Accented, machine gun hi-hat marksmanship, syncopated kick-snare patterns and pure pocket make this a gem for b-boy circles and a dance floor smoker for those with soul.
Express, where he lit up the band’s Energy to Burn LP with rat-ta-tat-tat drumming from front to back. A session musician in New York throughout the ‘80s, Ming got his start with disco-funk outfit, B.T. Leslie Ming is one of my favorite drummers. And it was the driving force behind “The Magic Number.”Īlthough rap hasn’t been this fast in years, I’m shocked at how little this joint has been sampled (or if it’s been sampled at all). For fuck’s sake, the dude plays this groove in 9/8 with the pocket of a James Brown jam. The freakish Led Zepplin drummer has more Stans than any drummer in history, and although I have different heroes, I’d never front on Bonzo’s brilliance on the set. In celebration of the release of my ‘Lunch Breaks’ live drum package out now at The Drum Broker, I present my ten favorite drum breaks of all time.Īsk anyone putting on a show in the drum section of a Guitar Center who they’d like to be for a day and the answer is probably John Bonham.
So I’ve decided to mix it up and include both: a few choices from a production angle and a few from a (still learning to be a) drummer angle. Nowadays, it’s no longer about which breaks are easiest to chop up, toss into the MPC and boom bap with, but which ones I like to emulate when I practice and mimic the recording of when I’m making my own breaks. You also begin to realize how difficult some of these classics were to play. When discovering the wide range of sounds a kit can make and the wide range of playing styles a drummer can use, you begin to hear breaks differently. We’re always stoked to have Jay swing through these parts.- DM)Įvery hip-hop producer has their favorite drum breaks – until they start playing drums! I had this epiphany two years ago, when I picked up a pair of sticks and set out to learn a new instrument at the tender age of 34 and three quarters. His new release, Lunch Breaks, a sample-palette of live drums performed entirely by Jay himself launched last week, primed for drum-less MPCs everywhere. ( J-Zone is back! Last time, he touched on his favorite 45s for a pre-45 Sessions blowout this time, he zeroes in on his all-time choice breaks.