These Are The Breaks.

(Our weekly look back at the original songs your favorite Hip-Hop records sampled)

THIS WEEK: James Brown.

A new week, a new break. It's no surprise that the Godfather of Soul (R.I.P.) has made his way into this section. In fact, James Brown is the most sampled artist in music history, as he's been flipped almost 1000 different times (and counting). His song "Funky Drummer" is the most sampled song of all time, and the drum break at the end of the song has been used over 100 times - this all before sampling was illegal.

"I made 7 whole albums with no James Brown,
and even though I love his music, I just can't stand...
the way they used it all up and didn't pay the man." (c) Too Short.

But we're going to dig a little deeper here, and take a look at one of his lesser known samples. His song, "Blind Man Can See It" was originally from the soundtrack to the blaxploitation flick, Black Caesar starring Shaft himself - Fred Williamson. The movie was a remake of the 1931 film Little Caesar, and though it wasn't a commercial success it featured a notable musical score by James Brown (with heavy input from his bandleader Fred Wesley), which happened to be his first experience for writing music for film. The soundtrack is dope, through and through, and features one of James' most bad-ass songs "The Boss."

"Blind Man Can See It" is a superfunky instrumental track that keeps a fairly simple funk melody throughout the beginning of the song, and then at 0:45 seconds in - that's where the magic happens. At that point, the beat drops...and there, my friends is where we find today's sample.

LISTEN: James Brown - "Blind Man Can See It"

Most of you will riggitty-recognize it instantly, as it's that classic biggity-bum rush music from the niggity-nappy headed duo striggity-straight from the sewer.


Das EFX - "They Want EFX"