Author Archives: DJ Kraze One

The Funky Drummer

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Like the Amen drum break documented in the first of the Classic Break Beats series  the “Funky drummer” by James Brown has also had a huge imprint on popular music. The drum break has been sampled, chopped up and incorporate in to musical creations across genres now for generations. From classic Hip Hop artists like Public Enemy, Ultamagnetic MCs, and N.W.A, to pop artists like George Michael, Kylie Minogue and in recent times Emili Sande, the familiar sound of the Funky drummer can be heard throughout the musical spectrum.

Below is an insert of the Funky drummer bonus beat reprise in case you are not familiar with this particular break beat:

James Brown “Funky drummer bonus beat reprise”

Now you are familiar with the Funky drummer break beat we are going to look at the influence it has had on modern music.

The song Funky drummer was recorded in 1969 and released in March 1970 on King Records as a double sided 7″ vinyl Single. The single contains two extracts entitled as parts 1 & 2 taken from a full length version of the recording that is 9 minutes 13 seconds long. Because of the length of the recording it would not have been possible to cut it to a 7” Record which can only hold about three and a half minutes of sound per side at optimum recording quality. Releasing extracts of long compositions was a popular method at the time especially with Funk music that would often be created on the fly by musicians jamming together. The Jam sessions were then edited to a suitable length within the parameters of the record (In the case of a 7″ 3.5 minutes or less) Continue reading →

True Element (Chapter 1)

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True Element was a project that ran between 1997 and 2014 and involved a substantial amount of rappers, DJs, singers, and musicians from Milton Keynes and the surrounding area. The True Element story consists of four significant parts all of which involved different members who’s presence in the collective brought various unique elements to the overall sound, style, direction and vibe of the collective. In part one of what will eventually become a four part series of articles Breaktothebeat are going to look in to and document the foundations that lead to the creation of True Element, their early recordings, independent releases and their journey towards establishing themselves as a live Hip Hop crew.

True Element Collective 2005 Xscape Milton Keynes.

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True Element (Chapter 2)

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Welcome to the second chapter of the True Element story. To read chapter 1 please visit: True Element (Chapter 1).

In this section we will be documenting True Elements achievements during the later part of 1998 and 2001 which is when the project expanded from it’s foundations of recording to include performing live, first locally and then nationally. Towards the end of this chapter we will also document the completion of unfinished demos from this period by DJ Kraze One, MC Killa Joul & DJ Maniphest in later years.

For True Element to progress DJ Kraze One knew that the project had to develop from recording and releasing music to performing and promoting the creations in a live environment. By the end of 1998 DJ Kraze One‘s persistence had established True Element as a local Hip Hop crew with two independent releases “Take a look around” and “The True Elementalz EP” accredited to them. The releases featured contributions by DJ Maniphest, Mr Lusta, Hysko, Tony Mac, Killa Joul and although some of the collective had began to take light steps in to performing live there was not a enough collective will to organise and establish the project as a live crew during the early years. Continue reading →