Hamilton Bohannon died at the age of 78 on Friday. The cause of death remains unknown as yet.
Bohannon began drumming at a young age and was later hired to be his drummer by Stevie Wonder.
He was then introduced to Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, and he became a bandleader for several Motown groups, including Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, and The Supremes.
In 1972, Gordy moved Motown Records to Los Angeles, from Detroit. Bohannon wanted to remain in Detroit forging his own career as a soloist, signing on to Dakar and then Mercury.
As a solo artist, Bohannon had some significant hits in the disco era, including ‘South African Man’, ‘Let’s Start The Dance’, ‘Foot Stompin Music’ and ‘Disco Stomp’.
Bohannon’s music has found a second lease on life in sampling ever since his disco heyday.
Amongst many others, his songs were sampled by Tom Tom Club, Jay Z, Dimitri From Paris, Pete Rock, J Dilla, and Digable Planets.
Most notable for fans of dance music, the ‘Me & The Gang’ of Bohannon was sampled on ‘Get Get Down’ by Paul Johnson.
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