Track Facts: "Impeach The President" by The Honey Drippers

You might not know the name of the track, or who played it, but you know it when you hear it—especially if you’re a “watergate baby” like me. 

Released in 1973 on Alaga Records out of Washington, D.C., Impeach The President by The Honey Drippers wasn’t a polished, big-budget studio production. It was raw, local, and politically charged—cut right in the middle of the Watergate era. The title alone tells you everything you need to know about the mood of the country at the time.

Most people, if they don’t know the song, they know the beat.

That opening break—clean, tight, and impossibly funky—became one of the most sampled drum patterns in hip-hop history.

The story begins when legendary soul singer and record executive Roy Charles Hammons, better known as Roy C, discovered a group of high school kids from Jamaica, Queen called The Honey Drippers (not to be confused with British rocker Robert Plant’s project of the same name.) Written by Hammond, Impeach The President was a mostly instrumental song with intermittent vocal chants, advocating for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon due to the ongoing Watergate scandal and resulting impeachment process against Richard Nixon. It is believed that the first hip-hop track to use the famous break beat at the top of Impeach The President was MC Shan’s classic track The Bridge, produced by Marley Marl in 1986. The following year, Audio Two used the same drum break for their classic Top Billin’. From there, the Impeach The President break would find its way into tracks by hip-hop artists like Digital Underground, LL Cool J, Diggable Planets, and Nas.

Impeach The President wasn’t a chart-topper when it was released back in 1973, but since then it has become a part of the fabric of modern American music. In the age we’re living in now, the song might hold a special place for those who long to see a return to sanity here in the US, which is why I play it very frequently on FUNK 101.

Like, I play it a lot, bro.