Sly Stone — Pioneer of Machine-Made Music and O.G. Beatmaker
While the world mourns the loss of a funk icon, it’s a good time to remember that Sly Stone was also a pioneer of machine-made music and an O.G. beatmaker.
Of all the early adopters of drum machines, as part of the recording process, nobody used the drum machine like Sly Stone first did in 1969. His use of the drum machine is the precursor to what beatmakers (producers) in the hip hop/rap music tradition would eventually come to do and build upon. Sly Stone’s own record label, Stone Flower, may have been short lived (1969-1971), but the innovations that appeared on his label’s first and only compilation album still reverberate today. This is because the Stone Flower album, I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower 1969-70, represents the first time that a pop musician used a drum machine on an album.[1]
Sly Stone used the maestro Rhythm King MRK-2 drum machine, one of the earliest drum machines, which, at the time, was originally created and used mostly for accompanying live organists or other musicians. But guided by what he saw as the Rhythm King’s possibilities, Sly Stone reimagined the drum machine, much in the same way beatmakers (producers) would do later with drum machines like the E-Mu SP 1200 and the Akai MPC 60 and 60 II, and he programmed the sounds in a way that made the Rhythm King a featured instrument. The Rhythm King’s sounds weren’t real drums; in fact, the Latin presets that Sly Stone was drawn to were weak sounds — snares that were faint, barely registering an attack point; kicks that had no punch; hi-hats that sounded light and cheesy, more a metronome pulse than a proper hi-hat. Still, Sly Stone made it all work. And his experimentations with the Rhythm King would go on to put a stamp on his next album There’s A Riot Goin’ On.[2]
Sly Stone didn’t use the Rhythm King on every song from I’m Just Like You…, but he did use it on most of the songs. Here, I highlight three of those songs and note the rhythmic patterns of each use of the Rhythm King. These three songs collectively foreshadowed the rhythm and drum patterns that would eventually become staples in the beatmaking tradition of hip hop/rap music.
Sly Stone – “Just Like A Baby.” Notice the shuffling hi-hat, syncopated tom hits that skip through the song and the snare, which doesn’t show up until halfway through the 4-minute song, lands flush on beats two and four except towards the latter half of the 4-minute song.
6IX – “I’m Just Like You.” This is basically a straight ahead boom bap construction: kick kick snare | kick kick snare | kick snare | kick kick snare with straight 8th hi-hats. Also, includes other syncopated percussion sounds.
Joe Hicks – “Life & Death in G & A (Pts. 1 & 2). On this song, the snare lands only on beat four, and the hi-hat sounds basically like a metronome. Also, this song includes a brush sound that shuffles throughout on beats one through four.
Sly Stone – “Africa.” This song incorporates a sleigh bell sound for the hi-hat. This, along with syncopated snares, is something that would become a staple of some early boom bap beats. This, along with syncopated snares.
Sly Stone – “I’m Just Like You”
Notes:
1. DMasc, “Looking For The Perfect Beat Machine From Sly Stone to DJ Premier—how synthetic rhythm transformed music,” Cuepoint/Medium (Nov 4, 2014) https://medium.com/cuepoint/looking-for-the-perfect-beat-machine-3c110417f81a.
2. Ibid.
