The Big Beat

The record

“The Big Beat”, a 3:36 song, opens The Tale of the Tape, the 1980 debut album by rock singer and guitarist Billy Squier, released by Capitol Records. The album was produced by Squier with Eddy Offord. Bobby Chouinard played drums on the track, and the song's heavy beat was built by overdubbing Chouinard with Squier himself beating a snare drum case with his hands. The song was not a chart hit.

The break

The appeal for DJs was Chouinard's drum pattern, a loud, simple rock beat with the extra hand percussion layered on top. Coming from a rock album rather than a funk or soul record, it offered DJs a different texture to mix into their sets. It was later compiled on Ultimate Breaks and Beats, the 25-volume series edited by Louis “BreakBeat Lou” Flores and Lenny “BreakBeat Lenny” Roberts between 1986 and 1991, which put it in front of many more producers.

Into hip hop

The beat was used early. UTFO's “Roxanne, Roxanne” (1984) drew on it, and Run-DMC used it twice in 1985, on “Jam-Master Jammin'” from King of Rock and on “Here We Go”. Big Daddy Kane returned to it on several tracks, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five used it on “Magic Carpet Ride”. Ice Cube used it on “Jackin' for Beats” (1990), a track built from other people's beats, and A Tribe Called Quest used it on “We Can Get Down” from Midnight Marauders (1993). Puff Daddy's “Can't Nobody Hold Me Down” (1997) carried it into the Bad Boy era.

Legacy

Jay-Z's “99 Problems”, from The Black Album (2003) and produced by Rick Rubin, is the best known later use. Dizzee Rascal built “Fix Up, Look Sharp” (2003) on it, Nas used it on “Hip Hop Is Dead” (2006) with will.i.am, and Kanye West used it on “Looking for Trouble” (2010). By 2020 the song had been sampled in almost 300 recordings, with later uses by pop acts such as Alicia Keys and Little Mix as well as rappers. Beck used it on “Soul Suckin' Jerk”, the X-Ecutioners on their remix of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' “Higher Ground”, Alessia Cara and Foster the People have also used it, and the Prodigy opened their mix album The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One with the track.