FUNKY DRUMMER: Perhaps the world���¢'s most sampled drummer, Clyde Stubblefield's work with James Brown helped create the blueprint for hip hop. (Benjamin Franzen/PBS)
It was the time when crate-diggers came into their own. Finding fat beats and killer drum breaks had long been a source of competitive pride among DJs. As technology advanced, it became much easier to edit, distort, layer, remix, and otherwise adulterate samples from existing records in new audio collages. When the formerly underground movement suddenly became the dominant force on the record charts, artists and labels began to take note when their music was sampled. Serious compensation would eventually be demanded to legally clear samples or risk a costly trip to court.
If one hero emerges in Copyright, it is Clyde Stubblefield, considered the world’s most sampled drummer, as a result of his 1965-1970 tenure in James Brown’s classic band. It is his improvised drum line from “Funky Drummer” that powers some of hip hop’s biggest hits, including Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” and LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” which the film vividly illustrates with split screens of Stubblefield playing live compared to the videos of the songs sampling his work.
