Lee Dorsey was a New Orleans R&B singer whose work with producer Allen Toussaint produced some of the most distinctive records to come out of the Crescent City. "Get Out of My Life, Woman" (1966) features the unmistakable sound of New Orleans funk — a syncopated, second-line influenced groove that rolls and swings in a way that's impossible to replicate outside of that city's musical tradition.

The break's New Orleans flavor gave hip-hop producers a rhythmic alternative to the straighter, more rigid funk of James Brown's band. That swinging, polyrhythmic quality is what makes New Orleans music unique, and it translates into hip-hop productions with a looseness and personality that quantized drum machine beats can't touch.