The Story of the 'Amen Break' with Crissy Criss - BBC 1Xtra

By Crissy Criss

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In 1969 the drummer of a band called The Winstons performed a 6 second drum solo in a track called Amen Brother. He could have had no idea how that break would go on to become one of the most used samples of all time.

It was used in early hip hop records during the 80s, it cropped up in loads of old skool rave tunes and became one of the foundation stones of Jungle and Drum & Bass - not to mention all the other tracks which feature it in one form or another! There are loads websites, databases and facebook groups devoted to the subject, for some reason Djs and producers are TOTALLY obsessed by it.

Crissy Criss explores the legacy of the Amen Break and tries to track down one of the original members of The Winstons to find out how he feels about creating the most influencial 6 second break in music.

Uploaded 1 year ago -

Joni Storey

1 month ago

Mint

Sam Hutchinson

2 months ago

Such an awesome break. I've mixed together a load of tracks that make use of the Amen including hip-hop, jungle, D&B, techno, rave and digital hardcore. Check it out!
Amen Breakdown (Part 1)
Amen Breakdown (Part 2)
Amen Breakdown (Part 3)

Richard Louis Spencer

4 months ago

I wish that some of these rich white boys would pay me for using my music!!RichardSpencer

STEFAN MATSCHI [PRODUCER & DJ]

5 months ago

:-)

OCIO

8 months ago

Gracias!

MiamiBassHistory

8 months ago

Those seeking the history of how the Amen break migrated from Hip-Hop to Drum & Bass, the story is in full detail here: http://www.miamibasshistory.com/wiki/...

@MrAMENBREAK

1 year ago

http://soundcloud.com/mramenbreak/spa... , interesting audio documentry, thanks for educating the world dude.

Shabazz Fernando

1 year ago

Whats the name of the track at 25:47 please tell!

devnull

1 year ago

some good info but one really important early track that didn't get mentioned is Success n Effect's "roll it up (bass kickin beats)", amens w/ chopped hiphop samples a year or two before "we r ie"