Film Review: “Sample This”

Quality documentary about what could be considered the musical flashpoint to hip-hop’s rhythmic beginnings.  Narrated by Gene Simmons, Sample This is the story of how Michael Viner, a music industry insider in the late ’60’s/early ’70’s, gathered studio musicians for a soundtrack project (“The Incredible Bongo Band”), released a quickly-forgotten album and wound up creating the foundation for hip-hop via one track.  The album’s version of “Apache” has been sampled by countless hip-hop/rap musicians over the decades, starting in the mid-’70’s and has become the most revered of pieces in the community.  A fascinating look into the background of the creation of the project and how it became this vital cornerstone.