Classic Breaks – The Amen Break

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The Amen break is a 5.2 second drum solo from an instrumental funk record called “Amen brother” performed by The Winstons. “Amen brother” was released in 1969 on Metromedia Records and was the B side to The Winstons 7″ single entitled “Colour him farther“. The Amen break was first popularised by Hip Hop artists in the late 80s/early 90s after its inclusion on the Ultimate breaks & Beats series compiled and edited by Louis Flores but would later go on to form the one of the key elements of Jungle music via the Rave scene in the early to mid 90s. To the present day the Amen break has been sampled hundreds of times by artists, producers and musicians from all different backgrounds and genres. From Jungle anthems like “Super sharp shooter” by DJ Zinc & The Ganga Kru to classic hip hop records like “Straight outta Compton” by N.W.A. It seems that this breakbeat has been sought after and sampled by everyone.

Check to see if you recognise the Amen drum break by clicking the clip below:

So now you are familiar with the drum break it is time to explore the Musical DNA that went in to creating such a popular sample that has been so prominent in classic Hip Hop & Dance music. Continue reading →

F-T Interview

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F-T is an artist/producer from the city of Milton Keynes, England. F-T broke out from the local grime scene to gain nationwide recognition with the crew IMP Batch who were also from the Milton Keynes area. Following on from the success of IMP batch F-T has continued to record and release released materiel on his own label ODD ENT as well as produce beats for some of the big names on the Grime/UK Rap scene. In 2011 F-T co-launched TMTV Freestyle fire an internet based TV channel dedicated to shining a light on up and coming talent. Break to the beat recently caught up with F-T to find out about his involvement in the UK Grime/Rap scene over the years as well as talk about his current projects.

Rapper F-Tizzle

How did you get in to the UK Grime scene and what inspired you to start rapping/writing lyrics?

My Dad wanted to stop me n my brother from watching too much TV when we were young so we could concentrate on education I guess, I can’t remember exactly but he effectively said we couldn’t watch TV during the week and we literally went upstairs and discovered a ghetto blaster tucked away in the storage cupboard of the spare room. We found Milton Keynes pirate station ‘super jam’ and heard MC OJ and MC DANNY P going back to back with ‘Mr Fixit’ on the turntables. We hasn’t heard anything like it, all we knew of musically before this was US hip hop like 2pac, that was my first taste of UK Garage. I then started sourcing out all UK garage music I could from tape packs to recording tapes and the music evolved from garage to grime and I was a listener throughout the transition. Then in secondary school me n some mates decided to form a little group called ‘The Justice System; and we soon started winning a lot of talent competitions and had the ethic from the start to put our money together to produce semi pro recordings something other people of our age were not doing. Nobody would give me beats to rhyme over so I decided I needed to make beats myself and that too started and I was eventually noticed by the popular Milton Keynes grime crew at the time (imp batch/impressionist crew) and I ended up part of that movement. It was then at the age of 16 that I made an instrumental called Gype which blew up spending 12 weeks at number 1 in the same UKG chart I grew up listening to and aspiring to be part of one day. From there as a collective we went on BBC 1xtra various times, had countless record releases that topped the UK G charts and I got to produce for the likes of Kano, Tinchy Strider, Roll Deep, Crazy Titch, Jemma Fox, Jammer (the whole grime scene). Continue reading →

A Brief Interview with DJ Roughcut

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Break to the beat recently caught up with one of Milton Keynes City’s Pioneering DJ’s Keith Hurley aka DJ Roughcut. DJ Roughcut hit the national Hip Hop scene in 1989 when he was runner up in the DMC UK mixing championship. Since hip hop’s golden age DJ Roughcut has produced and DJ’d For Pioneering Hip Hop Crews, Wize, DBD, and Klass Dismissed later moving in to the Rave, Jungle, Drum and Bass and Trance scenes. We caught up with Roughcut for a brief incite in to the hip hop scene in the late 1980′s/early 1990′s.

Wize Crew

What inspired you to get in to scratch DJ’ing and how did this lead to you entering the DMC mixing championship?

