One of most-sampled songs in hip-hop history, “Impeach The President” is famous for the funky drums that have been used on classic songs by 2Pac, Janet Jackson, and LL Cool J. The track has been sampled more than 600 times.

The song was an obscure one when it was independently released in 1973. The Honey Drippers was a high school band from Queens, NY discovered by veteran soul singer Roy C. Lyrically, “Impeach The President” is a light-hearted debate about the fate of President Richard Nixon, who was in the thick of the Watergate scandal at the time.

The song’s drums—a favorite amongst NYC DJ’s since the ’70's—were popularized by legendary producer Marley Marl in 1986 when he sampled them in multiple tracks, including MC Shan’s “The Bridge” and Eric B & Rakim’s “Eric B. Is President.” Marley told RBMA about his heavy use of the sample:

Hear that snare? That snare would change the world…[I used] those drum sounds for a good run on about ten records, [and] they all were hits…Your brain just knows, there’s something in that sound that I like, so you automatically like it.

The famous break beat—a loop of the track’s first four seconds—was integral to hip-hop in the late ’80’s, and ultimately became a big influence on pop music in the 1990’s.

Roy C—who wrote and produced “Impeach The President,” told Wax Poetics about discovering the song’s new life:

I was sitting at home one evening at the dinner table and heard a song on the radio. I didn’t recognize who it was, so I called my daughter to see if she knew. She told me it was Janet Jackson’s “That’s the Way Love Goes.” But somehow, I didn’t get credited. I had a lawyer, but he messed over me…I was told by different people that “Impeach the President” was being used here and there. Then I started searching, and I’d found that hundreds of people had sampled it.