Champ

The Mohawks were a studio session group assembled by Alan Hawkshaw, and “The Champ” was cut in June 1968 at Lansdowne Studios in West London with Hawkshaw among the key players. It was issued as a Pama single from the same recording date. On release, it stood out as a hard-driving British studio funk single from the Pama stable rather than a mainstream pop hit. The record initially failed to chart, but it quickly became a crate-digger favorite and later a major source record for hip-hop sampling. Its Hammond-heavy break and chant have been sampled hundreds of times, making it one of the most recognizable source tracks in hip-hop and related sample-based styles. The song’s enduring afterlife includes high-profile uses by artists such as KRS-One, Frank Ocean, and Onyx.