The Whole Darn Family's "Seven Minutes of Funk" (1976) is exactly what the title promises: a pure, uncut funk workout that runs just long enough to let the groove fully develop and lock into place. The Dayton, Ohio group was part of the same midwest funk scene that produced the Ohio Players, Zapp, and Slave, and the track reflects that region's gift for creating propulsive, groove-oriented music.

The break from "Seven Minutes of Funk" was one of the first breaks to be sampled in hip-hop — it appears on some of the genre's earliest recordings. Its clean, punchy drums and infectious groove made it a natural choice for the DJs and producers who were building hip-hop's sonic vocabulary from the ground up.