Numbers

The record

“Numbers” is the third track on Computer World, Kraftwerk's eighth studio album, released on May 11, 1981. The music is credited to Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider and Karl Bartos. The track is almost entirely rhythm: a tight electronic drum pattern, synthesized percussion and processed voices counting in several languages, including the Japanese “ichi, ni, san, shi.” In the United States it was issued as the A-side of a “Numbers” and “Computer Love” single in June 1981.

The break

“Numbers” is not a drum break in the funk sense. What producers took from it was the drum programming itself, a clipped, syncopated machine pattern, and the counting voices. Some records sample the audio directly; many more rebuild the rhythm on their own drum machines, which is how the pattern spread.

Into hip hop

The key moment came in 1982, when Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force made “Planet Rock” for Tommy Boy with producers Arthur Baker and John Robie. According to Baker, they hired a drum machine programmer, played him “Numbers,” and had the beat programmed into a Roland TR-808. The melody came from Kraftwerk's “Trans-Europe Express,” and the Japanese counting from “Numbers” also appears in the song. Kraftwerk objected to the unlicensed use, and Tommy Boy agreed to pay the group a dollar for each record sold. “Planet Rock” reached No. 4 on the Billboard soul chart and was certified gold. Writing in 1990, Frank Owen described it as an ongoing influence on Miami bass, Detroit techno and Los Angeles hip hop. The “Numbers” rhythm and its counting voices show up across that lineage, from Miami bass records such as Dynamix II's “Ignition” and Techmaster P.E.B.'s “Bass by Numbers” to Los Angeles, where J.J. Fad's “Supersonic,” produced by Dr. Dre, DJ Yella and Arabian Prince for Ruthless Records in 1988, was built on the “Numbers” beat.

Legacy

Because “Planet Rock” carried its rhythm to so many producers, “Numbers” is one of the most important source records in electro. Its influence runs through the 808 records of the early 1980s, the bass music of South Florida and the electro-rap of Los Angeles, and later producers such as DJ Shadow have sampled its counting voices directly. J.J. Fad's “Supersonic,” itself certified gold, later supplied the rhythmic base for Fergie's “Fergalicious,” which carried the “Numbers” pattern into pop more than two decades after Kraftwerk recorded it.