The song “The Funky Drummer” was written, recorded, and produced by James Brown in 1969 and released in March 1970. The song features many different solos, emphasizing each individual’s instrumental sounds and talents. At 4:42, Brown calls out to the drummer, Clyde Stubblefield, for his solo but tells him, “You don’t have to do no soloing, brother, just keep what you got… Don’t turn it loose, ’cause it’s a mother”. Brown directs Stubblefield to continue the same eight-bar riff that he played consistently throughout the song, which at the time was uncommon for an underscored solo part of a song. This allows the listeners to appreciate the music the drums have been making throughout most of the song. In doing so, the band showcases Stubblefield’s ability to maintain a steady pulse while keeping all the musicians together.
This drum set solo, heard from 5:35 to 5:54, has a very thin texture focusing on just the drum. This concept of a twenty-second portion of a song being dedicated only to the drummer, and especially to a drummer doing nothing improvisational, playing only the riff that serves as the underlying tempo for the duration of the song, is odd.
The basis of this drum set solo is a complicated and rapid 16th note hi-hat pattern. Stubblefield adds syncopation of a bass drum and snares, open hi-hats, ghost notes and accented snares. After every backbeat on notes two and four on the snare drum, there is a hi-hat splash. The combination of these individual components creates a funky groove that is incredibly difficult to replicate.
The Funky Drummer goes on to be the second most sampled song in history because of James Brown’s prominence as a musician and because of the actual practicality of the drum segment. When searching for samples for their music in the future, it is only logical that many artists turned to one of the most influential and popular musicians in soul music, James Brown. This solo in the “Funky Drummer” serves as the ideal foundation for sampling because of its simple, easily manipulated groove, and the fact that it is one of the first recordings of a solo drum beat not convoluted or thickened by other instruments playing simultaneously. To have a long segment of a drum groove like Clyde Stubblefield’s was essentially having a well known but untapped resource that served as a sample to be the foundation for hundreds of songs in the future of music.
“The Funky Drummer” in Hip Hop
James Brown’s influence in this era of hip hop prevails in both the social and practical contexts of the genre. Samples and breakbeats are a style of hip hop to signify African-American musical lineage. James Brown is sampled because of his overarching legacy as the “Godfather of Soul” and as a way to transcend the common themes of expressing African American community life. The author states that signifying is an “act of helping to preserve cultural memories that also serves social and political functions as it allows younger listeners to place their tastes, their attitudes and their cultural value within a longer and richer musical tradition. In doing so, the simple act of referencing older works serves to elevate them and ultimately to unite and empower the community that identifies with the material”. Clyde Stubblefield’s specific drumming segment from “the Funky Drummer” is the specifically second most sampled song in music today because of its originality of simple drum beat and the simplicity of the sound, plus the recognition of it being a song of James Brown’s. The ease of the technological innovations catalyzed the abundant sampling of the “Funky Drummer” by making the act of sampling a significantly simpler task.