Baker brought the machine home and, reportedly, not knowing how to program it yet, he used a beat left in its memory by the previous owner as the basis of seminal rap track ‘Planet Rock’ by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force, thus lifting the 808 from a potential fate of being a cheap novelty item stacked on pawn shop shelves for eternity. Roland had been manufacturing the unit for a couple of years, but like many new boxes, years can pass before someone stumbles upon a way to bring the art out of the technology. Legend has it that, in 1981, fledgling New York producer Arthur Baker travelled out to Jersey to buy a used 808. When Blaque sings ’cause I’ll be going boom like an 808,’ or Will.I.Am chants ‘we got the beat, that 808′ on the Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Boom Boom Pow’, we know they’re talking about the SUV-shaking kick of the world’s most celebrated drum machine, the Roland TR-808. By now, the machine is more famous than some of the artists that use it.

And it’s regularly referred to by name in tracks like–wait for it–’808′ by Blaque. The machine has been co-opted countless times to lend street cred to artist branding: early 90s UK techno act christened themselves 808 State Kanye West dropped it in the title of his disc 808s & Heartbreak.

808s and heartbreak drum kit