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James Brown's 'Funky Drummer' dies at 73

Clyde Stubblefield, a James Brown drummer who created one of the most widely sampled drum breaks ever, has died. He was 73.

His wife, Jody Hannon, says Stubblefield died of kidney failure at a Madison, Wisconsin, hospital on Saturday. She says he had been suffering from kidney disease for 10 years, and had been hospitalised for a few days.

Stubblefield performed on several of Brown's classics, but was best known for a short break on Brown's 1970 single, Funky Drummer.

Rolling Stone says it was sampled on over 1000 songs and served as the backbeat for countless hip-hop tracks, including Public Enemy's Fight the Power.

Hennon says Stubblefield never saw many royalties and never expected them.