The 20-second break was part of a song by the Winstons, a multiracial soul band. Despite the Amen break's seminal popularity across music genres, the Winstons never received royalties. Nobody ...

The story of the Amen Break and how a six second drum solo reshaped hip hop, electronic, and global music culture.

A six second drum break from The Winstons‘ “Amen, Brother” (the b-side to their 1969 hit “Color Him Father”) is arguably the most famous “break” ever. The “Amen Break” has been sampled on countless ...

The "Amen break" is arguably the most important 6 seconds of music ever recorded. With the popularization of sampling, the 4-bar drum solo (originally from The Winstons' 1969 track "Amen, Brother") ...

The “Amen break” is one of music’s most beloved and essential samples, ranking up there with “Funky Drummer” and “Think (About It)” as the most used breaks in hip-hop, dance and rock. Snatched from ...

Richard Spencer sits in his living room in Wadesboro, NC. What do Salt-N-Pepa, Amy Winehouse, Oasis, and the theme song to the animated TV show Futurama have in common? Six seconds. It's called the ...

What is one of the most sampled bits of music in hip-hop history? If you guessed virtually any tune by James Brown, you're close. Indeed, Browns' distinctive guitar riffs, drum breaks, and his ...

The process of sampling breakbeats has allowed castoff moments of unaccompanied drums to take on new lives as the crucial backbones of songs decades later, but no little loop has gone onto such a ...

A drummer has released 75 new versions of the classic Amen break. Created by musician Merlin Matthews, the sample pack keeps the beat at 136 BPM and includes 11 additional percussion sets. Known as ...