That's substantially overstating the case. The TR-808 is an iconic drum machine, but you're far more likely to hear a cut-up sample of the Amen Break or the Funky Drummer Break.
The importance of the TR-808, TR-909 and TB-303 is largely accidental. These units were a commercial failure and gained cult success largely because they could be bought cheaply. In much the same way, grunge musicians tended to use whatever horrible old guitars were languishing at the back of pawn shops - Fender Jaguars and Jazzmasters, Mosrites, Teiscos and Danelectros.
In my opinion, by far the most important work done by Roland was the development of the MIDI standard. Ikutaro Kakehashi and Dave Smith moved mountains to get the industry to agree on a common standard. MIDI was the starting pistol for the modern age of music production.
> grunge musicians tended to use whatever horrible old guitars were languishing at the back of pawn shops
Roland had a connection to grunge too - Boss effects pedals were a division of Roland, and Kurt Cobain used the DS-1 and DS-2 Distortion pedals on Nirvana's albums.
Frequently amen break and others are replayed and not sampled. Some of those on the link not even amen breaks. Whosampled has tons of the false reports - many of those are not samples but replays, either on 'real' drums or drum machines. Whosampled more accurately is who borrowed
A novice producer was walking in the forest with Sensei Akai. The novice asked Akai "If I extract the groove from the Amen Break using Beat Detective, then replay it with identical-sounding samples, is it still the Amen Break?". Sensei Akai replied "Mu". The novice was enlightened.
The importance of the TR-808, TR-909 and TB-303 is largely accidental. These units were a commercial failure and gained cult success largely because they could be bought cheaply. In much the same way, grunge musicians tended to use whatever horrible old guitars were languishing at the back of pawn shops - Fender Jaguars and Jazzmasters, Mosrites, Teiscos and Danelectros.
In my opinion, by far the most important work done by Roland was the development of the MIDI standard. Ikutaro Kakehashi and Dave Smith moved mountains to get the industry to agree on a common standard. MIDI was the starting pistol for the modern age of music production.
http://www.whosampled.com/The-Winstons/Amen,-Brother/ http://www.whosampled.com/James-Brown/Funky-Drummer/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac