"Funky Drummer" was recorded on November 20, 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and originally released by King Records as a two-part 45 rpm single in March 1970. The difference between the album version and the single version is that the single version contains Brown's vocal percussion. Despite rising to No. 20 on the R&B chart and No. 51 on the pop chart, it did not receive an album release until the 1986 compilationIn the Jungle Groove. The piece takes the form of an extended vamp, with individual instruments improvising brief lickson top. Brown's ad-libbed vocals on "Funky Drummer" are sporadic and declamatory, and are mostly concerned with encouraging the other band members. The song is played in the key of D minor, though the first verse is in C major. As in the full-length version of "Cold Sweat", Brown announces the upcoming drum break, which comes late in the recording, with a request to "give the drummer some." He tells Stubblefield "You don't have to do no soloing, brother, just keep what you got... Don't turn it loose, 'cause it's a mother." Stubblefield's eight-bar unaccompanied "solo", a version of the riff he plays through most of the piece, is the result of Brown's directions; this break beat is one of the most sampled recordings in music. After the drum break, the band returns to the original vamp. Brown, apparently impressed with what Stubblefield has produced, seems to name the song on the spot as it continues, and repeats it: "The name of this tune is 'The Funky Drummer', 'The Funky Drummer', 'The Funky Drummer'." The recording ends with a reprise of Stubblefield's solo and a fade-out. "The Funky Drummer" is also sometimes used as a nickname for Stubblefield himself, who capitalized on the name with his 1997 album Revenge of the Funky Drummer. As a session drummer, Stubblefield received no further compensation for the many samples that were taken from the recording.
Versions
More than one mix of "Funky Drummer" was made around the time it was recorded, including one with tambourine and another with vocal percussion by Brown and trombonistFred Wesley; the most commonly heard version of the track lacks these elements, which were apparently overdubbed. In addition to the original version of "Funky Drummer", the album In the Jungle Groove includes a "bonus beat reprise" of the piece. This track, edited by Danny Krivit, consists of a 3-minute loop of the drum break, punctuated only by Brown's sampled vocal interjections and an occasional guitar chord and tambourine hit.
The rhythm pattern on "Funky Drummer" is cited as one of the world's top most sampled drum segments and has backed hip hop songs, as well as songs of other genres, for 35 years. Rediscovered by Hank Shocklee of The Bombsquad while they were creating mixes for Public Enemy in the early 1980s, it has since been used by hip-hop groups and rappers including Run-D.M.C., N.W.A, LL Cool J, and Boogie Down Productions. Starting with Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison", new jack swing artists have sampled a snare unit on loop. As of 2020, the drum break has been sampled in more than 1,580 other songs. Rappers who sampled the recording have included references to Brown, Stubblefield, and the song's title in their lyrics, two examples being LL Cool J in "Boomin' System" and Public Enemy in "Fight the Power". The "Funky Drummer" beat has been so widely used that it has become something of a musical cliché, and performers sometimes refer to it sarcastically. MC Frontalot's song "Good Old Clyde" comments on the widespread appropriation of the "Funky Drummer" beat. Pop Will Eat Itself's song "Not Now, James, We're Busy" samples Brown's vocal asides from "Funky Drummer" as well as the drum break, weaving them into a commentary on Brown's legal troubles.
