We started experimenting, playing with drum machines. Jesse Saunders was on board with me at the Playground at the time, and he was a musician. In the early days, the kick drum and the electric tom-toms of the 808 was enough to make people dance without even putting any music to it. So a lot of the stuff was just beat tracks in the beginning. Then we came to steal everybody’s basslines. See, all we ever did was regurgitate disco again by just stealing everybody’s music. Because all the original house stuff that came out was somebody else’s bassline.
— Farley Jackmaster Funk on the early developments of house music. Found here
