I went to watch the film the Amen Break but the link was unavailable so I googled the term to find out what it was about . Used in songs such as Straight Outta Compton by NWA and Feel Alright Y’all by 2 Live Crew the Amen Break is a short drum beat that can be seen in arious forms of music. From Hip Hop to Rock to TV Commercials and Shows the Amen Break is a part of American media today. Created in 1969 by Gregory Slyvester also known as G.C Coleman. He was a part of the group who had a song called Amen Brother.  The drum solo is only about 7 seconds and has been played normally, sped up and slowed down in the backgrounds of numerous works to fit the work that it was needed for. G.C Coleman and Richard Spencer (the copyright owner) have received no royalties for any sampling of this drum solo.

According to publishing.gmu.edu “From an owner’s perspective, the law theoretically protects the rights of an individual who has spent time and, possibly, money creating a work. That is, the creator has a right to receive compensation and attribution for that work, as well as a level of control over its use.” Authors can enact a copyright so that they can keep their work the way they want to. For example, the famous hip-hop song OPP  by Naughty by Nature samples legendary Jackson 5 hit ABC.  One of the creators, Kaygee stated “I was just scratching that Jackson 5 “ABC” section one day, and Treach heard it and wanted to build on it. Everybody is saying these days how sample clearance is so high, but we sampled that in 1991 and [Motown’s publishing arm] Jobete took 75 percent of the publishing on that song. But we knew that it made the record, so we had to have it”. The group went through the appropriate channels and earned the right to sample ABC  in their hip hop classic. While they only received 1/4 of the profit it was more than what they would have received it they had not created the song or if they were to sample the song without permission and the lawsuits that would have followed after the song reached the status that it did.