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HE PLAYS SLAP BASS

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BOBBY BYRD: What you going to
play now?

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JAMES BROWN: Bobby, I don't know,

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but whatsoever I play,
it's got to be funky.

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Yow!

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MUSIC: Give It Up or Turnit a Loose
by James Brown

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What is funk?

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Well, it's funky, but, beyond that,

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I don't know if I can describe it,
but when you hear it, you know what

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it is. And, perhaps more
importantly,

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you know it when you feel it.

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Funk itself is an essence of energy.

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You know how they say,
"Use the force, Luke"?

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You're free of all the rules,
and you just let go

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and let the groove take over.

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MUSIC: Funky Stuff
by Kool and the Gang

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that funky stuff...

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There's no sad funk songs.

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Funk's primary purpose is to get
people moving,

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get people dancing, shaking
their behinds, having a good time.

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whoa, whoa, yeah...

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You're not thinking in the sense
of trying to reason everything out.

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That part of your being you've
kind of surrendered to something

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greater than yourself.

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What its music instructed you to do
is dance in a way that the

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music dictates.

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Funk music literally instructs
you on how to move.

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The story is in the rhythm.
You know, you just, like...

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HE PLAYS FUNK RIFF

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HE PLAYS SAME RIFF

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And people are like,
"Oh, come on now," right?

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"I don't know what you're
talking about. We want the funk,

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"got to have the funk."
OK, that's good enough for me.

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MUSIC: Give Up the Funk
by Parliament

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that funk...

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Funk music offers us
this opportunity to reach

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for a certain kind of transcendent
feeling and freedom in the way

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we move through the world that we're
not often granted elsewhere.

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Funk is about transcendent joy.

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Funk is a reminder that it's a joy
to be in this world.

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Funk is really a spiritual
experience.

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Is there a black music that is
a black music that is a black music,

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then it would be funk.

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HE PLAYS BASS RIFF

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Funk was the domain of black folks
in the early '70s, but, you know,

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once you put it out there into

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the world, you don't know who it's
going to affect.

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Hit it!

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MUSIC: Doin' It to Death
by James Brown

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funky good time...

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When funk got out into the world,
it was only a matter of time

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before people across the globe
hear it and feel it.

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Funk lives on.

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We have Bruno Mars, D'Angelo,
Janelle Monae, Cory Henry.

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Funk will continue to
live as long as there is music,

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and music is not going anywhere.

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How you feel, brother?

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Funk music, it's easy to speak
the same language.

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good time...

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It's not only universal,
it's interplanetary.

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MUSIC: Give Up the Funk
by Parliament

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Hammer headlines from
the News of the Day.

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NEWSREEL: Unopposed bombing raids
sent defenceless civilians

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fleeing in stark terror.

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After the Second World War,

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there was a sense that the world
had been in chaos.

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NEWSREEL: The happy crowd
screamed their relief at the end

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of the greatest war in history.

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We've just been through this
tumultuous planetary event.

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NEWSREEL: It's a great day for the
whole world,

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and especially for the servicemen.

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What do we need to do to
kind of move and feel safe?

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One, two, heel of the hand,
one, two...

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There was this rise of something
we call leisure culture.

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Suddenly there is this idea that
young people

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could have their own dances
and their own culture.

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MUSIC: Bandstand Boogie
by Les Elgart and his Orchestra

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ANNOUNCER: From Philadelphia,

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it's time for America's favourite
dance party, American Bandstand.

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Everybody watched American
Bandstand.

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I mean, that thing was huge.

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Shall we stroll a bit.

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By the Diamonds, The Stroll.

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"Funky" is not the way you
would describe

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the dancers on American Bandstand,
not in the least bit.

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Perhaps the opposite of funky,
whatever that is.

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American Bandstand represented

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the conservatism of 1950s culture,

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and the whiteness was glaring.

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This was the height
of Jim Crow racism,

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and the show really reflected
those policies.

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MUSIC: My Girl
by The Temptations

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Berry Gordy Jr,

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early in starting his record
company,

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wanted Motown to be
"the sound of Young America,"

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he wanted to cross over.

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He wanted his music to be
played on the same radio

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stations as Elvis Presley,
as The Beatles, as Frank Sinatra.

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Motown was trying to satisfy how
Black Americans could kind of fit

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in to the media place.

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And one way to
do that was to be respectable.

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So Motown hired choreographers to
actually train the artists

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how to dance in public.

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So it's not like The Temptations
or The Supremes needed

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practice in dancing, but they needed
to be trained in how to be

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presentable to a general,
overwhelmingly white audience.

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MUSIC: Shop Around
by the Miracles

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a young man now

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don't understand now

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her hand now...

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The artists were impeccably dressed,
impeccably in sync.

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Now, it was always soul underneath.
Don't get it twisted.

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They weren't trying to completely
emulate white music,

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but what they were trying to do was
show that we have the

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sophistication and also
we have this underlying soul.

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In an era where
people are focused on assimilating,

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you have to suppress certain
things about yourself in order to be

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accepted in mainstream society.

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NEWSREEL: The new negro family,

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their name is Wells or Wilson, Smith
or Brown, or Alexander or Green.

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All over the country, families such
as this are enjoying new prosperity.

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Black people had to be concerned
with white observation

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and what white people
thought about them.

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What we now term
as respectability politics,

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it is about being as put-together,
as presentable,

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as literally clean as possible.

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I need to find, find someone to
call mine

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Berry Gordy contains them so they
could be accepted

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by this larger white audience.

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So, that's one thing he thought.
The other thing he thought is,

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getting involved in political
issues - like the civil rights

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movement or the anti-war movement -

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if his singers come out publicly
in favour of those things,

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that might cause them to not be
accepted by the white community.

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So he tamps down their politics, at
least in their public presentations.

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All of them have political ideas
and what they feel about

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the civil rights movement,
but it doesn't show up in those

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early songs in the 1960s.

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They're not down in Selma doing
a benefit,

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when the Selma to Montgomery
marches are going on,

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Tony Bennett is there,
Sam Cooke goes down there,

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Aretha Franklin goes - but not
The Temptations, not The Supremes.

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Berry Gordy is not going to allow
them to be a part of that publicly.

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beat?

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the time is right

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Starting in 1963, you have mass
protests in Birmingham,

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and then you have the mass uprising
in New York, in 1964,

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culminating in the Watts Rebellion
in 1965.

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and records playing

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It's a song that you could listen to
and think is just about dance.

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But at a time of real political
shift and change,

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and new kinds of struggle,
it's also articulating a message

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to this mass mobilisation of black
people into the streets to protest.

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People understood that the call to
dance in the streets was about

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a call for people to engage with
the revolution that was happening

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at the time,
in which people were rioting.

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People were resisting the
establishment culture.

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And the call to dance is not just
a call to dance,

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but also a call to come together
and to protest.

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We want Black power.

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We want Black power!

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We want Black power!
We want Black power!

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We want Black power!

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A lot of people identified with
moving away from of a certain

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kind of respectability.

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All of that needs a soundtrack.

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That soundtrack to all of the
upheavals of the '60s

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doesn't really want things to be so
polished and so manicured.

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want to shout

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it's all about, ha

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When you get to the late '60s, early
'70s, a lot of people feel like,

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"I'm not interested in assimilating.

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"I'm interested in being as Black
as I can possibly be."

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what to do...

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It captures the sentiment of
a generational change,

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where conformity is not the
priority.

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00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:51,720


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00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,080

no-one else...

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Black folks have finally reached
a point where we're not trying to

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impress you. We don't care what you
think.

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I'm in this other space here.
I'm in the funk.

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The Black power movement is not
about reforming the society.

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It's more about reforming the way we
think and the way Black folks act.

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And James said, "Boom!
We're blowing all that out,

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"and y'all going to deal with it."

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And people just got exhilarated
by it.

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what to do...

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The definition for funk,
it would be James Brown.

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Seeing James Brown do splits...

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..spins...

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..and him sweating onstage
abundantly,

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with just wetness all over him

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was funk to me.

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He is just, like, all funk.

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I don't think he could do nothing
else but funk.

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Even if he was singing the
Star Spangled Banner,

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it was going to be funky.

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He was just super, super Black,
you know?

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Like, a lot of people were afraid to
say something to him, you know.

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I would talk to him like a normal
person, you know.

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He was not normal, though.

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What Brown took out of gospel music
was the vamp,

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the idea that you're just going to
stay on one chord

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and have everyone, you know...

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HE PLAYS RIFF

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It ain't going nowhere.

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HE LOOPS COUNTER RIFF

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And then you had the rhythm guitar.

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HE PLAYS CHORDS

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And that creates this whole...
Oh, my God.

254
00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:00,760
HE VOCALISES HARMONY

255
00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:05,760
It's an onslaught of just, a groove.

256
00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:09,520
How do you resist such a heavy
groove?

257
00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:11,440
Answer - you can't.

258
00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:14,080


259
00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:15,560


260
00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:18,640


261
00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:22,640


262
00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:24,280


263
00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:25,800


264
00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,400


265
00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:34,320
There is not a lot of room for
straying from the groove.

266
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:38,360
And the only way you get that
kind of cohesion,

267
00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:42,480
that kind of accuracy,
that kind of tightness,

268
00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:44,160
is by rehearsing it.

269
00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:46,280
We rehearsed all the time.

270
00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:49,880
As long as he could, as often
as he could, you know.

271
00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:52,160
I don't think he had anything
else to do.

272
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,320
HE PLAYS RIFF

273
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:57,880
I played with James Brown.

274
00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:00,640
And, look, James Brown basically
only played one chord

275
00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:03,680
for the whole song, so, you know,
you just got to learn the groove.

276
00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:05,800
But come to find it wasn't
as easy as that.

277
00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:07,880
I want to go to the bridge.

278
00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:10,640
Can I go to the bridge?
can I go to the bridge?

279
00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:12,280
Cos I was like...

280
00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,720
HE PLAYS RIFF

281
00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:16,800
Can I go to the bridge?

282
00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:18,560
"Going to change to the bridge!"

283
00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:20,400
Yeah, I know I heard that time
before.

284
00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:22,120
I'm going to the bridge.

285
00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:23,520
Oh, Lord, when is he going to
take a breath?

286
00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:25,280
"Hit me!"

