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Clyde Stubblefield in 2010 in Madison, Wis.
Benjamin Franzen
Clyde Stubblefield
Died on February 18, 2017 at age 73
Mr. Stubblefield’s 20-second drum pattern on James Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” part bendy funk and part hard march, was the platonic ideal of a breakbeat. His snippet of percussion became the foundation of hip hop’s sampling era, appearing in more than a thousand songs by artists like Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Sinead O'Connor and George Michael.
Notable Deaths 2017
Remembering Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty and many others who died this year.