The WhoSampled database has recently crossed the 20,000 samples mark, and since every sample is classified according to the part sampled, it allows us to pull out some interesting statistics, such as the most sampled drum breaks across all genres. Bedroom producers soon began looping drum breaks on cassettes, and eventually, the arrival of dedicated digital samplers and drum machines made the job easier, allowing far greater control and manipulation. He began extending these instrumental passages by hand, switching from one record to the next, chopping from break to break. At the time, when playing extended disco mixes and heavy funk, Herc noticed that it was the instrumental versions, and often the percussion-only breaks in the middle of those records, which sent the crowds wild. In the early 1970's, years before producers had begun chopping up old records on samplers, Jamaican-born and Bronx-based DJ Kool Herc introduced a new approach to mixing records, paving the way for the development of Hip-Hop beatmaking.
You can't mention sample-based music and not talk about drum breaks.
