Skull Snaps was an enigmatic

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

group active between 1963 and 1973. The group is known for their mysterious origins and the anonymity of their members, with the identities of their members being unknown for most of their career and long afterward. Until 1970 they were known as The Diplomats, and released a number of singles with some success. Renamed Skull Snaps, they released an eponymous album on the small GSF label in 1973 before suddenly disappearing.

Ten12 Records Ten12 Records was a Brooklyn-based outsider electronic, breakbeat, and experimental record label. Ten12 was noted for its focus on facilitating collaboration between new experimental recording artists and the few remaining (and overlooked) earl ...

re-united all the original members of Skull Snaps (Erv Littleton Waters, Sam O. Culley, and George Bragg) in 2005 in tandem with the band's first official release, "Snapped"/"I'm Your Pimp", since its 1975 single. Under the direction of Skull Snaps frontman Erv Waters, Ten12 Records planned to release the entire Skull Snaps catalog on CD and DVD, with recordings from the original album plus five bonus tracks: "Al's Razor Blade", "Ain't That Lovin' You", "On Top of It", "Soul Makossa", and "She's the One".

''Skull Snaps'' album

The ''Skull Snaps'' album contains drum breaks that have been sampled numerous times on various hip hop records. In 1989, hip-hop artist

Stezo Stephen Jerome Williams (March 10, 1968 – April 29, 2020), known by his stage name Stezo, was an American rapper and producer. Career Stezo was born Stephen Williams in 1968 in New Haven, Connecticut. He first appeared on the hip-hop scene as ...

first sampled the opening drums from their song, "It's a New Day" on his work titled, "It's My Turn". Since then, the now-familiar opening drum pattern of "It's a New Day" can be heard on songs by well-known acts such as Ol' Dirty Bastard, Das EFX, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Eric B. & Rakim, Digable Planets, DJ Shadow, Rob Dougan,

Stabbing Westward Stabbing Westward is an American industrial rock band. Christopher Hall and Walter Flakus formed the band in 1985 in Macomb, Illinois. The band released an extended play in 1992, followed by four studio albums: ''Ungod'' (1994), ''Wither Bli ...

the Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

, Panjabi MC, Suprême NTM,

Linkin Park Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. The band's current lineup comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn and drummer ...

and others, many of whom sampled the drum pattern directly from the Stezo track, as he let the sample run "naked".

Tracklist

References

External links

www.skullsnapsradio.com
*

AllMusic Guide entry AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

on Skull Snaps (group)
Ten12 Records
on 2005 release Skull Snaps (album) {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1963 American funk musical groups