287
00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:28,920
I didn't hit it.

288
00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:31,200
And that ended my stay with
James Brown.

289
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:32,680
But it didn't matter.

290
00:15:32,680 --> 00:15:34,440
I played with James Brown.

291
00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:42,320
First concert I ever went to,
my mom took me to see James Brown.

292
00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:44,000
I'll never forget.

293
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,800
He had two drummers, and I don't
know what that meant.

294
00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:50,240
But to me, as a 14-year-old kid,
it meant,

295
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:52,920
this is going to be so funky,
he's going to wear one out!

296
00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:54,680
He needs backup!

297
00:15:56,720 --> 00:15:59,080
We were in California at the time.

298
00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:01,240
James Brown called up, and said,
"Send the band over here.

299
00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:03,520
"We're going to record a tune."

300
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,120
James Brown brought a bunch of kids
in the studio,

301
00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:08,120
and he said, "Say it loudly."

302
00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:10,320
They said, "I'm black and
I'm proud!"

303
00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:12,240


304
00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,080


305
00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:15,680


306
00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:18,160
It became an anthem for the Black
movement.

307
00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:23,560
It was everywhere.

308
00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:25,360
It was EVERYWHERE.

309
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,080
You know, I was 14 when he came out
with Say It Loud - I'm Black

310
00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:33,000
and I'm Proud, and until the day
I die, it will be the most

311
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:37,720
significant song ever for me,
because it taught me Black pride.

312
00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,880
It just set off like fireworks,
and it allowed us the ability

313
00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:47,880
to just unapologetically be
who you are.

314
00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:52,720
And it's no accident that it is
one of the architects of funk

315
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:54,960
that gives us that anthem.

316
00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:58,680
Now, we demands a chance to do
things by ourself.

317
00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,280
We're beating our heads against the
wall and working for someone else.

318
00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:03,960
We're people, too.

319
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:06,080
We're like the birds and the bees.

320
00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:09,960
But we'd rather die on our feet
than keep living on our knees.

321
00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:11,920


322
00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:14,480
It was so empowering for me.

323
00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:16,960
"Say it loud, I'm black and
I'm proud!"

324
00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:20,280
You know, "I'd rather down my feet
than to keep living on my knees."

325
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:22,000
Those kind of messages.

326
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:23,400


327
00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,840
We were tired of all the repression.

328
00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:30,800
All the stay in the line,
don't look up.

329
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,000
You know, keep your head down.

330
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:34,920
Be a good negro.

331
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,320
Same people that are listening to
Martin Luther King

332
00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:38,720
and others say...

333
00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:43,920


334
00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:47,040
..they're listening to Amiri Baraka
saying...

335
00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:50,600


336
00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:52,720


337
00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:56,000


338
00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,640
You had this energy of a Black
revolution.

339
00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:03,160
And James Brown put it in the beats,
put it in the music.

340
00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:04,920
It was on the radio.

341
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:06,480
Say it loud!
I'm Black and I'm proud!

342
00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:07,800
Go ahead, James.

343
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:09,120


344
00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:11,440
And folks were like,
"Whoa! Give me some of this."

345
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:13,000


346
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,040


347
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:17,040
And you know who was singing,
"I'm Black and I'm proud"?

348
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:19,400
All those young kids.

349
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,080
There's no melody.

350
00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:22,720
All you got to do is scream it.

351
00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:24,680
"I'm Black and I'm proud!"
That's all you got to do.

352
00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:26,800
You want to sing along? There it is.

353
00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:28,320


354
00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:34,560
I really felt that there was no-one
in the world more important

355
00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:36,160
than James Brown.

356
00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:38,960
He was bigger than the president
or kings to me.

357
00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:40,480
He really was.

358
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:46,800
HE PLAYS BASSLINE

359
00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:52,360
That's the bassline to
Doing It To Death,

360
00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:55,760
otherwise known as
Gonna Have a Funky Good Time.

361
00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:57,400
And, man, that thing was so funky.

362
00:18:57,400 --> 00:18:58,640
Hit it.

363
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:04,920


364
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,880


365
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:11,960


366
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:16,760
James Brown had this approach to
music where...

367
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:18,760
I call it simplexity.

368
00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:20,040
Simplexity.

369
00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:22,040
It's simple...

370
00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:24,600
..but when you put it all together,
it's complex.

371
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:37,320
And then Fred Wesley played
the funkiest trombone solo

372
00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:40,120
that ever got recorded.

373
00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:42,480
I don't think anybody's going to
argue with me.

374
00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:53,480
This was a funk solo -

375
00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:56,040
and a funk solo had repetition
in it.

376
00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:01,440
HE VOCALIZES

377
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,960
FRED PLAYS SOLO

378
00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,880
Everybody who hear that solo
remembered it, you know.

379
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:29,320
Somebody say, "Are you Fred Wesley?"
I say, "Yeah."

380
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:31,280
HE VOCALIZES

381
00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,120
The first thing they say.
I say, "Oh, yeah, OK, all right."

382
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:42,560
I usually think that James Brown is
one of the great musical geniuses

383
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:44,280
of the 20th century.

384
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:46,920
Come on!

385
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:48,240


386
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:49,960


387
00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:53,480
Because the rhythmic concept that
James Brown introduced to American

388
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,880
popular music basically brought the
elements that we thought of

389
00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:58,880
being background into the
foreground.

390
00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:01,840
And because what James Brown did
was so simple -

391
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:03,800
or at least it seemed simple -

392
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:06,880
it's hard for people to understand
that it is genius.

393
00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:09,440


394
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:10,800


395
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:12,080


396
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:13,440


397
00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:16,520
Everything in funk music is
folded into percussion.

398
00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:20,680
Drums, guitar, even the vocals
are folded into percussion.

399
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:23,480


400
00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:25,400


401
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:27,240


402
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:29,160


403
00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:31,600


404
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:35,680


405
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:39,000
Like a Holy Grail, James Brown,
he discovered the one.

406
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:40,840


407
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:42,200


408
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:43,960
What is the one?

409
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,840
The one? The musical terminology,
the one?

410
00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:49,200
I don't really know,
but I know that that was the thing.

411
00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:52,160
Like, that's what Bootsy talks
about, that James taught him.

412
00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:53,720
One, two, three.

413
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:55,800
And you hit on the one. One.

414
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:58,240
You know? One.

415
00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:00,200
Here you go. One.

416
00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:02,160
BOOTSY PLAYS BASSLINE

417
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:03,400
And then you want to break it down.

418
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:04,880
Break down. One.

419
00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:06,600
Two, three, four.

420
00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:08,800
ONE, two, three, four.

421
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:10,280
BOOTSY: One.

422
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:14,600
MARCUS PLAYS BASSLINE

423
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,120
ONE, two, three, four.

424
00:22:19,120 --> 00:22:20,480
ONE, two...

425
00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:23,320
One...

426
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,160
You got to keep hitting that one.

427
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:31,520
James Brown found out that if
you hit the one strong,

428
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,360
that what comes after that...
is funky.

429
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,160
Take a song like I Don't Want
Nobody to Give Me Nothing -

430
00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:43,600
Open The Door I'll Get It Myself,
and James Brown's band hits...

431
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:45,640
HE VOCALIZES INTRO

432
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:52,080

me nothing

433
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,000


434
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:55,360


435
00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:00,520

nothing

436
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:02,400


437
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:04,440


438
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:07,600
James Brown tapped into something.

439
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,600
Like Nikola Tesla says,
"There's this electricity

440
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,960
"that's in the atmosphere that
we can tap into it."

441
00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:15,840
Well, James Brown tapped into that.

442
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:19,400
One.

443
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:21,440
One.

444
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:23,640
One.

445
00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:27,200
When you dancing,
you might not be counting,

446
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,200
but you know that beat's coming,

447
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:31,400
and that's when your body, like,
syncs up.

448
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:34,400
One.

449
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,120
One.

450
00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:39,720
Landing on the one does something
magical.

451
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,480
It literally mobilises you,

452
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:45,080
and makes you want to shake your...
something.

453
00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:50,320


454
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:53,480


455
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:55,880
And you feel it, you feel
the concussion of it

456
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:58,520
coming at you in a different place,

457
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:00,800
that kicks you upside the head

458
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:02,800
and makes you let all the funk
loose.

459
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:04,880


460
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:06,880


461
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:08,840


462
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:10,760


463
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:12,680


464
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:14,320
All right...

465
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,400
People like to dance,
people like to move.

466
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,200
When you give them something to
move to, they're happy.

467
00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:23,560


468
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:25,320


469
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,040
Why does this music
make you want to dance?

470
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,320
I'm trying to...

471
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,240
..in my little brain trying
to figure out,

472
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,040
what is it about this music that
makes you want to dance?

473
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,160
Listening to any music starts with
vibrating air molecules

474
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:45,720
going into our ears.

475
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:49,840
And then it starts to go all the way
up to a pathway

476
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,120
that winds up on the side of
the brain over here,

477
00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:54,080
and that's called the auditory
cortex.

478
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,520
It goes right to parts of the brain
that are involved in

479
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:03,920
motor function movement.

480
00:25:05,360 --> 00:25:07,600
When you think about what's
happening in funk,

481
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:09,280
your brain is saying,

482
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,240
"OK, I'm dealing with some really
interesting rhythm here."

483
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,800
Your body is in tune with it,
you're actually moving to it.

484
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,040
It's a direct connection.

485
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,880
Because of the rhythm, because of
those projections to this

486
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,200
motor centre, which is going to make
you move your arms

487
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:25,680
and move your legs and shake
your booty.

488
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,200
There's no question about it.

489
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:29,040


490
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:33,280


491
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:39,560
Funk is kind of taking us higher,
because it's driving this liking,

492
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:43,000
wanting response that's all about
feeling good.

493
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:46,920
If you're with other people, doing
an activity like dancing together,

494
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,640
that turns on what's called the
dopamine reward system.

495
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,720
And so, when we like something, we
get this not only dopamine reward,

496
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:58,360
but something else gets triggered -
endorphins.

497
00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:00,680
Endorphins are things that make you
not feel pain,

498
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:02,400
or not care about pain.

499
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:09,960
So, when you're with a group of
people experiencing something

500
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:13,080
together like that, you can actually
drive this sense of self-acceptance

501
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:15,400
and acceptance within the group.

