Your Daily Awesome

The Incredible Bongo Band’s 1972 album Bongo Rock was just reissued on (what else?) Mr. Bongo Records, and it’s pretty damn amazing. The Bongo Band and Bongo Rock were critical and commerical failures, doomed to the dustbin of studio musician history—until early hiphop DJs revived the album just a few years later. The New York Times ran an interesting article about the band, and in particular, the song “Apache.”

“Bongo Rock” is significant, however, for being one of the musical cornerstones of rap. While it’s hard to measure these things accurately, it is certainly one of the most sampled LP’s in history, if not the most sampled. Most every history-minded hip-hop D.J. has a copy, and the first few bars of its signature number, a driving cover version of the 60’s instrumental number “Apache,” can send crowds into overdrive. The Bongo Band’s “Apache” has been recycled continually in rap songs over the years; just this past August, Missy Elliott won an MTV video award for the clip to her song “We Run This,” whose central motif is lifted wholesale from “Apache.” According to Kool Herc, the stylistic pioneer many people consider to be the father of hip-hop music, the Bongo’s “Apache” is “the national anthem of hip-hop.”

So without further ado: “Apache.”