WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.940 The Heartbeat of Funk, the uncredited genius 00:00:03.940 --> 00:00:07.320 of Jabo Starks. Have you ever tapped your foot 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:09.460 to a hip -hop track or a James Brown anthem? 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:12.320 If so, you've likely been moved by the legendary 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:15.259 rhythms of John Jabo Starks. In this deep dive, 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:17.500 we explored the life and legacy of one of music's 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:20.089 most sampled and foundational drummers. From 00:00:20.089 --> 00:00:22.309 his self -taught beginnings in Alabama to creating 00:00:22.309 --> 00:00:25.030 the blueprint for funk drumming alongside Clyde 00:00:25.030 --> 00:00:27.850 Stubblefield in the JB's, we unpack the history 00:00:27.850 --> 00:00:29.929 behind the grooves that built modern hip -hop, 00:00:30.269 --> 00:00:33.409 R &B, and New Jack swing. We'll explore his eras 00:00:33.409 --> 00:00:35.990 with Bobby Bland, James Brown, and B .B. King 00:00:35.990 --> 00:00:38.469 and ask why the architects of our musical landscape 00:00:38.469 --> 00:00:41.490 often go uncredited. Grab your headphones. This 00:00:41.490 --> 00:00:43.409 is a masterclass in holding the rhythm steady. 00:00:44.670 --> 00:00:46.890 James Brown drummer, funk drumming, hip -hop 00:00:46.890 --> 00:00:50.429 samples, Clyde Stubblefield, the JBs, blues drumming, 00:00:50.609 --> 00:00:53.049 R &B history, Amir Thompson, Bootsy Collins. 00:00:53.750 --> 00:00:55.890 So I want you to run a quick thought experiment 00:00:55.890 --> 00:00:58.530 with me. Just picture this for a second. Imagine 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:01.780 you are a structural engineer. And over a 40 00:01:01.780 --> 00:01:04.980 -year career, you personally pour the concrete 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:07.420 foundation for some of the most famous buildings 00:01:07.420 --> 00:01:09.760 on earth. You know, we're talking skyscrapers, 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:13.140 massive museums, arenas. Really big stuff. Right. 00:01:13.319 --> 00:01:15.340 The monumental stuff. And millions of people 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:17.799 walk through those doors every single year. They 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:20.019 stare up at the glass facades. They admire the 00:01:20.019 --> 00:01:22.239 interior design. They take pictures in the penthouse. 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:25.859 But, um... Your name isn't on a single plaque 00:01:25.859 --> 00:01:29.239 in the lobby. You are completely invisible to 00:01:29.239 --> 00:01:31.840 the millions of people who are quite literally 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:34.959 standing on your life's work. That captures the 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:37.060 reality of the rhythm section in popular music 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:39.640 perfectly. You are the floor everyone else is 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:42.060 dancing on, but nobody's looking at the floor. 00:01:42.180 --> 00:01:44.560 Exactly. When we look at the stack of sources 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:47.099 for today's deep dive, the biographical data, 00:01:47.219 --> 00:01:49.260 the discographies, the specific session notes, 00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:52.000 that dynamic is the defining narrative of the 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.519 musician we're focusing on today. We are looking 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:57.859 at the life, the staggering outpour, and honestly, 00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:01.560 the largely uncredited legacy of John J. Bo Stark's. 00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:04.019 And for you listening right now, the mission 00:02:04.019 --> 00:02:06.439 of this deep dive is to trace how one musician 00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:08.939 laid the physical blueprint for multiple genres. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:11.400 We've got a massive stack of source material 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:14.139 in front of us today. A really dense stack. Yeah, 00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:16.860 ranging from his comprehensive biographical data 00:02:16.860 --> 00:02:20.400 spanning from 1937 to his passing in 2018, to 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:23.360 deep analyses of his eras with Bobby Blinn, James 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:25.819 Brown and B .B. King and some really crucial 00:02:25.819 --> 00:02:28.300 commentary from modern musicians dissecting his 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:30.840 impact on hip hop sampling. And the through line 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:34.419 in all these sources is how modern music was 00:02:34.419 --> 00:02:36.460 practically engineered from the ground up by 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:38.560 a handful of people in the mid 20th century. 00:02:39.020 --> 00:02:41.800 We aren't just looking at a timeline of a drummer's 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:44.379 career here. We are pulling apart the rhythmic 00:02:44.379 --> 00:02:47.419 DNA of late 20th and early 21st century popular 00:02:47.419 --> 00:02:50.020 music. The listener might not immediately recognize 00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:52.120 the name J. Bo Starks, but I guarantee they have 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:54.080 absolutely moved their body to his rhythm. So 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:57.360 to understand how someone builds that kind of... 00:02:57.560 --> 00:02:59.840 that kind of foundational vocabulary, we have 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.080 to look at where the vocabulary comes from. And 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:03.919 looking at the biographical sources we have, 00:03:04.219 --> 00:03:07.259 he doesn't emerge from a prestigious jazz conservatory 00:03:07.259 --> 00:03:10.120 in New York or some classical symphony program. 