,000 songs. Odds are you’ve heard it many times and didn’t even realize you were listening to the same breakbeat. The amen break might be the most sampled piece of music in history. Where did it come from? This episode features interviews with artist Nate Harrison and Grammy-winner Richard Louis Spencer. 20K is made out of the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook. Visit amen.20k.org to donate to Richard Louis Spencer. Consider supporting the show at donate.20k.org. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/amenbreak Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz, the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.
0:10.1	I'm Dallas Taylor.
0:14.3	What you just heard is called the Amen Break, or Amen Break, depending on how you say it.
0:19.7	Anyway, it's likely the most sampled piece of music in the world.
0:23.6	You've definitely heard it a million times, but you might have a hard time remembering from where.
0:29.3	So let's hear those six seconds again.
0:31.7	This time, see if you can remember where you've heard it.
0:43.7	Yeah. where you've heard it. You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.
0:51.4	Straight out of county, it's a crazy lover named Ice Cube
0:54.7	From the stupid dope gang with an attitude
0:56.9	Try to imitate
0:57.8	But none had come here
0:59.0	So you see where everybody stands up in chair
1:01.4	And if it can run
1:02.2	The Amen break
1:04.2	The Amen break has also been sped up.
1:11.6	You can't knock to hustle.
1:13.6	I'm going it.
1:19.6	I'm doing it.
1:23.6	And it's been slowed down.
1:25.6	I'm not bipolarcy.
1:26.6	I'm just known about those couple names.
	...

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