Today in History - February 5 | Everyone knows his seven-second creation, but he died in poverty
Drummer Gregory C. Coleman died while living on the streets of Atlanta on February 5, 2006.
Coleman was living in poverty, unaware that a seven-second drum break he had recorded in 1969 had become one of the most familiar pieces of music in modern history.
A minute into the song Amen, Brother recorded with The Winstons, the rest of the band dropped out and Coleman played a four-bar drum break.
Amen, Brother was recorded as a B-side for a minor hit, and the band broke up a year later.
But unbeknownst to Coleman, the drum break became a staple of hip-hop, drum and bass and jungle music.
The drum break was sampled more than 4000 times, including by Salt N Pepa, The Prodigy and DJ Rashad.
It featured especially prominently in NWA's Straight Outta Compton.
But Coleman did not receive a penny in royalties for any of the times it was sampled.
As the US closed in, he took refuge in the Vatican's Panamanian embassy, which the soldiers could not enter.
Instead Delta forces established a perimeter around the embassy and blasted Van Halen albums until Noriega surrendered ten days later.
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