Rare groove

Rare groove is defined as very hard to source pop or jazz musicThe most common type of rare groove records are 1970s funk recordings. Commercial rare groove MP3 music libraries offer users more affordable access to hard to source and rare jazz fusion, latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this category generally have high re-sale prices. Rare groove records have been sought after by not only collectors and lovers of the types of music, but also by hip hop artists and producers. Sampling is one of the biggest aspects of hip hop and rap, and these types of records provide breaks for artists to use in their songs. Examples of rare groove samples, such as Eazy E's "Eazy Duz It" (which samples the The Detroit Emeralds, Bootsy Collins, Funkadelic, Isley Brothers, Sly & the Family Stone, The Temptations and even Richard Pryor), can be found in modern hip hop and drum and bass.

The term was coined by British DJ Norman Jay after his "The Original Rare Groove Show" on pirate radio station Kiss 94 FM (the progenitor of Kiss 100 London). The show was a collaboration with DJ Judge Jules and featured a mainly urban soundtrack from the 70's and 80's mixed with early house music.

1980s and post-disco

After the collapse of funk influenced disco, many musicians who had made a name for themselves under disco's mainstream success had the spotlight taken away from them. Many of these artists have had their songs remixed and remastered by house music artists. Much of the obscure music "rediscovered" as samples in newer house or hip hop tracks is labeled "rare groove" retroactively.

An example of this appears in the popular 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Set in 1992, the game includes a radio station, Master Sounds 98.3, which is described as playing "funk, soul, rare groove" and features a number of tracks which have been sampled in 90s-era hip-hop and house releases, such as "Funky President" by James Brown, which has been used in over 100 hip-hop tracks, and the original Gloria Jones recording of "Tainted Love", which has been sampled or covered by no less than 18 other artists, in a variety of genres.