I was sitting watching the movie Breakdance and I remembering turning to my dad and saying I want to be one of them, my dad said “What a breakdancer?” and I said no “the guys behind with the turntables playing the music for them to breakdance to!” My parents bought me a pair of ‘disco double decks’ which I learnt to practice on. A competition appeared on a kids Saturday morning TV programme called Motormouth looking for young DJ’s to send in a demo for a DJ competition. I was in class at school one day and someone came to the class and said Keith Hurley needs to go to reception. I had no idea what it was going to be about, I got there and they said someone from ITV had called and I was a finalist in a competition and I needed to phone them to arrange appearing on TV!!!!I rushed to the local phone box after school and phoned them. I travelled by train to The Empire in Leicester Square where they were filming the competition. I walked in and immediately I was introduced to The Cookie Crew, Derek B, Simon Harris and Tony Prince the founder and owner of DMC, the World DJ Championship organisation; I was told they were going to be the judges for the competition!!! Continue reading →

Overlord X Discography & Review

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The Late 80s was a very interesting time for hip hop music both in the US and over here in the UK. I remember as a kid getting in to the hip hop culture by watching the film Break dance as well as hearing the Fat Boys, The Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. At the time I would have been about 8 or 9 years old. However when I really fell in love with hip hop was a few years later in 88 or 89 when I first heard artists like Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy and De La Soul. Along with the US rap superstars there were a handful of UK rappers that at the time had the same impact on me as a fan of the music. One of these UK hip hop pioneers was Overlord X. What I respect most about Overlord X is his consistency in making quality hip hop tracks, plus on every 12″ single he released there was at least one different track that did not appear on any of his albums. In 2012 this may not seem like a big issue but back in the late 80s and early 90s music (especially hip hop) was not as accessible as it is now. Even in 1990 hip hop records used to get filed in the dance or jazz section of a record shop.

My point is that on every Overlord X 12″ or single there would be a unique track making the singles as much of a worthwhile purchase as the albums. Overlord X along with his DJ Sir-Preme-Tee were one of the few early hip hop crews from the UK to make hip hop their own in terms of not rapping in an American accent. Overlord X‘s vocal style and music are somewhat unique to him while alongside his DJ Sir-Preme-Tee paved the way for a lot of UK hip hop DJ’s (on Wax especially) with tight and super funky scratches and cuts. Overlord X also had a crew of rappers, DJs & Performers called the X Possee who were from the East London borough of Hackney. I have decided to take a look back at the recording career of Overlord X to give some well deserved props and recognition to one of the UK’s classic hip hop Pioneers.

Continue reading →

“Speech Therapy” By Speech Debelle

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Occasionally in music you discover and album that you can play from start to finish without skipping a single track. In my opinion Speech Debelle‘s “Speech Therapy” is one such album. Everything about this album is unique. It is so unique that Speech Debelle as an artist is hard to compare with other artists as she has a distinct style writing and music that stands out on its own. The entire album has very thought out lyrics that reflect situations that most people have found themselves in at some point in their lives. In 2009 Speech Debelle picked up the Mercury music prize for the “Speech Therapy” album. Currently signed to Big Dada Recordings Speech Debelle‘s music has been increasing in popularity and as an artist she is at the forefront of conscious music coming out of the UK. Break to the beat have decided to take a look back at the album that kick started Speech Debelle‘s” career.

If you are not familiar with Speech Debelle‘s work then check out the entire album track by track complete with several videos via the links below. The lyrics and music speak for themselves so if at any point you have ever been a fan of classic hip hop, Lyrics, or just a fan of exceptional song writing then this album is one to have in the collection. Further info on Speech Debelle can be found at the below websites: Continue reading →

True Element “Milton Keynes City” Live

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Below is some live footage of Milton Keynes hip hop collective True Element performing a live version of their track “Milton Keynes City“. The footage is from 2008 and was recorded in Milton Keynes, England.

Further info on the True Element Collective can be found at the below links

www.facebook.com/pages/True-Element/87929015091

www.trueelement.com