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:13.229 Far from it. John Henry Starks was born in Jackson, 00:03:13.250 --> 00:03:16.830 Alabama in 1937, though you'll occasionally see 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:19.750 1938 cited in some of the archival obituaries. 00:03:20.370 --> 00:03:22.669 He was one of five children, picked up the nickname 00:03:22.669 --> 00:03:25.610 Jabo as a newborn, and spent his formative years 00:03:25.610 --> 00:03:28.819 in Mobile, Alabama. Okay, Mobile. And to understand 00:03:28.819 --> 00:03:31.099 his rhythmic foundation, you really have to understand 00:03:31.099 --> 00:03:33.479 the environment of the Gulf Coast in the 1940s 00:03:33.479 --> 00:03:37.699 and 50s. It was a dense, humid, culturally rich 00:03:37.699 --> 00:03:39.960 melting pot of sound. The sources highlight a 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.340 very specific inciting incident for him, too. 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:44.400 It wasn't a record playing on the radio. It was 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:46.500 the seventh grade. And he was standing on the 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:49.259 street watching a Mardi Gras parade roll through 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:52.039 Mobile. You think about the sheer acoustic assault 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:55.129 of a marching band drum line in that era. For 00:03:55.129 --> 00:03:57.310 a seventh -grader standing on the pavement, feeling 00:03:57.310 --> 00:04:00.129 that physical, concussive vibration in the chest, 00:04:00.590 --> 00:04:03.189 the syncopation in the snares, the heavy, booming 00:04:03.189 --> 00:04:06.069 resonance of the bass drums, it's a visceral, 00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:08.590 full -body experience. It's not just listening. 00:04:08.729 --> 00:04:11.330 It's feeling it in your ribs. Exactly. It wasn't 00:04:11.330 --> 00:04:13.550 an intellectual appreciation to music. It was 00:04:13.550 --> 00:04:16.990 a physical compulsion. That parade is where he 00:04:16.990 --> 00:04:19.110 decided he was going to be a drummer. But he 00:04:19.110 --> 00:04:21.490 doesn't run off and hire a drum tutor. Right. 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:24.240 The material emphasizes that J. Bo Starks was 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:26.500 completely self -taught. He learned purely by 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:29.279 listening. He's absorbing gospel music in the 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:32.300 church pews on Sunday and he's absorbing early 00:04:32.300 --> 00:04:34.839 blues records. And I want to pause here because 00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:37.579 how does that ear based self -taught approach 00:04:37.579 --> 00:04:40.100 physically manifest in a drummer style compared 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:42.480 to someone who, you know, learned by reading 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:44.959 sheet music? It changes the entire architecture 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:48.480 of how a musician perceives time. When you learn 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:51.000 drums from a method book, You are taught the 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.240 mathematics of rhythm. You learn subdivisions. 00:04:53.379 --> 00:04:56.220 You learn to play precisely to a scerald clicking 00:04:56.220 --> 00:04:59.379 metronome. It's very rigid. Very rigid. But when 00:04:59.379 --> 00:05:01.819 your education is the black church and the local 00:05:01.819 --> 00:05:04.339 blues scene, you are learning the human element 00:05:04.339 --> 00:05:07.319 of rhythm. Gospel music is entirely driven by 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:09.959 the spiritual temperature of the room. The tempo 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:12.120 might swell when the vocalist gets passionate. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:14.720 It might pull back to a whisper during a quiet 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:17.199 moment of testimony. Oh, that makes so much sense. 00:05:17.379 --> 00:05:19.620 Right. By learning to play in that environment, 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:22.319 Starks developed an internal metronome that was 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:24.680 calibrated by human emotion and group dynamics 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:27.810 rather than rigid mathematics. He learned how 00:05:27.810 --> 00:05:30.129 to make a drum kit breathe. And that breathing, 00:05:30.189 --> 00:05:32.850 organic feel gets put to the test incredibly 00:05:32.850 --> 00:05:36.149 fast. He graduates high school in 1955 and almost 00:05:36.149 --> 00:05:38.589 immediately he's thrown into the deep end at 00:05:38.589 --> 00:05:41.209 the Harlem Duke Social Club. Yes. We are talking 00:05:41.209 --> 00:05:44.250 about a teenager backing up absolute titans of 00:05:44.250 --> 00:05:47.269 the blues, John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, 00:05:47.569 --> 00:05:50.870 Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Howlin' Wolf. That 00:05:50.870 --> 00:05:53.529 is a staggering trial by fire. The Harlem Duke 00:05:53.529 --> 00:05:56.019 Social Club wasn't a forgiving environment. The 00:05:56.019 --> 00:05:58.519 front men and women you just named were notorious 00:05:58.519 --> 00:06:01.579 for demanding absolute perfection and deep heavy 00:06:01.579 --> 00:06:04.339 soul from their backing bands. Yeah, Howlin' 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:07.279 Wolf was a massive intimidating presence. Absolutely. 