Breakbeats

It's hard to imagine a time when bangin' breaks weren't a part of our lives. Our Breakbeats Essentials begins with the most sampled beat of all, James Brown's "Funky Drummer", and includes the oft-admired syncopation of "Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed" by Thin Lizzy, the Meters' "Hand Clapping Song", and Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man".

The road to percussive perfection winds on, through Next Steps.

The funky beats continue with jazz-fusion supergroup Weather Report, who boasted a double-drum assault on "Non-Stop Home", thanks to Eric Gravatt and Herschel Dwellingham. Better yet, these Next Steps reveal original songs sampled for Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" (Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise") and Das EFX's "They Want EFX" (James Brown's "Funky President").

The funky drummer ascends to those clouds reserved for the gods in Deep Cuts.

This time around we've dug deep into the iTunes crates, and we've found a connoisseur's selection of breakbeat sources: percussive tributaries that have fed some of the greatest tracks of our time. Check out Billy Cobham's syncopated brilliance on "Stratus", a session so fantastic that Massive Attack felt compelled to sample it on "Safe from Harm".

Hip-hop emerged from the South Bronx when DJs discovered that the breaks were, more often than not, the floor-fillers. Right around this time, Sugar Hill Records employed the services of a house band, but by the mid-'80s that concept became extinct as producers immersed themselves in sampling. Today breaks are used by rock groups, pop icons, and even in advertising. Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Clyde Stubblefield, James Gadson, and Zigaboo Modeliste are just a few of the drum pioneers you'll hear celebrated in this diverse set of beats, breaks, and rare grooves.