Even if you’ve never heard this 1974 album, you’ve heard it. What do we mean? Well, the drum break from the song “Ashley’s Roachclip” is probably the single most sampled track in all of hip hop. Everybody, and we mean EVERYBODY, has used it—Run- D.M.C., Eric B. & Rakim, and LL Cool J to name a few (and Public Enemy sampled “Blow Your Whistle” for good measure). And when you throw in the fact that the D.C.-based Soul Searchers were led by the soon-to-be “Godfather of Go-Go” himself, Chuck Brown, you can understand why Salt of the Earth—which originally came out on the lightly distributed Sussex label—ranks among the most collectible R&B albums of all time.
