Roy C

Life and career

Roy Hammond was born in Newington, Georgia. He began singing tenor with The Genies, a vocal group in Long Beach, Long Island, who were later offered a recording contract by record producer Bob Shad. Their first single, "Who's That Knockin'", reached number 72 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958, with Claude Johnson—later of the duo Don and Juan—on lead vocal. The group then moved to Atlantic Records, with Hammond taking over as lead singer, but their recordings were not released, and he was drafted into the Air Force.

Solo career and record labels

When he returned to New York City in 1965, Hammond organised a studio session to record his own song, "Shotgun Wedding", and released it under the name Roy Hammond on his own Hammond label, before leasing it to the larger Black Hawk Records under the name Roy C. The record, with its novelty ricochet opening and relatively risqué subject matter for the time, reached number 14 on the national Billboard R&B chart. It had even greater success when issued in the United Kingdom, reaching number 6 on the UK Singles Chart in 1966 and number 8 when reissued in 1972. His first album, That Shotgun Wedding Man, was released on Ember Records in 1966.

After some unsuccessful follow-ups on the Shout label, Hammond started another new label, Alaga. Working with guitarist J. Hines, he had more success with "Got to Get Enough (Of Your Sweet Love Stuff)" making the R&B charts in 1971. Two years later he signed with Mercury Records, and had another R&B hit with "Don't Blame the Man". He also released an album, Sex and Soul, and several more minor hit singles. He stayed with Mercury for several years, until label bosses took exception to his outspoken political stance in songs, including "Great Great Grandson of a Slave" from his 1977 album More Sex and More Soul.

The Honey Drippers

In 1973, Hammond discovered a group of African-American high school students from Jamaica High School in Jamaica, Queens, named the Honey Drippers (not to be confused with Robert Plant's project of the same name), and decided to record some songs with them, which he released on his Alaga label. Most notable among the songs they recorded was "Impeach the President", a song advocating for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon due to the ongoing Watergate scandal and resulting impeachment process against Richard Nixon.

Sampling of "Impeach the President"

Pioneering hip hop producer Marley Marl used the drum intro from "Impeach the President" as the breakbeat for the 1985 song "The Bridge" by MC Shan. The opening drum sequence has since become one of the most widely used samples in hip hop. America rapper GZA makes a reference to the "Impeach the President" sample on his verse on "As High as Wu-Tang Get" by Wu-Tang Clan on the 1997 album Wu-Tang Forever, with the suggestion that the snare drum in the sample is easy to rap over. ("You can't flow, must be the speech impediment / You got lost off the snare off 'Impeach the President.'")

In 1992, Aaron Fuchs, president of Tuff City Records, bought the rights to "Impeach the President", and soon afterward sued Def Jam Records for royalties from its use on three then-recently released songs: "Around the Way Girl" and "6 Minutes of Pleasure" by LL Cool J, and "Give the People" by EPMD, which used a vocal sample from the song and not the drum track.By this time Ronny Jordan was using the sample on his first two albums. The lawsuits were settled out-of-court. Hammond was unaware of the widespread sampling of "Impeach the President" until he heard it used in both "That's the Way Love Goes" by Janet Jackson and "Luv Me, Luv Me" by Shaggy. Even George Benson sampled the beat on his 1996 track "The Thinker" from the album That's Right. In a 2013 interview he stated that he has never received royalties from the sampling, and that he was still trying to do so. Hammond also alleges that Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) removed several songs from his publishing catalog based on fraudulent contracts presented Fuchs, and as a result Hammond has received no royalties from them. Hammond's website includes a notice encouraging those who have been sued by Fuchs or any of his record labels to contact Hammond.

Hammond has occasionally been credited as a co-writer due to the sample, including on the hit Mary J. Blige song "Real Love", which samples the drum track from "Top Billin'" by Audio Two, which in turn uses a modified form of the drum intro from "Impeach the President". He is also credited for the 2011 Kanye West and Jay-Z song "Otis", which uses a line from "Top Billin'", and for the 2013 Frank Ocean song "Super Rich Kids", which interpolates the chorus of "Real Love". Ironically, neither "Otis" nor "Super Rich Kids" contain a sample from "Impeach the President".

Later career

Since 1979 he has continued to release a string of soul singles and albums, on his own Three Gems record label, initially based in New York and later in Allendale, South Carolina. Hammond wrote most of the songs that appear on his over 125 records. He recorded an album by ex-Temptation Dennis Edwards entitled Talk to Me, and also worked on a CD by Bobby Stringer. Hammond also runs his own record shop in Allendale, called Carolina Record Distributors.

"Infidelity, Georgia," also known as "Save by the Bell" or "Saved by the Bell," is a song about sexual infidelity in small town Georgia. Hammond released an album entitled Stella Lost Her Groove in March 1999.