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:09.579 If you were a teenage drummer and you rushed 00:06:09.579 --> 00:06:11.819 the tempo or missed the transition, he wasn't 00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:13.519 going to politely correct you after the show. 00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:15.560 You're out of the band before the song even finishes. 00:06:15.819 --> 00:06:18.100 Exactly. It forced Starks to immediately mature. 00:06:18.599 --> 00:06:21.480 When you are backing a solo blues artist like 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:24.180 John Lee Hook, or whose guitar playing is famously 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:26.680 idiosyncratic and doesn't always stick to a strict 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:30.060 12 bar structure, your job as a drummer isn't 00:06:30.060 --> 00:06:32.720 to play flashy fills. What is your job in that 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:35.560 situation? Your job is to lay down an anvil of 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:38.600 rhythm. You have to be so reliable, so grounded, 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:40.899 that the front man feels completely tethered 00:06:40.899 --> 00:06:42.740 to the earth no matter where their improvisation 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:45.360 takes them. That crucible at the Harlem Duke 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.720 Social Club forged a deeply disciplined philosophy 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:51.139 of drumming that prioritized the groove above 00:06:51.139 --> 00:06:53.120 all else. And that discipline really pays off 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:55.639 because in 1959, he gets pulled into the big 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.180 leagues. He becomes the drummer for Bobby Bland's 00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:00.000 band, stepping in as the youngest member of the 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.279 group. He stays with Bland until 1965. And in 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:06.980 later interviews, J -Bo explicitly called this 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:09.980 the best band he played with musically. Better 00:07:09.980 --> 00:07:12.500 than James Brown, better than B .B. King. What's 00:07:12.500 --> 00:07:15.420 fascinating here is that Bobby Bland's band in 00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:18.800 the early 1960s was operating on an incredibly 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:22.000 high level of sophistication. They were pioneering 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:24.379 a sound that blended the raw emotion of the blues 00:07:24.379 --> 00:07:27.060 with the polished brass -heavy elegance of a 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:30.079 big band. It was a very full sound. Exactly. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:33.220 For a self -taught drummer in his early 20s, 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:35.899 stepping into that ensemble was a master class 00:07:35.899 --> 00:07:38.639 in orchestration. The biographical sources note 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:41.540 that two band members in particular, Pluma Davis 00:07:41.540 --> 00:07:44.000 and Joe Scott, took Starks under their wing. 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:46.540 The sources mention that Davis and Scott drilled 00:07:46.540 --> 00:07:49.019 into him the absolute necessity of holding the 00:07:49.019 --> 00:07:52.149 rhythm steady, making the band lock in. For a 00:07:52.149 --> 00:07:53.790 listener who understands that rhythm sections 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:56.129 need to play together, what were Davis and Scott 00:07:56.129 --> 00:07:58.569 specifically demanding from Starks in the context 00:07:58.569 --> 00:08:01.310 of a massive horn section and Bobby Bland's sweeping 00:08:01.310 --> 00:08:03.350 vocals? They were teaching him restraint and 00:08:03.350 --> 00:08:05.589 dynamic control. When you have a massive horn 00:08:05.589 --> 00:08:08.029 section playing complex arranged stabs and a 00:08:08.029 --> 00:08:09.589 vocalist like Bland who plays with the space 00:08:09.589 --> 00:08:12.329 behind the beat, the drummer cannot clutter the 00:08:12.329 --> 00:08:13.930 frequency. They have to stay out of the way. 00:08:14.269 --> 00:08:17.839 Yes. Locking in. in this specific context meant 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:20.000 finding the deepest part of the pocket and staying 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.339 there relentlessly. It meant stripping away the 00:08:22.339 --> 00:08:25.439 ego. No extra symbol crashes. No unnecessary 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.100 tom -tom rolls. It's the discipline of hitting 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:30.360 the snare drum with the exact same velocity on 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:33.139 the exact same microsecond of the backbeat for 00:08:33.139 --> 00:08:35.639 six minutes straight so that the horns and the 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:38.240 vocals can float on top of a concrete slab. You 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:40.620 hear that concrete slab on the tracks you record 00:08:40.620 --> 00:08:43.259 with Bland. The discography from this era is 00:08:43.259 --> 00:08:46.960 a pillar of R &B history. Turn on your love light, 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:50.559 Stormy Monday Blues. I pity the fool. Plus, he's 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:52.299 doing session work with Junior Parker and Joe 00:08:52.299 --> 00:08:55.000 Hinton on tracks like Driving Wheel. When you 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.519 listen to a slow, agonizing blues track like 00:08:57.519 --> 00:08:59.799 Stormy Monday, the space between the beats is 00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:02.299 massive. And playing slow is infinitely harder 00:09:02.299 --> 00:09:04.659 than playing fast. Why is that? When the tempo 00:09:04.659 --> 00:09:07.980 is dragging at a slow blues pace, the temptation 00:09:07.980 --> 00:09:10.600 for a young drummer is to rush to fill that empty 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:13.679 space with noise because the silence feels uncomfortable. 