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Incredible Bongo Band -Bongo Rock: The Story Of The IBB 12" LP 2001 Funk Jazz NMUsed · Buy It Now$59.99
The Incredible Bongo Band Bongo Rock+5 with Bonus Track From Japan CD 13tracksBrand New · Buy It Now$31.19
The Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock 7" 45rpm Vinyl 1973 Funk / Breaks VGUsed · Buy It Now$10.00
THE INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND Bongo Rock PRIDE PR 1015 VG+ 45 RPM 1973 Funk 7" RockUsed · Buy It Now$4.00
Bongo Rock is the 1973 album by the Incredible Bongo Band, a studio project led by MGM Records executive Michael Viner with arranger Perry Botkin Jr. It flopped on release, and then became the most important record in early hip hop.
The break
Its cover of “Apache,” the guitar instrumental first recorded by the Shadows, opens into a long stretch of bongos and drums. In the Bronx, Kool Herc played that break over and over for dancers, and it became known as hip hop’s national anthem. The title track, a cover of Preston Epps’s “Bongo Rock,” was another b-boy favorite.
Sound and production
Viner assembled session players for loose, percussion-heavy covers with bright horns and a big, dry drum sound, exactly what a DJ needed to loop.
Legacy
The Sugarhill Gang rapped over “Apache” in 1981, and the break has since been sampled hundreds of times, including Nas’s “Made You Look.” The 2012 documentary Sample This tells the album’s unlikely story.
Tracklist & credits
Produced by Michael Viner, Perry Botkin Jr.
- A1Let There Be Drums2:38
- A2Apache4:54
- A3Bongolia2:14
- A4Last Bongo In Belgium6:55
- B1Dueling Bongos2:56
- B2In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida7:42
- B3Raunchy '733:23
- B4Bongo Rock '732:35
Tracklist and producer credits: Discogs. Gear credits: Breakbeat Archive, sourced on each credit.
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More from hip hop in 1973. The break: Apache, and the records that sampled it.