Amen Break creator finally receives his dues
One of the men behind the widely sampled breakbeat has been paid by a GoFundMe crowdfund
A crowdfunding campaign has finally remunerated the man behind one of the most sampled beats in history.
Richard L. Spencer is the former lead vocalist and saxophone player of The Winstons and the copyright holder of their track 'Amen Brother' which features the legendary Amen Break drum pattern, one of the most sampled pieces of music in history.
The 6-second breakbeat has been widely used by hip hop, jungle, drum 'n' bass and techno producers without Spencer or the performer, drummer Gregory C. Coleman, ever receiving a penny in royalties.
Unfortunately Coleman passed away in 2006, but Spencer who arranged the track has finally been rewarded for his work after a GoFundMe campaign started by UK breakbeat DJ Martyn Webster raised a total of £24,000 to pay the musician.
Watch a video of Spencer recvieing the novelty cheque below.
Firstly, sorry for the delay in updating this! It has taken some time to tie everything up, and to cut a long story short, transferring the money from the UK to Richard in America caused some big headaches with my bank being a bit awkward! Anyway, for everyone who donated, here is Richard with his huge Gofundme cheque :)People have asked me if the campaign could be opened again, or left open indefinitely. I have spent a lot of time asking (begging!) Gofundme if they would be able to change the gofundme account I set up originally so that the money went directly to Richard, unfortunately they say that this is not possible at all. Maybe something could be setup directly to Richard's paypal or similar, I will look into it with him.As much as I would of loved to of presented him the cheque/money myself, unfortunately at the time it was not possible to get to America due to work and home commitments, hopefully one day it can happen!Once again, thank you to everyone who donated, the whole campaign became more of a success than I could ever imagine!(Click HD when you start watching the video)
Posted by The Winstons Amen Breakbeat Gesture on Tuesday, 10 November 2015
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