00:09:14.560 --> 00:09:16.720 Starks mastered the art of letting the silence 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:18.740 hang in the air just long enough before bringing 00:09:18.740 --> 00:09:22.220 the snare down. That mastery of space, that unshakable 00:09:22.220 --> 00:09:24.779 timekeeping, is what ultimately caught the ear 00:09:24.779 --> 00:09:26.840 of the musician who was actively trying to tear 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:29.299 down traditional R &B and build something entirely 00:09:29.299 --> 00:09:33.019 new. Which brings us to 1965, the turning point 00:09:33.019 --> 00:09:36.210 of his career. James Brown is evolving his sound, 00:09:36.570 --> 00:09:38.309 actively searching for the architecture of what 00:09:38.309 --> 00:09:40.710 will eventually become funk, and he hires Jabo 00:09:40.710 --> 00:09:43.950 Starks. He does. But Brown is running a notoriously 00:09:43.950 --> 00:09:46.350 demanding ship and he implements a fascinating 00:09:46.350 --> 00:09:50.330 structure from 1965 to 1970, a two drummer dynamic. 00:09:50.809 --> 00:09:52.809 He brings in Starks, but he's already utilizing 00:09:52.809 --> 00:09:55.289 Clyde Stubblefield. It's one of the most important 00:09:55.289 --> 00:09:57.610 personnel decisions in the history of American 00:09:57.610 --> 00:10:00.870 music. You have two drummers who approach the 00:10:00.870 --> 00:10:02.769 instrument from entirely different galaxies. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.820 Starks is coming from the deep, heavy, driving 00:10:05.820 --> 00:10:08.840 blues background of the Bobby Bland era. Stubblefield 00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:11.600 is coming from a soul and jazz background, bringing 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.980 a lighter, highly syncopated, almost dancing 00:10:14.980 --> 00:10:18.179 quality to his snare work. How does a bandleader 00:10:18.179 --> 00:10:21.860 even utilize those two contrasting styles without 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:24.559 them clashing? Did they play simultaneously or 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:26.539 was it a strategic swapping out depending on 00:10:26.539 --> 00:10:29.259 the song? Both, actually. Sometimes they were 00:10:29.259 --> 00:10:31.419 utilized on specific tracks that catered to their 00:10:31.419 --> 00:10:33.539 strengths, and other times Brown put them on 00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:35.860 stage together. But the genius of it was that 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:37.759 it wasn't a competition to see who could play 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:40.440 faster or louder. They formed a complementary 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:42.720 ecosystem. That makes sense. Starks provided 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:45.139 the locomotive weight, the heavy downbeat, while 00:10:45.139 --> 00:10:47.580 Stubblefield provided the intricate syncopated 00:10:47.580 --> 00:10:50.240 ghost notes around it. Together they mapped out 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.940 the entire rhythmic vocabulary of funk. They 00:10:52.940 --> 00:10:55.480 were inventing the language in real time on stage 00:10:55.480 --> 00:10:58.039 and in the studio. That dual dynamic defines 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:01.360 the late 60s for James Brown, but in 1970 the 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:04.340 band goes through a seismic shift. Clyde Stubblefield 00:11:04.340 --> 00:11:06.779 leaves, the old band dissolves over disputes, 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:09.399 and Brown scrambles to build a new backing band, 00:11:09.700 --> 00:11:11.980 which becomes the legendary outfit known as the 00:11:11.980 --> 00:11:15.759 J .B.'s. J. Bo Stark stays, and the lineup that 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:18.200 forms around him is arguably the most formidable 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:20.919 rhythm section ever assembled. The personnel 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:23.759 roster of the J .B.'s in that era is a pantheon. 00:11:23.950 --> 00:11:26.269 You have Starks anchoring the drums, you bring 00:11:26.269 --> 00:11:28.710 in a young, wildly innovative Bootsy Collins 00:11:28.710 --> 00:11:31.129 on bass, his brother Catfish Collins on rhythm 00:11:31.129 --> 00:11:33.649 guitar, and the brilliant Fred Wesley on trombone, 00:11:33.909 --> 00:11:36.210 acting as the musical director. This is the unit 00:11:36.210 --> 00:11:38.470 that crystallized the funk genre into its most 00:11:38.470 --> 00:11:41.480 potent form. The quotes from these specific musicians 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:43.700 about Starks are incredibly revealing regarding 00:11:43.700 --> 00:11:46.559 his role in that unit. Bootsy Collins, who revolutionized 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:48.879 the bass guitar, called Starks the steady rock 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:51.620 for his bass grooves. Fred Wesley went even further, 00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:53.519 stating that Starks was his favorite drummer 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:55.639 because he could lose himself in that stop your 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:57.960 heart groove. When a world -class musician like 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:00.059 Fred Wesley talks about a stop your heart groove, 00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:02.159 he's talking about a rhythm that is so deeply 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:05.220 pocketed, so infectious, that it physically bypasses 00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:08.450 