502
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:23,160
You become one with the community,
one with the music,

503
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:26,800
and you give up a little bit of
your own self

504
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:30,280
in order to gain this greater thing.

505
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,800
And it's completely transcendent.

506
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:35,480
We dance as a form of communication
and expression

507
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:37,920
that is outside of language.

508
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:42,000
It is about the carnal, the fact
that we are actual human beings

509
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:46,080
made of flesh, with fear and desire.

510
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,400
And I think that's so important.

511
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:52,720
And that's the part of us that often
was neglected.

512
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:57,320
And so, it found a home in this
music that allows us

513
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:01,080
to be desired and desirable.

514
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:10,920
Certain rhythms have a way of
putting you into a trance-like state

515
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,320
or activating a kind of euphoria.

516
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:18,440
The listener had to be exposed to
these rhythms for a sustained period

517
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,840
of time for the euphoria to really
kick in.

518
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,360


519
00:27:25,360 --> 00:27:27,400


520
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:30,240
Funk is something that
takes you over.

521
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,520
Most Western music is about the
melody and about the song.

522
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:36,920
But when you get to funk,

523
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:39,920
you're talking about music based on
the groove.

524
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,480
Repetition of chants,
repetition of riffs and grooves.

525
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,400
It's like you learn at some point,
oh, there's nothing wrong with that.

526
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:47,880
That's not a shortcoming.

527
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:49,240
That's a good thing.

528
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,400
When I played in funk bands coming
up, when we found the right groove,

529
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:58,520
we would play that groove for
an hour and a half.

530
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:00,520
Nobody changes anything.

531
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:02,600
The band leader in our group,

532
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:04,360
when we got the groove right,

533
00:28:04,360 --> 00:28:06,560
he would say,
"OK, I got to run some errands.

534
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:09,280
"Y'all keep playing that groove
till I get back."

535
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:12,240
And then you start to discover
a deeper part of yourself, man.

536
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:14,160
You know, you just lost in it.

537
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:18,600
MARTIN LUTHER KING: I have a dream

538
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:22,720
that my four little children will
one day live in a nation

539
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:25,720
where they will not be judged by
the colour of their skin,

540
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:27,880
but by the content of their
character.

541
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,360
I have a dream today.

542
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:34,960


543
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:37,760


544
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:42,120
Sly and the Family Stone is the
musical version of I Have a Dream.

545
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:46,040
There's Sly, there's his brother,
there's his sister.

546
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,080
The white guy's the drummer.

547
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,800


548
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,360
They're all wearing these
interesting kind of colours onstage.

549
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:57,280
Sly got his Afro. It's multiracial.

550
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,080
It captured what was happening in
the Bay Area, that whole

551
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,960
Summer Of Love vibe, but it was also
deeply embedded in black music.

552
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,720


553
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:10,240

yeah...

554
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:12,720
If you say, "All we need is
a drummer," that's...

555
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:14,880
that's African. Like...!

556
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:16,640
All we need is a beat.

557
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:25,080
That's a statement of not just
the importance of the beat,

558
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,080
but also optimism.

559
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:28,960
Like, let's go.

560
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,200
Sly and the Family stone were
aspirational.

561
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,600
They really wanted a future where
we could all get along,

562
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,040
be together, have fun.

563
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:43,080
So, it is very much a flavour of
hippie funk.

564
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,080


565
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,520


566
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,800


567
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:56,000
James Brown was funky, in a pocket.

568
00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:00,040
Then Sly just jumped off the stage
and just took it to a whole another

569
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,960
psychedelic rock, funk level.

570
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:13,640
And then when you had Larry Graham
slapping the hell out of that bass,

571
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,120
how could you not understand that
ain't usual?

572
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,240


573
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:22,720


574
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:27,040
Bass players all around the world
were like,

575
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,240
"What is he doing?
What's that sound?"

576
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:31,080
We heard that, we said,
"What is it?"

577
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:34,120
We had never heard a bass like that.
We weren't even sure it was a bass.

578
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,560


579
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,680
The most revolutionary aspect of
Thank You For Letting Me

580
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:43,200
Be Myself Again is Larry Graham's
right thumb.

581
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,480
Larry Graham said he just kind of
started using his thumb

582
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:47,880
to kind of mimic a bass drum.

583
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:49,920
You know...

584
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,200
HE PLAYS BASSLINE

585
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:59,360
That song was so monumental that
everyone that heard that song

586
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,360
rehearsed it and practised it
ad nauseum.

587
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:06,720
In their garage bands...

588
00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:12,200
..in their high schools...

589
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:14,960
..amongst themselves.

590
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:18,520
I remember going to this bass camp,

591
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:22,880
and there were probably 50 electric
bass players sitting in the room,

592
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,320
and all 50 of them, you know,
they were just like...

593
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:27,920
HE SLAPS ERRATICALLY

594
00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:32,320
And I was just like...

595
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:38,560
"Hey, erm, do any of you guys play
with your fingers?"

596
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:40,640


597
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:45,120


598
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:51,520
Larry Graham figures out a way
to take a riff,

599
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:54,280
but to make it a feeling.

600
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:59,280
Because he's expressing in a way
that no-one's ever expressed before,

601
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:01,400
a feeling of Blackness.

602
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:04,320


603
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:07,120


604
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:08,760


605
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:12,040
Sly Stone changed the game.

606
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:18,160
He gave everybody the template for
incorporating soul, gospel,

607
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:25,240
rock, jazz, joy and inclusion
into funk

608
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,360
that is so powerful you can't run
from it.

609
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,440
Sly came along.

610
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:34,240
He became extremely pop with funk.

611
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:38,000
I mean, his stuff was funky,
but slick, clever,

612
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,040
and good musicians and everything.

613
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:44,440
Funk became the thing to do.

614
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:52,240


615
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:57,240

over me...

616
00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:02,240
By the time we got the hit record,
Testify, Motown was peaking.

617
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,680
It was always about Motown to me.

618
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:08,080
We was always trying to prove we was
worthy of being with Motown.

619
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,000
George Clinton is writing
and producing

620
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,360
and arranging for Motown acts.

621
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:17,640
But Motown is a respectability
place.

622
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:21,360
And he realises that that's
not his strength,

623
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:25,120
and so he won't last at Motown
much longer.

624
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,320
You could not beat that stuff.

625
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:31,480
Cos, I mean, you got to come up with
a hit single every time

626
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:33,360
you put a record out.

627
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:36,040
And everybody was changing to
rock and roll.

628
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:39,120
Cause the Led Zeppelins, and the
Cream, and Rolling Stones,

629
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:41,800
all that, Beatles,
they was taking over.

630
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:44,080
So we chose funk.

631
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:49,160
They played four nights at the
Phelps Lounge.

632
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:53,000
First night, it's the Parliaments,
you know, matching suits,

633
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:55,640
doo-wop, you know, a couple of
spins,

634
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,240
grabbing the microphone and,
you know...

635
00:33:58,240 --> 00:33:59,600
That's what they're doing.

636
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:01,640
We still had Motown all in us.

637
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,080
But we learned that, you play
Motown loud,

638
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:08,440
it was just like playing
rock and roll.

639
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:12,560
On the last night, George Clinton
goes into the bathroom,

640
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:16,920
he puts his head in the sink to
wash out the process.

641
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:19,480
Comes out in a baby diaper.

642
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:22,920
Well, all right!

643
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:24,480
Starchild.

644
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:27,080
Citizens of the Universe,
Recording Angels.

645
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,120
We have returned to claim the
Pyramids.

646
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:31,040
Partying on the Mothership.

647
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:33,560
I am the Mothership Connection.

648
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:35,720
If you hear any noise, ain't nobody
but me and the boys

649
00:34:35,720 --> 00:34:37,320
out here tonight.

650
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:40,440
We're going to turn the mother out
tonight. Are you ready to get down?

651
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,080
Are you ready?

652
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:47,120
So, we're all in New York,

653
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:48,640
and George come up to us and said,

654
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:51,360
"Listen, man, I'm going funkadelic.

655
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:53,360
Said, "What do you mean,
funkadelic?"

656
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,120
Psychedelic was the thing that
was happening.

657
00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,880
We just threw funk and delic
together.

658
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:01,480
We became Funkadelic.

659
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:02,960
Sing!

660
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:06,760

it's just me and the boys

661
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:07,920


662
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,120


663
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:17,360
I joined Parliament-Funkadelic fresh
out of high school as a vocalist,

664
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,200
as part of the band.

665
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:21,320
We going to turn
the motherfucker out.

666
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:23,920
It was just sort of this hard
presence that they were

667
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:25,840
just trying to present.

668
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:28,640
A dip in your hip and come on
to the mothership...

669
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:31,800
So you still had to be that
aggressive, but also be feminine,

670
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,160
which is kind of a hard thing to do.

671
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:36,960
You know, it's like,
I'm going to pump this out,

672
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:41,000
but, you know, I still want to
have my feminine side too.

673
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:46,320
Moves that...

674
00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:50,520
Things like that, yeah.

675
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:54,360
What do you think?

676
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:59,200


677
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:01,680


678
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:03,840
GEORGE: We started clowning.

679
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:06,120
We went on into absurd.

680
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,120
We wore diapers.

681
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,640
We wore sheets, we wore wigs.

682
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,680
Everybody was smoking weed,
tripping on acid.

683
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:23,400
You can just lose yourself in it,
and that was the thing.

684
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:28,720
Y'all ready to give up the funk?

685
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,640
I want you to free your mind,
and your ass will follow tonight.

686
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:39,480
GEORGE: We wanted to be more than
just a singing group.

687
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:41,320
We wanted it to be a play.

688
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:43,480
We wanted to have a funk opera.

689
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,040
We had seen Pink Floyd do that.

690
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:49,120
So we had our own mythology.

691
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:52,000
Hey, everybody funking,
and don't know....

692
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,920
Parliament-Funkadelic
is like a cult.

693
00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:02,000
And it came to pass that
Dr Funkenstein returned to find

694
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:04,400
that the planet had fallen
prey to the...

695
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:09,160
It's almost like reading a comic
book, but seeing it in real life.

696
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,360
JEANETTE VOCALIZES

697
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:24,880


698
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:26,680


699
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,320
If you're going to make
a full sound,

700
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,000
you're going to need
some female vocals.

701
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:33,840


702
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:36,240


703
00:37:36,240 --> 00:37:38,040


704
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:40,680


705
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:45,360
It's that sauce that you put on your
spaghetti that makes it better.

706
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:47,720


707
00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:51,960
We had Bernie Worrell,

708
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:56,000
who was classically trained
keyboard player.

709
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,640
Bernie could play anything
on the keyboard.

710
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:01,960
Just had the funk energy.

711
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,880
But he also revolutionised
funk music,

712
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:11,880
because he would play the bass on
the synthesiser.

713
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:15,400
Which was the new sound that
Emerson, Lake and Palmer,

714
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:17,800
King Crimson used in rock and roll.

715
00:38:20,720 --> 00:38:24,720
Bernie actually was playing what he
thought Larry Graham would play,

716
00:38:24,720 --> 00:38:27,400
from, you know,
Sly and the Family Stone.

717
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:30,560
He actually imitated Larry's style.

718
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,200
GEORGE VOCALIZES BASSLINE

719
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:36,880


720
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,920
Bass players just saw their whole
careers just crumbling

721
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:44,720
in front of their eyes.

722
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:56,600
GEORGE VOCALIZES

723
00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:58,080
That chant right there.

724
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:02,320
At grade school, sixth grade,

725
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,600
I had a Jewish friend,
that was his bar mitzvah.

726
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:07,640
I remember him practising...

727
00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:10,720
GEORGE VOCALISES

728
00:39:10,720 --> 00:39:13,680
And it just stuck with me...

729
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,480
So, when I got that groove
and stuck that in,

730
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:19,440
and not thinking about it,
but it just fitted.

731
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:27,600
I was on a city bus one day,
and Flash Light was out.

732
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:30,400
People rocking boom boxes.

733
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,640
And, you know, Flash Light comes on,
and everybody on the bus

734
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:36,000
starts jamming.

735
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,920
And the bus turns into, like,
this, you know, mobile disco.

736
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,120
And, I mean, shit, even the driver
was grooving to it.

737
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:50,640
The song instantly created
a commonality amongst

738
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,280
all the riders on that bus.

739
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,480
As a people in this country that
really didn't allow us

740
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:05,160
to express any emotions whatsoever,

741
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:07,760
music was our therapy.

742
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:10,360
And so, when they say, like,
funk is freedom,

743
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:12,520
that's what they're talking about.

744
00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:27,080
I'm of the opinion black people
have always been funky.

745
00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:29,400
You know, black people
have always been funky.

746
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:34,400
It's in our DNA.

747
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,800
Whether it's music, whether it's
fashion, whether it's art.

748
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:42,320
There's always a heavy dosage of
funk in it

749
00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:46,080
when it's in the hands
of black people.

750
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:49,280


751
00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:51,320


752
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:53,200


753
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:55,280


754
00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,080


755
00:40:58,080 --> 00:40:59,920


756
00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:01,720


757
00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:04,000


758
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,000
I mean, you had to be funky
just coming here

759
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:10,440
under those conditions and
everything, and surviving.

760
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,560
Black people have had to
continuously make something

761
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:16,120
out of nothing, to make something
not just necessary,

762
00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:18,320
but to make something fly!

763
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:22,480
Rock and roll, jazz, hip-hop.

764
00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:26,280
It is the innate funkiness that's
passed down within us.

765
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:30,280
That is the DNA of who black people

766
00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:32,200
have always been.

767
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:43,920
The way black people express
themselves in funky music,

768
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:48,000
they also express themselves to
Jesus the same way, you know?

769
00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:01,160
It's a spirit that gets in you.

770
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,000
It's secular and it's spiritual.

771
00:42:07,240 --> 00:42:09,720
That's the way black people
express themselves.

772
00:42:09,720 --> 00:42:11,520
You know, you just let it all out.

773
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,640
We come to church, and we find a way
to tarry with God,

774
00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:23,880
but also to tarry with each other.

775
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:28,520
And you could let the hard edges of
life fade and grow soft

776
00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:31,040
for a moment.

777
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:33,400
And there's something incredibly
cathartic about sharing

778
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:35,320
that burden with each other.

779
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,000
And so funk is doing the same thing.

780
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:42,800
It's giving people a Saturday
night that they can go to

781
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:45,280
and they can tarry together.

782
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:47,560
You know, it's that constant
Saturday night,

783
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,000
Sunday morning relationship.

784
00:42:52,720 --> 00:42:55,760
HE PLAYS VAMP

785
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:00,080
You've got these secular styles
that are sometimes

786
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:03,920
prohibited in those sacred spaces.

787
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:08,600
There's a lot of borrowings,
where secular traditions

788
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:11,800
are borrowing from gospel.

789
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:15,280
And you see elements of funk
beginning to rise,

790
00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:17,680
but it's not fully funkified.

791
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:21,080


792
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:22,960


793
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,280

some things

794
00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:27,000


795
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:29,440
But when Kirk Franklin came up with
that song, Stomp,

796
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:33,280
it was like, well, the church house
is the funk house.

797
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:34,320


798
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:36,080


799
00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:37,840
And of course it always was.

800
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:41,440
It gave us a way to explore our
funkiness inside a spiritual

801
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:44,120
practice and spiritual deliverance.

802
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:46,800


803
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:48,680


804
00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:50,320


805
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:52,360


806
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:54,400

with me.

807
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:57,440
You just take the
George Clinton sample.

808
00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:01,960


809
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,200
HE PLAYS CHORDS

810
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:07,760


811
00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:12,080
KIRK: So, you know, that's what
brings the funk.

812
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:19,640
It ain't over.

813
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:22,120
It ain't over, you know?

814
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:30,040
What makes funk gospel is when
gospel begins to add chords

815
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:34,000
that are intentional to affect
emotion

816
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:35,160
Like...

817
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:36,640


818
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:37,840
It's right there.

819
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:40,760
HE VOCALIZES

820
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:42,120
Right? That's funk.

821
00:44:43,240 --> 00:44:44,760
Gospel go...

822
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:49,880
You know?

823
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:51,840
See, that's what gospel did to funk.

824
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:53,520
Like, it lifted it,

825
00:44:53,520 --> 00:44:55,520
and then it made it back stanky
again.

826
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:58,120
You lift it, and you make it back
stanky again.

827
00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:02,040
With funk, it is forever stanky.

828
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:11,000
I remember being a young boy,

829
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:14,040
and going to Black choir musicals.

830
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:17,200
HE PLAYS CHORDS

831
00:45:29,720 --> 00:45:31,880
You a little boy hearing that.

832
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:34,560
I mean, what else is that going to
be but funk?

833
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:46,520
I got all my musical education from
the church, honestly.

834
00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:48,440
I'm a Pentecostal minister's son.

835
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:51,840
And, incidentally, I found this
chord called the seventh chord.

836
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:54,080
It's a dominant seventh chord.

837
00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:56,920
That's the one that got me in
trouble in church,

838
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:58,760
because when I would play...

839
00:46:00,240 --> 00:46:02,560


840
00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:04,520


841
00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:06,080
Pages.

842
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:07,800
But then I learned the seventh.

843
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:09,760
HE PLAYS CHORDS

844
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:14,400


845
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:16,360


846
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:19,440
Miss Gonzalez, "Carlito,
that's not Christian music.

847
00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:20,960
"That's the devil's music."

848
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:22,240
"Devil's music?"

849
00:46:22,240 --> 00:46:24,640
Once they started labelling the
seventh chord as the devil's music,

850
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:26,320
I knew I was in trouble.

851
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:41,320
A bass player that played at a local
church is probably the same

852
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,120
bass player that played in a local
funk band.

853
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:46,120
But the thing about the local
funk band,

854
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:48,600
they had to pay for a space
to rehearse.

855
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:50,760
They had to pay for sound,
they had to pay for this thing.

856
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:53,760
Where in the church, you had a place
where you could shred

857
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,040
almost every time you got together,

858
00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:59,440
and you also had a captivated
audience.

859
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:07,560
And if you're doing good,
they standing up.

860
00:47:07,560 --> 00:47:09,200
"Oh, play, Tyre!"

861
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:11,640
You know, "Play, Raekwon!"

862
00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:13,760
And now you know if you're killing,

863
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:17,760
it's because in the church
there's no barrier.

864
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:20,600
There's no barrier for the response
and for the,

865
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:22,200
and getting to know if you can.

866
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:24,640
There's going to be some young
musicians over there talking about,

867
00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:26,480
"Ooh! Ooh!"

868
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:36,440
In real time,
you know if you funky or not.

869
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:39,680
In real time,
you know if you dope or not.

870
00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:41,240


871
00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:44,000


872
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:46,000


873
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:48,920


874
00:47:50,720 --> 00:47:54,560
Swing Down Sweet Chariot has
a history that goes back

875
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:57,680
to the spiritual -
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot -

876
00:47:57,680 --> 00:48:01,160
but its reinterpretation by
Parliament-Funkadelic

877
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:04,440
puts funk in a spiritual context.

878
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:07,080


879
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:10,000
We had a band that everybody was
straight out of the church,

880
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:13,360
so there was overabundance
of gospel in our songs.

881
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:16,240
Even though we were singing songs
about smoking weed,

882
00:48:16,240 --> 00:48:19,680
the overall feeling in it was always
gospel.

883
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:22,320
Our show is always gospel,
even when it's being silly.

884
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:28,320
Having that as a backdrop,
having the Jimi Hendrix,

885
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:32,280
James Brown as the other side of it,

886
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:34,440
oh, it was blacker than black.

887
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:38,680
We would be in this groove.

888
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:40,680
You know, so we're there for
a little while.

889
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:42,200
And then Glenn would come in.

890
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:43,760


891
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:46,520


892
00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:49,520


893
00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:51,960
If you were in church,
you were singing to bring down

894
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:53,680
the Holy Spirit.

895
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:57,440
But they were singing to bring down
a mothership.

896
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:06,480
You're tuned into something ancient.

897
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:11,560
And yet it's moving YOU
into the future.

898
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:24,120
Parliament-Funkadelic took their
world into space

899
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:27,200
and, at the time of what we call
the great Space Race,

900
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:31,480
the idea of going into space still
felt very much like science fiction.

901
00:49:31,480 --> 00:49:33,600
Look, another one of those
spaceships.

902
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:36,160
All of this happening
while you have people on Earth

903
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:38,520
just trying to get basic rights.

904
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:41,720
How come I ain't got no money here,
and whitey is on the moon?

905
00:49:41,720 --> 00:49:43,840
And so, it became this irony.

906
00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:48,640
And yet, the idea of going into
space was such an inspiration.

907
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:51,360
Funk is a way to think about
somewhere else.

908
00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:54,440
Like, here isn't really working.
How could I be somewhere else?

909
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:56,920


910
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,280

race...

911
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:04,080
So, when we get to all
the interplanetary narratives,

912
00:50:04,080 --> 00:50:07,320
we're taken away from here and now
towards somewhere else.

913
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:09,680


914
00:50:11,520 --> 00:50:14,800

a smiling face...

915
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:17,320
What if we just had our own
planet systems?

916
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:19,760
What if we just claimed coming
from other places

917
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,280
so that we could be free?

918
00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:25,120
Then we could build the worlds
we want to see.

919
00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:29,840
I am Sun Ra, ambassador from
the intergalactic regions

920
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:34,080
of the Council of Outer Space.

921
00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:39,960

a fantastic voyage

922
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:43,800


923
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:49,480
You're literally riding in a ship
going somewhere,

924
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:53,440
and I think that's a metaphor for
how people perceive the power

925
00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:56,240
of funk, that it could actually
transport you.

926
00:50:56,240 --> 00:50:58,000
It could beam you.

927
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,040
Captain, someone has activated
the transporter mechanism.

928
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:02,800
Fire phasers.

929
00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:05,320
That was the thing playing
out of this world.

930
00:51:07,640 --> 00:51:09,800
Jimi Hendrix, to me, was that.

931
00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:12,560
You know, was taking music
out of space.

932
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:17,880
If you go back to the sci-fi of
the early 20th century,

933
00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:19,680
there were no black people.

934
00:51:19,680 --> 00:51:22,400
Whereas after George Clinton
and Earth, Wind and Fire

935
00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:26,160
started injecting us into the
future, you started to see

936
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:29,760
Lando Calrissian, you know, in
The Empire Strikes Back.

937
00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:32,600
You've got a lot of guts coming here
after what you pulled.

938
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:36,440
Afrofuturism was about saying,

939
00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:38,560
"We're going to build ourself out of
new cloth.

940
00:51:38,560 --> 00:51:40,600
"We're going to come from outer
space.

941
00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:45,520
"We're not going to root ourselves
in the history of violence

942
00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:47,920
"and stripping of personhood.

943
00:51:47,920 --> 00:51:50,080
"We're going to recreate ourselves
anew.

944
00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:52,520
"We are the new man, the new woman."

945
00:51:52,520 --> 00:51:55,200


946
00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:58,080


947
00:51:58,080 --> 00:52:01,040


948
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:04,760

Oh...

949
00:52:09,240 --> 00:52:12,800
And now you have Labelle
and their transformation,

950
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:15,320
going from this girl group
and then, all of a sudden,

951
00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:18,040
they had these amazing costumes

952
00:52:18,040 --> 00:52:22,280
and they're singing about quasars
and stars afar.

953
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:30,360
We started as the Bluebelles.

954
00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:33,440
It was like a lot of girl groups -
the Chantels, the Shirelles,

955
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:35,000
the Ronettes.

956
00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:46,640
And it was like nice dresses
and bouffants.

957
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:51,440
And it felt innocent, in terms of
like you were singing, you know,

958
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:55,640
about love, and about dating,
and boys, and going to the beach.

959
00:52:55,640 --> 00:52:59,000
But inside of us,
we had been different from

960
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:00,800
other girl groups anyway.

961
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:06,040
And now we were presenting to
an audience something

962
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:08,320
that they hadn't seen before.

963
00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:11,880

This evening?

964
00:53:13,160 --> 00:53:15,560


965
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:21,160

she freshened up...

966
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:23,560
And I think that first phrase
set it up.

967
00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:27,760

soul sister, go sister

968
00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:30,160


969
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:32,080


970
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:33,520


971
00:53:35,520 --> 00:53:37,160


972
00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:46,160
For me to get your attention,
I've got to really do something

973
00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:48,880
to move you to where I am.

974
00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:51,360
To take you to a different place.

975
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:56,880
If you are chained to the bottom
of a boat,

976
00:53:56,880 --> 00:53:59,480
you have to have hope,

977
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:03,360
an idea of a future, to survive.

978
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:06,520
So, to me, that is the core,

979
00:54:06,520 --> 00:54:10,320
that is the seed of Afrofuturism,

980
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:15,840
is that I can see a future beyond
the bottom of this boat.

981
00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:20,120


982
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:22,240


983
00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:32,480
In the late '40s and early '50s,
there was the great migration

984
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:36,320
of black folk leaving the south.

985
00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:39,160
Escaping the south.

986
00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:42,560
A lot of families moved from
the south to the north

987
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:47,440
because they saw a future in the
north that they necessarily

988
00:54:47,440 --> 00:54:50,200
wouldn't have down south.

989
00:54:50,200 --> 00:54:53,040
It was about building something new,

990
00:54:53,040 --> 00:54:55,600
and they could see that
in the north.

991
00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:59,120

morning glory

992
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:02,160


993
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:04,960
The funk capital of the world...

994
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:07,400
At first, I used to think it was,
like, Detroit.

995
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:11,000

watching ladies go by

996
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:12,800


997
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:18,160
The funk capital of the US
is New Orleans.

998
00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:19,720
Maybe DC?

999
00:55:19,720 --> 00:55:21,440
But maybe it was Texas?

1000
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:23,080
Cincinnati.

1001
00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:24,360


1002
00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:26,720


1003
00:55:26,720 --> 00:55:28,480
Dayton, Ohio.

1004
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:30,960
Certainly, Ohio.

1005
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:32,960
I would have to say Ohio.

1006
00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:34,760
Somewhere in Ohio.

1007
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:38,720
Have to be in Ohio, cos more
funky bands come out of Ohio

1008
00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:41,040
than anywhere else in the world.

1009
00:55:51,320 --> 00:55:53,600
Thousands of people left the south,

1010
00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:57,360
and many of them settled in these
industrial cities in the Midwest.

1011
00:56:04,520 --> 00:56:07,840
We also have a time in American
funding of education

1012
00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:10,400
where you have music programmes.

1013
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:14,640
We were still a country where a kid,
especially a black kid,

1014
00:56:14,640 --> 00:56:17,800
could go to their public school,
their public school had a band.

1015
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:19,800
They could be handed an instrument.

1016
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:21,960
You're going to seventh period like,

1017
00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:24,160
"I'll play that one.
That looks interesting."

1018
00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:26,400
It was required -
it wasn't optional -

1019
00:56:26,400 --> 00:56:28,040
you have to learn an instrument.

1020
00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:36,080
Most of those people came up to work
industrial jobs, factory jobs.

1021
00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:39,040
That means they could own homes,
they could have garages.

1022
00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:41,680
That means the kids could rehearse
in basements.

1023
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:43,800
And that helped the music flourish.

1024
00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:47,080
Now they're making enough money to
afford instruments.

1025
00:56:47,080 --> 00:56:50,960
That's why you get this hotbed of
funk music,

1026
00:56:50,960 --> 00:56:54,000
cos funk really depends on
instruments.

1027
00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:56,760
And everybody was in a band.

1028
00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:58,760
I was in three bands.

1029
00:56:58,760 --> 00:57:03,560
And so, like, these huge bands came
out of this region.

1030
00:57:03,560 --> 00:57:05,520


1031
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:07,240


1032
00:57:07,240 --> 00:57:09,320


1033
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:11,400


1034
00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:14,280
The proximity of these cities
are important.

1035
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:17,640
You can get from Dayton to some
other place in Ohio, Cincinnati

1036
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:19,720
in a short period of time.

1037
00:57:19,720 --> 00:57:23,120
You can get from Detroit and Chicago
in a short period of time.

1038
00:57:23,120 --> 00:57:26,200
If you got 18 dudes in the band,
instead of 18 airline tickets,

1039
00:57:26,200 --> 00:57:29,280
you just putting them all on a bus.

1040
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:33,080
So, the Midwest becomes this
incubator for funk music.

1041
00:57:33,080 --> 00:57:36,040
We don't have funk as we understand
it now without what's popping

1042
00:57:36,040 --> 00:57:38,320
in the Midwest in the late '60s
and early '70s.

1043
00:57:46,200 --> 00:57:48,920
Nobody's really thinking about
Minneapolis

1044
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:50,880
until Prince comes along.

1045
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:56,200

climb...

1046
00:57:56,200 --> 00:57:59,880
He has such a strong vision
at such a young age

1047
00:57:59,880 --> 00:58:02,400
of what this music could be.

1048
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:07,360
He becomes the centre of that very
identifiable

1049
00:58:07,360 --> 00:58:10,880
Minneapolis funk sound.

1050
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:13,960


1051
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:17,320


1052
00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:22,080


1053
00:58:22,080 --> 00:58:27,160
Prince at his root was a Midwestern
funk artist.

1054
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:29,880
He grew up listening to the
Ohio players -

1055
00:58:29,880 --> 00:58:33,840
James Brown, all of the major
players.

1056
00:58:33,840 --> 00:58:38,520
He's citing funk, even as he's
building his own musical world.

1057
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:41,600
He's citing these bands and these
artists who've come before him.

1058
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:46,400
So, you see the direct lineage
and flow through what will become

1059
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:49,280
his own incredible career.

1060
00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:54,920
The Minneapolis sound is
Midwest funk.

1061
00:58:54,920 --> 00:58:57,680
Cos all these bands are coming
through that a young Prince

1062
00:58:57,680 --> 00:59:00,720
is being exposed to, and he's like,
"Yeah, we can do this too."

1063
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:09,280
Prince becomes the conduit to think
about modern funk, in one way,

1064
00:59:09,280 --> 00:59:12,240
but not forgetting the innovators
who came before him.

1065
00:59:19,520 --> 00:59:23,640
The hair, the splits, the mic
work...

1066
00:59:23,640 --> 00:59:26,200
Yeah, I definitely consider
Prince funky.

1067
00:59:26,200 --> 00:59:28,720
I mean, how could he not be funky?

1068
00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:33,360
Prince realises the power of taboo,

1069
00:59:33,360 --> 00:59:37,120
the power of titillation,
salaciousness.

1070
00:59:38,520 --> 00:59:42,600
Prince had the sound of the present,
and took the sound of the past,

1071
00:59:42,600 --> 00:59:46,640
and refiltered it
into the sound of tomorrow.

1072
00:59:54,560 --> 00:59:58,120
Africa has always been
a pretty big consumer

1073
00:59:58,120 --> 01:00:00,560
of American popular music.

1074
01:00:00,560 --> 01:00:03,640
Soul music started to get pumped in
consistently,

1075
01:00:03,640 --> 01:00:06,440
and it's something that took off
like nothing else had ever had.

1076
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:12,920
Many African countries, they gained
their independence in the 1960s.

1077
01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:16,600
At that time, Africa was looking for
an identity for itself

1078
01:00:16,600 --> 01:00:19,680
coming out of colonialism.

1079
01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:22,160
Funk showed a new form of Blackness,

1080
01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:25,040
a way you could be black in
the modern world.

1081
01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:30,960
Well, James, it seems like we are
going back home.

1082
01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:33,240
Yeah, after such a long time.

1083
01:00:33,240 --> 01:00:37,760
We finally...got our heads together.

1084
01:00:37,760 --> 01:00:41,280
Every little band in Kinshasa
and Zaire

1085
01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:43,720
is playing the James Brown beat.

1086
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:47,040
Now, it's a total, total, total
French-speaking country,

1087
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:50,440
and it's saying every one of your
lyrics in English.

1088
01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:53,240
Now, that says a whole lot for me.

1089
01:00:53,240 --> 01:00:55,960
It says that we're not coming...

1090
01:00:55,960 --> 01:00:58,280
We're there. Black is here.

1091
01:01:00,960 --> 01:01:02,760


1092
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:08,400

you...

1093
01:01:09,760 --> 01:01:12,880
In Lagos, James Brown was mobbed.

1094
01:01:16,360 --> 01:01:19,400
Right from the airport, people
running beside his car

1095
01:01:19,400 --> 01:01:21,600
all the way to the hotel.

1096
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:24,840
This is James Brown, and I'm looking
forward to meeting

1097
01:01:24,840 --> 01:01:27,240
all the Nigerian cats
during my tour!

1098
01:01:30,480 --> 01:01:32,480
People didn't have to understand
the words.

1099
01:01:32,480 --> 01:01:36,440
They understood the emotions that
were embedded in those wails,

1100
01:01:36,440 --> 01:01:39,360
the screams, the grunts.

1101
01:01:39,360 --> 01:01:44,200
Soul brother one, James Brown!

1102
01:01:44,200 --> 01:01:47,560
James Brown was so popular across
Africa because his music

1103
01:01:47,560 --> 01:01:51,720
really bought out the Africanist
qualities in African-American music.

1104
01:01:53,800 --> 01:01:55,880
I always wanted to go to Africa,

1105
01:01:55,880 --> 01:01:58,520
because I want to know where my soul
come from, the heritage.

1106
01:01:58,520 --> 01:02:00,560
I want to know where it really
started.

1107
01:02:00,560 --> 01:02:02,440
I have so much in common.

1108
01:02:02,440 --> 01:02:04,520
My music even got the drum
syncopation,

1109
01:02:04,520 --> 01:02:06,800
the movements and the sound.

1110
01:02:06,800 --> 01:02:09,640
People looked at James Brown as if
he was an African.

1111
01:02:09,640 --> 01:02:12,120
People really felt that he was
one of their own.

1112
01:02:14,720 --> 01:02:17,640
There were lots of African imitators
of James Brown,

1113
01:02:17,640 --> 01:02:19,800
and they tried to get that feeling.

1114
01:02:19,800 --> 01:02:22,440
Some of them even tried to sing
and scream like James Brown.

1115
01:02:24,240 --> 01:02:27,280
But it was really Fela Kuti, in
Nigeria, who kind of took that

1116
01:02:27,280 --> 01:02:30,320
James Brown influence,
internalised it,

1117
01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:32,360
and pushed everything to the
next level.

1118
01:02:38,560 --> 01:02:43,200
Fela saw James Brown,
and was blown away.

1119
01:02:43,200 --> 01:02:48,200
But at the same time, he was coming
from that rich foundation

1120
01:02:48,200 --> 01:02:52,160
of Juju music
and Yoruba traditional music.

1121
01:03:06,400 --> 01:03:09,240
Fela had been in the United States.

1122
01:03:09,240 --> 01:03:11,920
He had been in Oakland, he'd seen
the rise of the Black Panthers

1123
01:03:11,920 --> 01:03:14,720
and others in Oakland.

1124
01:03:14,720 --> 01:03:17,760
So he was aware of
what was going on here.

1125
01:03:17,760 --> 01:03:21,840
But he intentionally went back to
Nigeria and decided,

1126
01:03:21,840 --> 01:03:24,280
"We're going to do it our own way."

1127
01:03:33,760 --> 01:03:36,560
At the end of the '60s and
the beginning of '70s,

1128
01:03:36,560 --> 01:03:40,240
he blew up in a whole new way when
he invented this style of music

1129
01:03:40,240 --> 01:03:41,960
called Afrobeat.

1130
01:03:47,000 --> 01:03:49,920
They called him the James Brown
of Africa.

1131
01:03:49,920 --> 01:03:55,440
He was definitely one of those
African musicians that played,

1132
01:03:55,440 --> 01:03:58,760
you know, RandB, but African style.

1133
01:03:58,760 --> 01:04:00,480
You know, just get a groove.

1134
01:04:02,240 --> 01:04:05,080
Fela did not adapt funk to Africa,

1135
01:04:05,080 --> 01:04:10,520
so much as he went back to the well
that funk originally grew from,

1136
01:04:10,520 --> 01:04:12,760
and started building his own
from there.

1137
01:04:17,120 --> 01:04:20,440
His secret weapon, Tony Allen,
the great drummer, who said,

1138
01:04:20,440 --> 01:04:22,640
"We don't have to play it like
the Americans.

1139
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:25,440
"We don't have to play those
American funk beats."

1140
01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:28,720
We can take that structure,
and make it more polyrhythmic

1141
01:04:28,720 --> 01:04:30,520
and really make it jump.

1142
01:04:32,560 --> 01:04:35,240
HE VOCALISES BEAT

1143
01:04:40,560 --> 01:04:45,680
When you are revolutionary,
and you talk the truth,

1144
01:04:45,680 --> 01:04:48,600
people will come and slap you down.

1145
01:04:50,520 --> 01:04:52,960
Then you talk the truth again,

1146
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:54,880
they lock you in jail.

1147
01:04:57,480 --> 01:05:01,800
Fela Kuti used his music as a
platform for political expression,

1148
01:05:01,800 --> 01:05:07,640
his social outrage at hypocrisy or
establishment doctrine in Nigeria.

1149
01:05:09,360 --> 01:05:13,560
Then when you are very strong
and you talk again,

1150
01:05:13,560 --> 01:05:15,080
they may kill you.

1151
01:05:15,080 --> 01:05:17,880
They may even burn your house down.

1152
01:05:17,880 --> 01:05:19,480
They want to see the police beating.

1153
01:05:19,480 --> 01:05:21,080
It's terrible. I'll show you.

1154
01:05:21,080 --> 01:05:22,400
You must see it.

1155
01:05:22,400 --> 01:05:24,240
They beat the shit out of me.

1156
01:05:24,240 --> 01:05:26,600
It was more than just a musical
statement.

1157
01:05:26,600 --> 01:05:28,720
It became a political statement.

1158
01:05:28,720 --> 01:05:33,360
And it was at a time when musicians
were realising that they

1159
01:05:33,360 --> 01:05:37,160
could include social statements
in their music

1160
01:05:37,160 --> 01:05:40,120
and have people dance
at the same time.

1161
01:05:45,000 --> 01:05:48,840
I realised funk music doesn't only
have to be about

1162
01:05:48,840 --> 01:05:51,160
get up off your ass and dance.

1163
01:05:56,080 --> 01:05:58,600
I guess Afrobeat could be viewed as
African funk.

1164
01:05:58,600 --> 01:06:01,280
But there were other African
musicians who were making

1165
01:06:01,280 --> 01:06:03,480
much more explicitly funky music.

1166
01:06:09,960 --> 01:06:13,040
At the beginning of the '70s,
we made a sort of anthem

1167
01:06:13,040 --> 01:06:17,880
for the Cameroonian soccer team in
the African Cup of Nations.

1168
01:06:20,960 --> 01:06:25,160
The side A was just a very
conventional, very straight march.

1169
01:06:28,920 --> 01:06:31,960
But the B side was initially
a filler record,

1170
01:06:31,960 --> 01:06:34,080
it was nothing that was meant to be
serious.

1171
01:06:34,080 --> 01:06:36,800
But Cameroon did not win the
African Cup of Nations,

1172
01:06:36,800 --> 01:06:40,400
and all the people of Cameroon
were so upset that they broke

1173
01:06:40,400 --> 01:06:42,480
the record and threw it away.

1174
01:06:42,480 --> 01:06:46,240
But somehow it started showing up in
record bins in New York,

1175
01:06:46,240 --> 01:06:50,280
just as the early disco scene was
starting to take off.

1176
01:06:50,280 --> 01:06:52,280
Some DJs heard it, and said,

1177
01:06:52,280 --> 01:06:54,120
"Oh, no, no, no, no.

1178
01:06:54,120 --> 01:06:56,840
"That's the hit right there.
Put that out."

1179
01:06:56,840 --> 01:06:58,840
And then that thing blew the whole
world up.

1180
01:06:58,840 --> 01:07:01,520

My mom my mom is so bad

1181
01:07:01,520 --> 01:07:04,560


1182
01:07:04,560 --> 01:07:07,800
What Soul Makossa showed was that
there was funk coming out of Africa

1183
01:07:07,800 --> 01:07:10,120
that could groove New York City.

1184
01:07:10,120 --> 01:07:12,720
It could groove LA, it could groove
London, it could groove Paris.

1185
01:07:18,080 --> 01:07:22,880
Manu Dibango spoke about playing
that song at the Apollo Theatre,

1186
01:07:22,880 --> 01:07:28,440
and seeing all these black Americans
just reaching across a time warp

1187
01:07:28,440 --> 01:07:33,200
and connecting with this mythical
Africa of their dreams.

1188
01:07:36,000 --> 01:07:38,880
There was a sense of recognition
that people didn't even know

1189
01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:40,720
how to put words to.

1190
01:07:40,720 --> 01:07:43,320
But they just knew that there was
something deeper.

1191
01:07:43,320 --> 01:07:46,000
There was something that was
spiritual about it.

1192
01:07:49,800 --> 01:07:54,200

I also made mistakes...

1193
01:07:54,200 --> 01:07:56,240
It was a beautiful cultural
conversation.

1194
01:07:56,240 --> 01:07:59,680
And that was really the first time
that African-Americans realised

1195
01:07:59,680 --> 01:08:03,280
that there was a modern contemporary
urban Africa that was producing

1196
01:08:03,280 --> 01:08:06,720
funky music. Because everyone looks
at Africa like it's traditional

1197
01:08:06,720 --> 01:08:09,160
and it's ancient.

1198
01:08:09,160 --> 01:08:14,320
But the funk cast African energies
in a modern light.

1199
01:08:19,040 --> 01:08:21,600
Funk got the whole world dancing.

1200
01:08:21,600 --> 01:08:23,960
You certainly couldn't contain it
culturally, and you couldn't

1201
01:08:23,960 --> 01:08:27,320
contain it geographically either,
so just get it out there.

1202
01:08:27,320 --> 01:08:31,000
Our ears are very broad, a lot
broader than any programmers

1203
01:08:31,000 --> 01:08:33,880
are ever willing to give listeners
credit for.

1204
01:08:33,880 --> 01:08:37,920
And you're accepting of anything
if it moves you.

1205
01:08:39,480 --> 01:08:42,480


1206
01:08:42,480 --> 01:08:44,160


1207
01:08:44,160 --> 01:08:47,120

the weather

1208
01:08:47,120 --> 01:08:50,600

so stick around...

1209
01:08:51,760 --> 01:08:53,920
Bennie and the Jets broke out of
Detroit.

1210
01:08:53,920 --> 01:08:57,280
I played it twice that night on
my show.

1211
01:08:57,280 --> 01:08:59,600
The next morning, the morning DJ is
calling me at home, waking me up,

1212
01:08:59,600 --> 01:09:01,440
"What is this song
you played last night?

1213
01:09:01,440 --> 01:09:03,360
"Ginny and The Nets or something?"

1214
01:09:03,360 --> 01:09:06,680
Elton is on the phone with the radio
station, calling from England.

1215
01:09:06,680 --> 01:09:08,960


1216
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:12,920


1217
01:09:12,920 --> 01:09:15,800
They said, "Listen, it's the number
one RandB record in Detroit."

1218
01:09:15,800 --> 01:09:18,560
And I went, "RandB? It's number one?"

1219
01:09:18,560 --> 01:09:20,160
And they said, "Yeah."

1220
01:09:20,160 --> 01:09:22,360
I said, "Well, I'm a white boy from
Pinner."

1221
01:09:22,360 --> 01:09:25,080

A mohair suit...

1222
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:27,280
And it's all because,
as I grew up as a kid,

1223
01:09:27,280 --> 01:09:29,440
I loved to listen to RandB records.

1224
01:09:29,440 --> 01:09:32,080
Everybody that came out of England
loved that kind of music.

1225
01:09:32,080 --> 01:09:34,440


1226
01:09:34,440 --> 01:09:37,480
If you're not from here, you can
just be like, "Well, I'm British.

1227
01:09:37,480 --> 01:09:39,000
"I'm from London.
I'm from Liverpool.

1228
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:41,040
"I just know I like this music."

1229
01:09:41,040 --> 01:09:45,320
And so that allows a point of entry
that wasn't available

1230
01:09:45,320 --> 01:09:48,800
because of how racism works in
this country.

1231
01:09:50,200 --> 01:09:52,920
He's, like, the biggest rock star
in the world, you know?

1232
01:09:52,920 --> 01:09:55,280
But it introduced him to a whole
other market.

1233
01:09:55,280 --> 01:09:57,000
All of a sudden, he's on Soul Train.

1234
01:09:57,000 --> 01:09:59,160


1235
01:10:00,720 --> 01:10:03,760
It was all about that groove being
on those hard beats.

1236
01:10:03,760 --> 01:10:06,360
HE VOCALISES BEAT

1237
01:10:06,360 --> 01:10:09,160
It's just dropping on these
hard beats.

1238
01:10:16,840 --> 01:10:19,440
How you going to be funking like
that over in Europe?

1239
01:10:19,440 --> 01:10:22,160
You ain't never been to the hood,
and you pull out that?

1240
01:10:22,160 --> 01:10:24,520
Man, black folk all over were loving
that record

1241
01:10:24,520 --> 01:10:28,120
when that record dropped,
because it was authentic.

1242
01:10:28,120 --> 01:10:31,400
A great welcome, gang, for the
gifted singer, composer,

1243
01:10:31,400 --> 01:10:34,480
producer, Mr David Bowie.

1244
01:10:34,480 --> 01:10:38,160
At that particular time, the music
that I was listening to

1245
01:10:38,160 --> 01:10:41,040
was definitely the soul music
that was really, really big

1246
01:10:41,040 --> 01:10:42,880
in the clubs in America.

1247
01:10:42,880 --> 01:10:44,440
Hi, David. Hello.

1248
01:10:45,760 --> 01:10:48,440
I kind of, you know, tried to
do my own interpretation

1249
01:10:48,440 --> 01:10:50,200
of that kind of music.

1250
01:10:50,200 --> 01:10:52,880
I met him, and we got along
really fine.

1251
01:10:52,880 --> 01:10:57,400
Here I was, a Puerto Rican with
a gigantic afro and dashikis.

1252
01:10:57,400 --> 01:11:02,000
And here he is
with REAL orange hair.

1253
01:11:02,000 --> 01:11:05,200
I told him, "Man, you are way too
thin. You look like hell.

1254
01:11:05,200 --> 01:11:07,880
"You need to come to my house
and get a real meal."

1255
01:11:07,880 --> 01:11:10,720
HE PLAYS RHYTHM PART

1256
01:11:10,720 --> 01:11:12,680
And so, we started developing
this song.

1257
01:11:15,240 --> 01:11:18,840
So, as you can see, that one...

1258
01:11:18,840 --> 01:11:21,440
One, two, three, and...

1259
01:11:21,440 --> 01:11:23,280
One.

1260
01:11:23,280 --> 01:11:26,160
HE PLAYS LEAD PART

1261
01:11:28,840 --> 01:11:30,400
Another part.

1262
01:11:30,400 --> 01:11:31,920
HE PLAYS RIFF

1263
01:11:34,480 --> 01:11:37,200
When you have those three guitar
parts answering each other,

1264
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:39,560
perfect syncopation.

1265
01:11:39,560 --> 01:11:40,880


1266
01:11:40,880 --> 01:11:44,240


1267
01:11:44,240 --> 01:11:45,960


1268
01:11:45,960 --> 01:11:49,200

swallow...

1269
01:11:49,200 --> 01:11:53,440
Fame is one of those songs that
becomes a hit with us first.

1270
01:11:53,440 --> 01:11:56,760
The black community makes it a hit,
and then it becomes a national

1271
01:11:56,760 --> 01:11:59,120
and international hit with
everybody.

1272
01:11:59,120 --> 01:12:01,880
But black people saw the funk,
they heard the funk in it,

1273
01:12:01,880 --> 01:12:04,320
and they made it a hit first.

1274
01:12:04,320 --> 01:12:05,920


1275
01:12:05,920 --> 01:12:09,320


1276
01:12:09,320 --> 01:12:13,160
His funky music was almost in
contrast to the way

1277
01:12:13,160 --> 01:12:17,320
that he presented himself, as this
duke-like figure,

1278
01:12:17,320 --> 01:12:19,480
wearing a suit, who's really stiff.

1279
01:12:19,480 --> 01:12:21,400
But the music is super funky.

1280
01:12:25,880 --> 01:12:27,920
He appeared on Soul Train,
and let me tell you,

1281
01:12:27,920 --> 01:12:29,840
he was, like, so nervous.

1282
01:12:29,840 --> 01:12:32,560
But he was, like, so happy.

1283
01:12:32,560 --> 01:12:34,760
He was in heaven.

1284
01:12:34,760 --> 01:12:38,480

I reject you first?

1285
01:12:38,480 --> 01:12:40,520
I think my stage movements was
kind of my version

1286
01:12:40,520 --> 01:12:42,280
of James Brown movement.

1287
01:12:42,280 --> 01:12:43,600


1288
01:12:43,600 --> 01:12:47,120

are hollow

1289
01:12:47,120 --> 01:12:48,760


1290
01:12:52,880 --> 01:12:54,320


1291
01:12:57,160 --> 01:12:59,600
We did what we call haul off-ing.

1292
01:12:59,600 --> 01:13:02,720
You ever hear people say,
"I'll haul off and do this."

1293
01:13:02,720 --> 01:13:06,720
We exaggerated to the point that
it was silly.

1294
01:13:06,720 --> 01:13:08,160
You know...

1295
01:13:08,160 --> 01:13:10,680


1296
01:13:10,680 --> 01:13:12,480


1297
01:13:12,480 --> 01:13:15,000
We got that from David Bowie.

1298
01:13:15,000 --> 01:13:16,960


1299
01:13:16,960 --> 01:13:19,120
I think it was in art school.

1300
01:13:19,120 --> 01:13:23,040
Somebody had a copy of the first
Funkadelic record,

1301
01:13:23,040 --> 01:13:25,800
Maggot Brain,

1302
01:13:25,800 --> 01:13:30,080
with the woman buried
in some pit or sand

1303
01:13:30,080 --> 01:13:32,360
with just her head sticking up.

1304
01:13:32,360 --> 01:13:35,520
And I thought, what? What is this?

