0404. Herbie Hancock
Head Hunters

Yesterday hip hop turned 38 years old. Born in a rec room in the west bronx. A couple of months later Head Hunters came out.
Since you all know that the first hip hop albums wasn't released until some years later, you might wonder how I make the connection.

Quite simply by this being one of the staples to get good samples from. For every track on this album there's on average at least a dozen famous hip hop songs sampling it, most recently on this listing was on Digital Underground's Underwater Rimes (also: not limited to hip hop, this album's also been sampled by everyone from Frank Zappa to Madonna).

And who can blame them? It starts off seriously funky in Chameleon and it doesn't let go of that groove for most of the remainder of the album. It's only towards the end and the fourth track, Vein Melter, that there's a more free-floating (and sadly, more boring) vibe. This was the twelfth(!) album by Herbie Hancock who, after wanting to get his feet back on the ground after the previous albums' experimentation, dissolved his sextet and assembled the Headhunters to create this fusion album.

Bringing back and revamping his hard bop composition Watermelon Man into this fantastic funk fusion as well as dedicating Sly to none other than Sly of the Family Stone this is a definite must hear album. Not to mention it's on the short list by combining being one of the best selling jazz albums with being hugely influential for both jazz and funk as well as being heavily sampled by (and thus influential on) both hip hop and pop.