your brain and commands your body to move. But 00:12:08.450 --> 00:12:10.370 the first part of Wesley's quote about being 00:12:10.370 --> 00:12:12.889 able to lose himself is the crucial analytical 00:12:12.889 --> 00:12:14.850 piece. Because if the foundation is shaking, 00:12:15.110 --> 00:12:17.690 the soloist can't take risks. Precisely. Which 00:12:17.690 --> 00:12:20.090 is the exact opposite of what James Brown's music 00:12:20.090 --> 00:12:23.460 demanded. Funk is inherently about tension and 00:12:23.460 --> 00:12:26.820 release. It requires intense, repetitive vamping 00:12:26.820 --> 00:12:30.139 punctuated by wild, chaotic vocal ad -libs from 00:12:30.139 --> 00:12:33.360 Brown, intricate horn solos, and Bootsy's complex 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:36.179 bass lines. If the drummer wavers in tempo by 00:12:36.179 --> 00:12:38.620 a fraction of a beat, the entire house of cards 00:12:38.620 --> 00:12:41.220 collapses. Right. The soloist loses confidence 00:12:41.220 --> 00:12:44.860 and pulls back. By playing with absolute unwavering 00:12:44.860 --> 00:12:47.460 precision, Starks created a psychological safety 00:12:47.460 --> 00:12:49.960 net. He allowed Bootsy to experiment with wild 00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:51.980 syncopation, because Bootsy knew the downbeat 00:12:51.980 --> 00:12:54.080 was going to be exactly where Starks left it. 00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:56.799 Starks absorbed all the responsibility of timekeeping 00:12:56.799 --> 00:12:58.960 so the rest of the band could focus entirely 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:02.120 on pure, uninhibited expression. Here's where 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:04.299 it gets really interesting, because the output 00:13:04.299 --> 00:13:06.639 of that uninhibited expression is a discography 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:10.580 that defies belief. Between 1965 and 1976, Starks 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:12.480 is the engine behind the payback, Sex Machine. 00:13:12.669 --> 00:13:15.169 super bad, doing it to death. Papa don't take 00:13:15.169 --> 00:13:17.409 no mess. He's backing Lynn Collins on Think About 00:13:17.409 --> 00:13:20.210 It. These tracks aren't just hits. They are the 00:13:20.210 --> 00:13:23.289 bedrock of modern music. The drum breaks recorded 00:13:23.289 --> 00:13:25.470 in those specific studio sessions became the 00:13:25.470 --> 00:13:28.230 raw material for an entirely new cultural movement 00:13:28.230 --> 00:13:31.009 a decade later. The transition from the analog 00:13:31.009 --> 00:13:33.970 funk era of the 1970s to the digital hip hop 00:13:33.970 --> 00:13:37.549 era of the 1980s and 90s relies entirely on the 00:13:37.549 --> 00:13:39.809 tape reels containing Jabbo Starks and Clyde 00:13:39.809 --> 00:13:41.919 Stubblefield's drumming. When the technology 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:44.419 to digitally sample music became accessible with 00:13:44.419 --> 00:13:47.379 drum machines like the Akai MPC producers, realized 00:13:47.379 --> 00:13:49.659 very quickly that programming a beat on a machine 00:13:49.659 --> 00:13:52.600 often sounded sterile and robotic. They needed 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:54.879 human feeling. They needed air moving in a room. 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:56.539 So they went straight to their parents' James 00:13:56.539 --> 00:13:58.580 Brown Records, found the sections where the horns 00:13:58.580 --> 00:14:01.240 and vocals dropped out, and looped the drum breaks. 00:14:01.659 --> 00:14:04.419 And by doing so, Starks and Stubblefield became 00:14:04.419 --> 00:14:06.620 two of the most sampled musicians in the history 00:14:06.620 --> 00:14:09.490 of recorded audio. The list of artists who built 00:14:09.490 --> 00:14:11.950 their entire sonic architecture on Stark snare 00:14:11.950 --> 00:14:15.909 drum reads like a Hall of Fame roster. LL Cool 00:14:15.909 --> 00:14:18.970 J, Kendrick Lamar, The Roots, A Tribe Called 00:14:18.970 --> 00:14:21.940 Quest, the Black Eyed Peas. To really understand 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:23.960 why producers were so obsessed with sampling 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:26.299 J -Bo Starks specifically, we have to look at 00:14:26.299 --> 00:14:28.500 the rhythmic analysis provided by people who 00:14:28.500 --> 00:14:31.600 actually play the instrument. Amir Thompson Questlove 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:33.879 of the Roots is a renowned drum scholar, and 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:36.519 he boldly claimed that Starks was James Brown's 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:38.940 most effective drummer. He points out Starks' 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:41.659 unique eight on the floor style. What does that 00:14:41.659 --> 00:14:44.320 actually mean musically, and why is it so effective 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:46.789 for a hip hop producer looking for a loop? 8 00:14:46.789 --> 00:14:49.029 on the Floor is a term denoting a very specific 00:14:49.029 --> 00:14:52.230 driving momentum. In standard funk, a drummer 00:14:52.230 --> 00:14:54.450 might play highly syncopated broken patterns 00:14:54.450 --> 00:14:56.590 on the kick drum to leave space for the bass 00:14:56.590 --> 00:14:59.049 guitar. But an 8 on the Floor approach involves 00:14:59.049 --> 00:15:01.370 maintaining a continuous driving eighth note 00:15:01.370 --> 00:15:03.929 pulse, often heavily emphasized on the hi -hat 00:15:03.929 --> 00:15:06.129 or the bass drum, while delivering a cracking 00:15:06.129 --> 00:15:08.490 backbeat on the snare. So it just pushes the 00:15:08.490 --> 00:15:11.070 song forward continuously. Yes, it creates a 00:15:11.070 --> 00:15:14.350 relentless locomotive energy. For a hip -hop 00:15:14.350 --> 00:15:17.799 producer, that kind of groove is gold. It provides 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:20.360 a massive driving undercurrent that a rapper 