James Brown’s song, “The Funky Drummer” and Digital Audio Workstation technology contributed to the development of the hip hop genre, which can be heard specifically in the influential hip hop songs: Public Enemy’s ‘Fight the Power’ (1989) and Dr. Dre’s ‘Let Me Ride’ (1992). “The Funky Drummer” largely influenced early hip hop, as can be heard by how popularly it has been sampled and specifically by these iconic artists. The DAW technology transformed sampling and was a pivotal development in the emergence of the hip hop as differentiated musical genre. By listening to these two songs, we can hear how the DAW technology made it possible for two very influential hip hop artists to convey completely different meanings with two variations of the same sample.