Funk samples include syncopated drum breaks, slapped bass grooves, rhythm guitar chops, punchy horn stabs, and call-and-response vocal phrases. Born in African American communities in the mid-1960s through a fusion of soul, jazz, and R&B, funk was pioneered by James Brown and later expanded by artists like George Clinton and Bootsy Collins into a full-blown cultural movement. Its rhythmic vocabulary became foundational to hip hop, disco, and electronic music through decades of sampling and reinterpretation.
