Frontman of The Winstons finally paid for Amen Break drum sample
The song is one of the most widely used samples in Hip-Hop, Breakbeat and Drum & Bass
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Your support makes all the difference.You may have absolutely no idea what the Amen Break is, but you’ve probably heard it a hundred times before.
Artists ranging from N.W.A and Amy Winehouse to Oasis and Slipknot have all sampled the 6-7 second drum solo, originally featured in the song “Amen, Brother” by The Winstons.
Finally, the frontman of the 60s funk outfit has been paid for the sample, 46 years after its 1969 release.
Richard Spencer was given £24,000 after British DJs Martyn Webster and Steve Theobald set up a GoFundMe campaign.
"If you have ever written or sold any music with the amen break, or even just enjoyed one of the countless hundreds and hundreds of tunes that contain it, please donate,” they wrote on their fundraising page.
Their original goal was to raise £1,000, but the campaign took off and received 1,811 donations in eight months.
Spencer finally received the large check, and posted a video to Facebook showing his appreciating to all the people who donated: "Thank you so much for this great contribution to my life. Thank you very, very much. A-men!”
Firstly, sorry for the delay in updating this! It has taken some time to tie everything up, and to cut a long story short, transferring the money from the UK to Richard in America caused some big headaches with my bank being a bit awkward! Anyway, for everyone who donated, here is Richard with his huge Gofundme cheque :)People have asked me if the campaign could be opened again, or left open indefinitely. I have spent a lot of time asking (begging!) Gofundme if they would be able to change the gofundme account I set up originally so that the money went directly to Richard, unfortunately they say that this is not possible at all. Maybe something could be setup directly to Richard's paypal or similar, I will look into it with him.As much as I would of loved to of presented him the cheque/money myself, unfortunately at the time it was not possible to get to America due to work and home commitments, hopefully one day it can happen!Once again, thank you to everyone who donated, the whole campaign became more of a success than I could ever imagine!(Click HD when you start watching the video)
Posted by The Winstons Amen Breakbeat Gesture on Tuesday, 10 November 2015
According to WhoSampled, the Amen Break has been sampled 1,862 times by various artists.
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