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:22.840 can easily flow over without getting tripped 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:26.159 up by overly complex ghost notes or unpredictable 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:29.299 kick drum patterns. Thompson goes so far as to 00:15:29.299 --> 00:15:31.539 credit Stark's specific patterns for birthing 00:15:31.539 --> 00:15:34.600 later subgenres like New Jack Swing, as well 00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:36.879 as the frantic driving tempos of Baltimore and 00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:39.129 Jersey Club music. Another perspective comes 00:15:39.129 --> 00:15:42.029 from drummer and author Jim Payne, who analyzed 00:15:42.029 --> 00:15:45.009 the microscopic nuances of Starks' timing. He 00:15:45.009 --> 00:15:47.330 noted that Starks had a supernatural ability 00:15:47.330 --> 00:15:49.850 to place a groove somewhere between sixteenth 00:15:49.850 --> 00:15:52.590 notes and sixteenth note triplets. That is the 00:15:52.590 --> 00:15:54.929 holy grail of drumming analysis. It's the elusive 00:15:54.929 --> 00:15:57.529 concept of swing. If you look at a digital audio 00:15:57.529 --> 00:16:00.330 workstation, a straight sixteenth note lands 00:16:00.330 --> 00:16:03.029 perfectly on the rigid grid. A triplet has a 00:16:03.029 --> 00:16:05.929 rolling, waltzing, swung feel. Starks wasn't 00:16:05.929 --> 00:16:07.700 playing mathematically straight, but he wasn't 00:16:07.700 --> 00:16:09.940 playing a full bouncy shuffle either. He was 00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:12.179 living in the microscopic millimeter space between 00:16:12.179 --> 00:16:14.320 the two. Right in the middle. That space is what 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:17.879 we call the pocket. It's an infectious swinging 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:21.240 halftime shuffle that is entirely human. It's 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:23.600 an imperfection that creates a physical reaction. 00:16:24.259 --> 00:16:26.460 That is the exact quality that a computerized 00:16:26.460 --> 00:16:29.100 drum machine cannot replicate, which is why producers 00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:31.620 demanded the original analog tape. They needed 00:16:31.620 --> 00:16:34.299 stark, specific human interpretation of time. 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:37.019 But the utilization of that analog tape introduces 00:16:37.019 --> 00:16:39.360 the most frustrating aspect of Stark's legacy. 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:42.919 The sampling boom created multi -platinum empires. 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:45.980 Massive record labels generated hundreds of millions 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:48.299 of dollars off loops created by J. Bo Stark. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.299 Yet the biographical sources point out a grim 00:16:51.299 --> 00:16:54.539 reality. Stark's was almost entirely uncredited 00:16:54.539 --> 00:16:58.169 for decades. No liner notes, no massive royalty 00:16:58.169 --> 00:17:00.309 checks. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:17:00.730 --> 00:17:02.690 the history of the recording industry is fraught 00:17:02.690 --> 00:17:04.970 with systemic inequities, particularly regarding 00:17:04.970 --> 00:17:07.690 black musicians working under standard mid -20th 00:17:07.690 --> 00:17:10.029 century contracts. When Starks recorded those 00:17:10.029 --> 00:17:12.329 tracks in the late 60s and early 70s, he was 00:17:12.329 --> 00:17:15.109 operating as a hired musician, often paid a flat 00:17:15.109 --> 00:17:17.430 session fee. He didn't own the mechanical rights 00:17:17.430 --> 00:17:19.329 to the master recordings. He just got paid for 00:17:19.329 --> 00:17:22.140 the day's work. Right. So when the sampling era 00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:24.640 exploded, the artists and producers who cleared 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:26.960 the samples paid the record labels who owned 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:29.440 the masters or the publishing companies who owned 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.579 the songwriting credits. The musicians who physically 00:17:32.579 --> 00:17:35.680 created the sound, the rhythm section, were legally 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:38.440 bypassed. When journalists asked Starks about 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:41.019 this glaring lack of recognition and financial 00:17:41.019 --> 00:17:44.319 compensation, his response was incredibly telling 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:46.839 about his character. He didn't launch into a 00:17:46.839 --> 00:17:49.420 bitter tirade about lawsuits. He simply said, 00:17:49.819 --> 00:17:51.799 the least they could do is say where they got 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:54.619 them from. It's a request for basic artistic 00:17:54.619 --> 00:17:57.099 dignity. He wasn't demanding the dismantling 00:17:57.099 --> 00:17:59.240 of the hip hop industry. He was pointing out 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:01.920 the absurdity of building a skyscraper on a foundation 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.769 and refusing to acknowledge the architect. He 00:18:04.769 --> 00:18:07.130 understood his value. He knew his drumming was 00:18:07.130 --> 00:18:09.390 the engine of those modern tracks, and he just 00:18:09.390 --> 00:18:11.549 wanted his name on the liner notes. Despite the 00:18:11.549 --> 00:18:13.890 lack of credit, the sources show that Starks 00:18:13.890 --> 00:18:16.390 never let the industry mechanics sour his love 00:18:16.390 --> 00:18:19.609 for the instrument. In the mid -1970s, after 00:18:19.609 --> 00:18:23.390 11 grueling, world -touring years under the incredibly 00:18:23.390 --> 00:18:26.250 demanding direction of James Brown, Starks decides 00:18:26.250 --> 00:18:29.109 to pivot. He leaves the godfather of soul, and 00:18:29.109 --> 00:18:32.549 