The Amen break is a six-second drum loop from the B-side of a 1969 single by the Winstons, "Amen, Brother." Gregory Coleman played it, probably not realizing he was creating the most Frankenstein’d beat in music history.
By the '80s, it was everywhere — N.W.A., Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, the backbone of hip-hop's golden age. In the '90s, it mutated again, shaping drum and bass and jungle into the jittery, rave-ready soundtracks of sweaty basements. Now? It’s the musical equivalent of the Wilhelm scream: instantly recognizable, endlessly repurposed.
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