The enormous influence the Incredible Bongo Band have had on beat makers and producers has often been documented. We thought it was time for our resident encyclopaedia of music, Gareth Stephens, to look back at the lesser-known tracks from the Mr Bongo catalogue that have also found their way into samplers and hard drives:

Labi Siffre

Labi Siffre’s 'I Got The…', as featured on one of the biggest 90’s pop hip hop tracks, 'My Name Is' by Eminen, is a well-known sample. However Wu-Tang Clan and Jay Z have also recycled the Chas & Dave rhythm section.

Madlib

Producer Madlib is one of the greats at sampling an obscure gem. From the records he uses, you know his record collection must be amazing and diverse .

First up he loops up Sweden’s Doris to great effect.

Next he gets busy with the ultra rare Nigerian psyche rock track 'Face The Sun' by Blo.

Moving from Africa to Brazil. Osmar Milito’s 'América Latina' became the main loop in the classic 'Raid' by Madvillain and Ely Camargo ’s 'Taieiras' was featured on the 'Madlib live @ Radio Nova' mix.  

Doris

From the same Doris LP that Madlib utilised, Ralph Myerz reinterprets 'You Never Come Closer' in a very different way, and DJ Spinna reused 'The Beatmaker' vocal on an early ep too. 

UPDATE

We've created a Spotify playlist featuring all of the tracks from the blog posts: