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The Incredible Bongo Band Will Continue To Be Sampled Forever
The Incredible Bongo Band Will Continue To Be Sampled Forever

The Incredible Bongo Band Will Continue To Be Sampled Forever [Mr. Bongo Reissues]

The Incredible Bongo Band Will Continue To Be Sampled Forever

Hip-hop started with the breaks. DJ's combing through their records to find that sweet spot on the cut where the track wiggles free and the drums take over. Few breaks have been as commonly sampled and remained as relevant as The Incredible Bongo Band's seminal 73' cut "Apache", off their debut record Bongo Rock. While the album didn't really take off when it first dropped, it took a UK-based beat group like The Shadows to turn down and domesticate it.However, the original's unusually long mid-song break lended itself to be rebooted in Sugar Hill Gang's timeless party jumper "Apache (Jump On It,)--recalling Will and Carlton's iconic Vegas dance of desperation-- Grandmaster Flash's "The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel" and then thrown into a slew of viable --and danceable-- tracks in the 30 years since.

In those three decades we've seen "Apache" land on records for Young MC, The Beastie Boys, MC Hammer, Notorious B.I.G. and eventually find itself on The RootsPhrenology as the foundational drum track for Black Thought's machine-gun pattered romp "Thought @ Work." THE Mr. Bongo-- of the imprint bearing his name -- reissued both their debut Bongo Rock and the follow-up record The Return Of The Incredible Bongo Band, making these instrumental records available for the first time since the years of their original release. Except this time, cut on that heavy 180 gram vinyl, rendering them virtually indestructible to even the most tried and seasoned selector and insuring that these cuts continue to be sampled throughout time immemorial. You can cop both LPs over at Mr. Bongo's site or enter yourself to win a copy of the historical set of records over at Wax Poetics. In the meantime, you can listen to both records for free below.