he joins B .B. King. Musically, Jumping from 00:18:32.549 --> 00:18:35.309 James Brown to B .B. King is a massive environmental 00:18:35.309 --> 00:18:37.750 shift. You're leaving the most aggressive, tempo 00:18:37.750 --> 00:18:39.910 -driven, high -pressure funk band on the planet, 00:18:40.349 --> 00:18:42.809 where every 16th note is scrutinized, and moving 00:18:42.809 --> 00:18:45.289 into the expansive, dynamic, emotionally -driven 00:18:45.289 --> 00:18:48.269 world of traditional blues. Starks spent six 00:18:48.269 --> 00:18:50.609 years touring and recording with King, laying 00:18:50.609 --> 00:18:52.690 down the groove on albums like Lucille Talks 00:18:52.690 --> 00:18:56.880 back in 1975 and King's Size in 1977. The fascinating 00:18:56.880 --> 00:18:58.700 thing is, Starks didn't view it as a radical 00:18:58.700 --> 00:19:01.000 departure at all. He had a brilliant quote regarding 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:03.319 the transition. He said, to me, everything stems 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:05.380 from playing the blues anyway. That statement 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:08.400 is the key to decoding his entire career. By 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:10.680 saying, everything stems from playing the blues, 00:19:11.339 --> 00:19:13.660 he's identifying the emotional core of American 00:19:13.660 --> 00:19:16.980 music. The blues isn't just a 12 bar chord progression, 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:20.019 it's a feeling of struggle, tension, and release. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:22.779 Starks is telling us that even when he was playing 00:19:22.779 --> 00:19:25.299 a blistering complex funk arrangement with James 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:28.160 Brown, the raw human feeling he was putting into 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:30.480 the drum kit was the exact same feeling he used 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:32.539 when backing John Lee Hooker in a Smokey Club 00:19:32.539 --> 00:19:36.420 in 1955. The tempo changed, the band got bigger, 00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:38.559 but the emotional truth, the rhythm remained 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:41.220 constant. And he carried that emotional truth 00:19:41.220 --> 00:19:44.039 back to his peers. One of the most heartwarming 00:19:44.039 --> 00:19:46.440 details in the sources is the relationship between 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:49.039 Starks and Clyde Stubblefield. In many bands, 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:51.059 two drummers competing for the spotlight under 00:19:51.059 --> 00:19:53.339 a volatile bandleader would develop a lifelong 00:19:53.339 --> 00:19:56.619 rivalry. But Starks and Stubblefield remain incredibly 00:19:56.619 --> 00:19:58.700 close friends long after their time with James 00:19:58.700 --> 00:20:01.039 Brown. They recognize their shared history and 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:02.900 the unique bond of having built that foundational 00:20:02.900 --> 00:20:06.960 language together. In 1999, they reunited to 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:09.799 perform on the JB's album, Bring the Funk on 00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:12.789 Down. And they recognized that their legacy was 00:20:12.789 --> 00:20:14.869 intertwined, so they officially formed a duo 00:20:14.869 --> 00:20:17.650 called the Funkmasters. They actually started 00:20:17.650 --> 00:20:20.329 releasing original music under that name. Find 00:20:20.329 --> 00:20:23.069 the Groove came out in 2001, followed by Come 00:20:23.069 --> 00:20:26.950 Get Suma This in 2006. They even put out an instructional 00:20:26.950 --> 00:20:29.470 video called Soul of the Funky Drummers, taking 00:20:29.470 --> 00:20:31.470 that self -taught, ear -based knowledge they 00:20:31.470 --> 00:20:34.230 developed in the 50s and 60s, and actively passing 00:20:34.230 --> 00:20:36.910 it down to the next generation of players. And 00:20:36.910 --> 00:20:39.490 in 2007, they reconnected with Bootsy Collins. 00:20:43.009 --> 00:20:46.089 The definitive architects of that sound. The 00:20:46.089 --> 00:20:47.710 institutional recognition eventually started 00:20:47.710 --> 00:20:49.650 to catch up with their cultural impact, too. 00:20:50.269 --> 00:20:53.069 In 2013, the pair received the Yamaha Legacy 00:20:53.069 --> 00:20:56.069 Award. In 2016, Rolling Stone magazine grouped 00:20:56.069 --> 00:20:58.069 them together as the sixth greatest drummer of 00:20:58.069 --> 00:21:01.009 all time. NPR published retrospectives detailing 00:21:01.009 --> 00:21:02.950 how their specific grooves didn't just inspire 00:21:02.950 --> 00:21:05.430 funk, but dictated the rhythmic flow of multiple 00:21:05.430 --> 00:21:07.900 generations of hip hop artists. But the awards 00:21:07.900 --> 00:21:10.420 and the magazine rankings didn't change his daily 00:21:10.420 --> 00:21:13.460 reality or his profound humility. Let's look 00:21:13.460 --> 00:21:15.880 at the final chapter of his life in the biographical 00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:18.759 data. He settles back down in his hometown of 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:22.299 Mobile, Alabama. From the mid 1990s onward, when 00:21:22.299 --> 00:21:24.380 he wasn't doing specialized tours or recording 00:21:24.380 --> 00:21:27.019 sessions, he maintained a gig schedule that would 00:21:27.019 --> 00:21:30.160 exhaust musicians half his age. It is a staggering 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:32.420 testament to his work ethic. The sources note 00:21:32.420 --> 00:21:34.539 that he performed five nights a week at the Piccolo 00:21:34.539 --> 00:21:36.920 Restaurant and Red Bar in Grayton Beach, Florida. 