A-Town Bonus Beats
Success-N-Effect – “Roll It Up (Fat Mix)”
Success-N-Effect – “Roll It Up (Bass Kickin Beats)“
from Freeze 12″ (On Top, 1989)
A minor footnote to yesterday’s Atlanta compilation: In addition to being a big hit locally, this “Amen Brother” sampling remix of Success-N-Effect’s “Roll It Up” and the accompanying bonus beats predicted, if not birthed, the UK Drum N Bass/Jungle scene. DJ Frankie Bones weighs in via discogs:
For the first 6 months of my arrival to the U.K. back in the later months of 1989, this was my most treasured track, the one people would remember me for. The vocal “Let The Bass Kick” followed by The Winstons “Amen Brother” breakbeat with a sub 808 that was deadly. Felix Sama’s edit work was effective on this chopping Big Daddy Kane’s Vocal “Let It Roll” (made popular by Doug Lazy) into little bits before crashing into that 808/breakbeat again. Carl Cox would get his copy from Lenny Dee in Feb. 1990 and went and did a white label remix which would result in his ink with Perfecto Records for “I Want U (Forever). After that it became the template for the young U.K. youth who began to experiment in the studio. The end result being Jungle and Drum & Bass. This record was the prototype.
March 26th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
someone needs to go do their homework before posting “birth of drum n bass” records
March 26th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
exactly what part of “predicted, if not birthed” didn’t you understand?
March 27th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
This video is all about the Amen Break… I thought it was cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac
March 28th, 2009 at 11:26 am
1989!
thats crazy… never heard about this track before…
one sample basically birthed a whole genre thats still well and alive globally (well, not everywhere, but u know in places like brazil and latvia atleast).
dont stop with this history lesson shit…
March 28th, 2009 at 11:37 am
and i guess its also quite possible that UK producers listened to NWA:s Straight Outta Compton – which uses the same break – for inspiration.
March 28th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
well, good look Noz. of course massive respect to Frankie Bones, both for holding it down since day one with house & techno (& later on hardcore/gabber/etc) & for some of his own seminal productions from the late 80s/early 90s. & there’s no doubt that the Amen is/was the most heavily sampled break in jungle (tho not the only common one; also Think, Apache, Tighten Up, etc etc).
on the other hand – “Roll It Up” was an influential track in the creation of breakbeat hardcore that later became jungle…but it wasn’t the only influential track by a long shot. at the same time East London bboys like Shut Up & Dance were also fusing house to hip hop breakbeats, not to mention stuff like Renegade Soundwave – “The Phantom” or a little bit later Lennie De Ice – “We Are IE”. not to mention Mr. Bones’ fellow New Yorker, Todd Terry (a name older hip hop heads might know from “I’ll House You”), the original don of roughing up house bboy-ish breaks & clattery drums.
all this is merely to say that there were in fact many tracks which birthed jungle & that I’m generally dubious of ppl trying to claim a lion’s share of the credit after the fact – bit of self-aggrandizement isn’t it – tho I suppose you did qualify it. in any regard it’s a cool post – kudos for stepping outside CB’s boundaries & making that connection for ppl who didn’t know…turn ppl onto different things & such.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:15 am
Etiological argument aside, this is incredibly dope. Damn.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
nice post, but on a slightly related tip I’m still looking for a record I had as a kid from a WestCoast cat called Mello (Melo?) and the chorus went ‘roll it up, light it up, pass it around”……………………long shot in the dark, I know.
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 pm
[...] 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment cocaineblunts gives us an amen break-based Atlanta rap-track from 1989… predating jungle with a couple of [...]