1305
01:13:35,520 --> 01:13:36,920
What's going on here?

1306
01:13:43,480 --> 01:13:45,560
I saw them once live.

1307
01:13:49,920 --> 01:13:53,760
In the middle of the show,
there was a chant that went up.

1308
01:13:53,760 --> 01:13:57,160

Burning down the house...

1309
01:13:57,160 --> 01:13:59,120
They never used it in a song.

1310
01:14:01,160 --> 01:14:03,240
I thought, OK,
it's an amazing phrase.

1311
01:14:03,240 --> 01:14:05,320
It's kind of up for grabs then.

1312
01:14:05,320 --> 01:14:07,240


1313
01:14:09,360 --> 01:14:11,240


1314
01:14:11,240 --> 01:14:13,560


1315
01:14:13,560 --> 01:14:15,360


1316
01:14:15,360 --> 01:14:17,760


1317
01:14:19,200 --> 01:14:21,760
I felt like I could try and imitate
James Brown.

1318
01:14:21,760 --> 01:14:23,280
I could try and imitate Fela.

1319
01:14:23,280 --> 01:14:26,320
I can try and imitate
Kool and the Gang, or whoever.

1320
01:14:26,320 --> 01:14:30,320
And I did try and do that,
but I never got it quite right.

1321
01:14:32,080 --> 01:14:34,000


1322
01:14:36,000 --> 01:14:38,480
And I realised at some point,
by missing,

1323
01:14:38,480 --> 01:14:40,920
I ended up with something else.

1324
01:14:40,920 --> 01:14:43,120
I ended up with something that was
more mine.

1325
01:14:44,720 --> 01:14:47,960
It's got a funkiness, but it's not
like everybody else I've heard.

1326
01:14:49,600 --> 01:14:53,240
And it was a transformative
experience for me.

1327
01:14:53,240 --> 01:14:55,200


1328
01:14:56,880 --> 01:15:00,680

in a shotgun shack

1329
01:15:00,680 --> 01:15:04,480

part of the world.

1330
01:15:04,480 --> 01:15:07,600
When Once In A Lifetime started
getting played on Black radio

1331
01:15:07,600 --> 01:15:10,640
and in dance clubs,
it was like, phew...

1332
01:15:10,640 --> 01:15:12,480
That's validation.

1333
01:15:12,480 --> 01:15:16,120

Let the water hold me down

1334
01:15:16,120 --> 01:15:19,800

Water flowing underground

1335
01:15:19,800 --> 01:15:21,760


1336
01:15:21,760 --> 01:15:23,920
At the same time, the rock stations
wouldn't play it.

1337
01:15:23,920 --> 01:15:25,720
They said, "This is too funky.

1338
01:15:25,720 --> 01:15:27,880
"We don't play that kind of stuff."

1339
01:15:27,880 --> 01:15:29,480


1340
01:15:29,480 --> 01:15:32,800


1341
01:15:32,800 --> 01:15:37,840
It speaks to the open-mindedness of
the larger musical community

1342
01:15:37,840 --> 01:15:40,200
that we're not going to draw
the kind of lines

1343
01:15:40,200 --> 01:15:41,760
that had been drawn for us.

1344
01:15:41,760 --> 01:15:43,800


1345
01:15:48,640 --> 01:15:51,960
This was a kind of healing process
for me.

1346
01:15:51,960 --> 01:15:55,400
This was a way to become part of
a community.

1347
01:15:55,400 --> 01:15:58,960

Into the silent water

1348
01:15:58,960 --> 01:16:00,720


1349
01:16:00,720 --> 01:16:02,200
DAVID: It was spiritual, in a way.

1350
01:16:02,200 --> 01:16:04,560
I mean, it was very close to a
church experience.

1351
01:16:06,280 --> 01:16:07,640
It was transcendent.

1352
01:16:07,640 --> 01:16:09,200


1353
01:16:09,200 --> 01:16:11,000


1354
01:16:11,000 --> 01:16:24,880


1355
01:16:24,880 --> 01:16:27,040


1356
01:16:32,360 --> 01:16:35,040
Funk was the ideal foundation for
hip-hop, right?

1357
01:16:35,040 --> 01:16:36,960
Cos it was this continuous groove.

1358
01:16:36,960 --> 01:16:38,760
It was just a natural marriage.

1359
01:16:38,760 --> 01:16:42,200
You can even narrow it down to
one song in particular,

1360
01:16:42,200 --> 01:16:44,320
James Brown's Funky Drummer.

1361
01:16:44,320 --> 01:16:48,560
It's one of the most sampled songs
in hip-hop to this day.

1362
01:16:48,560 --> 01:16:51,400
"One, two, three, four, hit it."

1363
01:16:51,400 --> 01:16:53,400
HE VOCALISES BEAT

1364
01:16:56,360 --> 01:16:58,320

the rhyme I just made

1365
01:16:58,320 --> 01:17:00,680

the night fade...

1366
01:17:00,680 --> 01:17:02,840
James Brown is such a main staple of
hip-hop,

1367
01:17:02,840 --> 01:17:04,640
because that's where we came from.

1368
01:17:04,640 --> 01:17:07,080


1369
01:17:07,080 --> 01:17:09,480

I'm lowering my level...

1370
01:17:09,480 --> 01:17:11,600


1371
01:17:11,600 --> 01:17:14,040


1372
01:17:14,040 --> 01:17:17,600
Back in the '70s, the Nixon
administration pulled away

1373
01:17:17,600 --> 01:17:20,640
art and public school funding.

1374
01:17:20,640 --> 01:17:23,120
Many a hip-hop pioneer has come
to me and says,

1375
01:17:23,120 --> 01:17:26,000
"Yeah, man, I wanted to always be
a saxophone player."

1376
01:17:26,000 --> 01:17:28,880
There's, like, one sax,
you know what I'm saying?

1377
01:17:28,880 --> 01:17:30,880
So, it was just so limited.

1378
01:17:30,880 --> 01:17:33,880
And some schools, they just didn't
have that available.

1379
01:17:36,960 --> 01:17:39,000

a grudge

1380
01:17:39,000 --> 01:17:41,520

needle don't budge...

1381
01:17:41,520 --> 01:17:44,680
Suddenly, the turntable becomes
an instrument.

1382
01:17:47,400 --> 01:17:49,800
You know, I'm a street cat,
you know what I'm saying?

1383
01:17:49,800 --> 01:17:52,000
With turntables, using what I had.

1384
01:17:52,000 --> 01:17:53,960
That was the hip-hop part of it.

1385
01:17:53,960 --> 01:17:55,440
I didn't have a band.

1386
01:17:57,320 --> 01:18:00,560
Funk is the DNA, straight DNA,
for hip-hop.

1387
01:18:00,560 --> 01:18:02,640


1388
01:18:02,640 --> 01:18:05,000


1389
01:18:05,000 --> 01:18:06,600


1390
01:18:06,600 --> 01:18:08,720
Sample the bass, sample the drums.

1391
01:18:13,440 --> 01:18:15,600
That becomes the new thing.

1392
01:18:20,080 --> 01:18:24,000
When I made 3 Feet High and Rising,
I mean, all I listened to

1393
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:25,880
was Parliament-Funkadelic.

1394
01:18:30,760 --> 01:18:34,720
My idea was to take that vibe
and that feeling

1395
01:18:34,720 --> 01:18:37,640
that I got from P-Funk...

1396
01:18:37,640 --> 01:18:39,680
..to hip-hop.

1397
01:18:41,560 --> 01:18:43,400


1398
01:18:43,400 --> 01:18:45,680


1399
01:18:45,680 --> 01:18:49,680

or is it just my De La song?

1400
01:18:49,680 --> 01:18:53,120
When hip-hop come along, I had no
idea they was going to make it

1401
01:18:53,120 --> 01:18:55,800
a legitimate thing...

1402
01:18:55,800 --> 01:18:58,640
..till De La Soul showed up and
paid us for it.

1403
01:18:58,640 --> 01:19:00,320


1404
01:19:01,920 --> 01:19:04,560


1405
01:19:04,560 --> 01:19:07,000
Without funk,
there would be no hip-hop.

1406
01:19:07,000 --> 01:19:09,880
If you took funk away from hip-hop,

1407
01:19:09,880 --> 01:19:12,280
there clearly would be no hip-hop.

1408
01:19:12,280 --> 01:19:14,280
I mean, to me, it's as simple
as that.

1409
01:19:19,360 --> 01:19:21,160
Funk is always evolving.

1410
01:19:21,160 --> 01:19:23,840
It's almost like an organism,
you know what I'm saying?

1411
01:19:23,840 --> 01:19:26,480
It goes from one thing to the next
thing, to the next thing,

1412
01:19:26,480 --> 01:19:28,080
to the next thing.

1413
01:19:28,080 --> 01:19:29,880
It is not going anywhere.

1414
01:19:29,880 --> 01:19:32,840
It will always be,
because it's in our soul.

1415
01:19:38,840 --> 01:19:41,840
Funk is able to come in and say,

1416
01:19:41,840 --> 01:19:44,320
"Listen to the music
and get into a groove.

1417
01:19:47,120 --> 01:19:48,560
"It's OK to dance.

1418
01:19:48,560 --> 01:19:50,440
"Dance the way you choose to dance."

1419
01:19:52,560 --> 01:19:54,640
Free your mind,
your ass will follow.

1420
01:19:59,200 --> 01:20:01,960
Funk said that it doesn't matter
what dance you're doing,

1421
01:20:01,960 --> 01:20:03,640
but you better do one.

1422
01:20:05,120 --> 01:20:07,400
You better get down,
you better move.

1423
01:20:15,600 --> 01:20:19,480
If you've done your best,
you can literally leave it alone.

1424
01:20:19,480 --> 01:20:21,960
You've done all that's required
of you.

1425
01:20:21,960 --> 01:20:24,320
So, do the best you can,
and then funk it.

1426
01:20:24,320 --> 01:20:26,840


1427
01:20:26,840 --> 01:20:28,840


1428
01:20:28,840 --> 01:20:31,120


1429
01:20:31,120 --> 01:20:33,200


1430
01:20:59,080 --> 01:21:00,560


1431
01:21:00,560 --> 01:21:02,520