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:40.339 And then he would return to Mobile every Sunday 00:21:40.339 --> 00:21:43.019 to play drums at his local church. He maintained 00:21:43.019 --> 00:21:46.599 this relentless, joyful routine until March 2018, 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:49.119 just weeks before he passed away in May at the 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:51.539 age of 80. It's incredible to visualize. You 00:21:51.539 --> 00:21:53.599 have tourists grabbing dinner at a restaurant 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:56.000 in Florida, and the man keeping time in the corner 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:58.940 is the literal heartbeat of modern music. The 00:21:58.940 --> 00:22:01.019 very beats he invented are currently topping 00:22:01.019 --> 00:22:03.440 the Billboard charts via Kendrick Lamar samples, 00:22:03.460 --> 00:22:05.339 and he's just playing a local gig because he 00:22:05.339 --> 00:22:07.880 loved the instrument. It highlights the absolute 00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:10.980 purity of his relationship with music. In a 2015 00:22:10.980 --> 00:22:13.880 interview, he encapsulated that feeling perfectly 00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:16.940 saying, when I'm playing music, there ain't nobody 00:22:16.940 --> 00:22:19.880 in the world higher than I am. His ego was completely 00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:22.640 detached from fame or stadium tours. He didn't 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:24.980 require external validation or his name in giant 00:22:24.980 --> 00:22:27.019 lights to feel successful. As long as he had 00:22:27.019 --> 00:22:29.720 a drum kit, a solid bass player, and a groove 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:33.259 to lock into, he was fulfilled. To help invent 00:22:33.259 --> 00:22:35.700 a global genre, and then spend your twilight 00:22:35.700 --> 00:22:37.880 years playing for the sheer joy of the craft 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:40.940 in a local church and a restaurant, it's a profoundly 00:22:40.940 --> 00:22:43.019 beautiful way to live a life in music. When we 00:22:43.019 --> 00:22:44.980 pull all these sources together, the early days 00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:47.420 in Mobile, the Bobby Bland masterclass, the James 00:22:47.420 --> 00:22:49.460 Brown revolution, the digital sampling boom, 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:51.920 and the return to the blues, what is the ultimate 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:54.700 takeaway from the life of J. Bo Starks? The overarching 00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:56.920 narrative is the immense power of discipline 00:22:56.920 --> 00:22:59.940 and service to the greater whole. Jbo Starks 00:22:59.940 --> 00:23:02.220 is a masterclass in checking your ego at the 00:23:02.220 --> 00:23:05.039 door. He proved that the most vital element of 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:08.240 a musical composition isn't the flashy solo or 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:11.720 the loudest vocal. It is the invisible, unwavering 00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:14.259 pulse that connects the raw emotion of gospel 00:23:14.259 --> 00:23:17.220 and blues to the aggressive syncopation of funk, 00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:20.339 and ultimately to the digital loops of modern 00:23:20.339 --> 00:23:22.900 hip hop. He was the anchor that allowed everyone 00:23:22.900 --> 00:23:25.630 else to fly. Which brings this deep dive right 00:23:25.630 --> 00:23:28.150 back to you listening right now. The next time 00:23:28.150 --> 00:23:30.349 you put your headphones on and fire up a playlist, 00:23:30.430 --> 00:23:33.549 whether it's classic 70s soul, 90s boom bap hip 00:23:33.549 --> 00:23:35.890 hop, or the latest pop track on the radio, try 00:23:35.890 --> 00:23:38.769 shifting your focus. Force your ear past the 00:23:38.769 --> 00:23:41.589 catchy vocal hook. Listen past the melody. Dig 00:23:41.589 --> 00:23:43.690 down to the absolute bottom of the mix. Find 00:23:43.690 --> 00:23:46.470 the kick drum and the snare. Ask yourself, whose 00:23:46.470 --> 00:23:48.710 uncredited heartbeat is keeping this entire song 00:23:48.710 --> 00:23:51.430 alive? Who was doing the unglamorous heavy lifting 00:23:51.430 --> 00:23:54.190 in the background so the star can shine? It completely 00:23:54.190 --> 00:23:56.390 reorients how you experience music. Once you 00:23:56.390 --> 00:23:58.049 learn to listen for the foundation, you realize 00:23:58.049 --> 00:23:59.930 how fragile the whole structure is without it. 00:24:00.089 --> 00:24:01.970 Which leaves us with a final thought to mull 00:24:01.970 --> 00:24:05.369 over. In a 1995 interview, J. Bo Stark summed 00:24:05.369 --> 00:24:08.829 up his entire philosophy. He said, I'm not trying 00:24:08.829 --> 00:24:10.509 to outplay anybody else. The only thing I want 00:24:10.509 --> 00:24:12.930 to do is keep that heartbeat going because he 00:24:12.930 --> 00:24:15.390 knows that that solid foundation is back there 00:24:15.390 --> 00:24:18.480 behind him. J -Bo defined his entire existence 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:21.140 not by the spotlight he could steal, but by the 00:24:21.140 --> 00:24:23.359 solid foundation he provided so that others could 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:25.859 thrive. So as you go about your week, think about 00:24:25.859 --> 00:24:27.779 this. In a world that is completely obsessed 00:24:27.779 --> 00:24:30.000 with being the frontman, being the CEO, being 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:32.440 the main character, what is the true hidden value 00:24:32.440 --> 00:24:34.700 of being the rhythm section? How much of our 00:24:34.700 --> 00:24:37.039 modern world, our workplaces, our families, our 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:39.019 communities is actually held together by quiet, 00:24:39.380 --> 00:24:41.720 uncredited people simply doing the work, making 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:43.900 sure the heartbeat doesn't stop? Something to 00:24:43.900 --> 00:24:46.099 think about the next time you find yourself tapping 00:24:46.099 --> 00:24:47.839 your foot. Keep the heartbeat going.