At Funk Deli, we’re always scouring through this crazy thing called the Internet to find nuggets of funk to pass on to our loyal readers. We came across a cash-money blog today that serves up hip hop jams and other goodies the way we like it — funky.
Do yourself a favor and check out The Essential Elements. The site offers so much goodness, we had to add it to our blogroll immediately.
This site was put together to teach people about the depth and range of all things funky. In the following excerpts from the BBC documentary series Soul Deep: The History of Black Popular Music, you’ll learn about the origins of funk and how it ties into various other strains of music.
Soul Deep: The History of Black Popular Music was a six-part BBC music documentary series produced in 2005.
Here’s the episode breakdown:
1. The Birth Of Soul
2. The Gospel Highway
3. The Sound Of Young America
4. Southern Soul
5. Ain’t It Funky
6. From Ghetto to Fabulous
Now sit back and enjoy Episode 5 - Ain’t It Funky.
Listen to James Brown, George Clinton, The Temptations and others explain how passionate, honest and raw funky music revolutionized an entire decade. This one-hour installment of Soul Deep is broken into eight, easily consumable YouTube clips.
After checking out the “Ashley’s Roachclip” post on the awesome Funky16Corners blog, we saw that Larry put up a list of songs that sampled the funky track from the Soul Searchers. Larry pulled this list from The-Breaks.com.
So we went to check out the site, and there’s a ton of great information compiled on sampling from all different types of music. The site divides sample lists by genre and artist, and there’s also a search function that makes it’s easy to find out who took what from whom.
“The Breaks”
Chemical Brothers’s “It Began in Africa”
De la Soul’s “Brakes”
DJ Shadow’s “Basic Mega-Mix”
KRS-One’s “MC’s Act Like They Don’t Know”
Not Enough ft Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks”
Poison Clan’s “Rough Nigga Gets Busy”
T La Rock ft Jazzy Jay’s “It’s Yours”
So the next time you want to track the journey of a sample, visit The-Breaks.com and find out quickly where samples originated and where they turned up.
On a side note, my buddy Saif still owes me money for stepping on my Kurtis Blow 12-inch and busting to pieces my copy of “The Breaks.” I haven’t forgotten bro…
When you hear funky music that makes you happy, all you want to is capture it, keep it and save for a future good time. The right groove. A head-bobbin’ beat. These things can change your outlook on life within seconds. Seriously, you could be all glum and down and then boom — what the hell was that break I just heard?
We’ve all been there.
After the fixation of a sampled break gets into your head, it can cause some serious damage. You start digging through your own music memory crates trying to find a tune that’ll give context to the loop in your dome. Once you identify where the break comes from, a full-on investigation is launched to find out the origins of the original track.
Tracking down oft-sampled funky breaks is fun stuff. You get to take a chaotic musical trip through pop, hip hop, dance music, and of course, seriously funky music. It’s always fulfilling when you can track down the migrations of a break and experience the full richness of the original context. It’s like books and movies — the OG track is always better.
Listen to this funktastic, soulful jazzy journey. About three-and-a-half seconds in, you’ll hear a 20-second break that’ll start the mental digging process off immediately. You’ll be reaching for tracks you can’t even remember to put a mental tag on the break that’s blaring in your internal speakers.
If you want a complete answer to the question - what the hell was that break I just heard? - scroll down on the link above and read the full Funky16Corners post on Ashley’s Roachclip - the Soul Searchers’ frequently sampled track. Funky16Corners is as good as it gets, and this post was certainly a treat.
So check out the track and be sure to read Larry’s take on this classic funky break.
Yes Yes Y’All - The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade is a compilation of first-hand accounts that chronicle the early development of hip hop. Pulling quotes from over a hundred rappers, DJs, producers, dancers and artists, this book pulls together a variety of perspectives to create a layered musical narrative that’s impossible to put down.
The collection of takes contained in this book is based on the “Hip-Hop Nation” exhibit at Seattle’s Experience Music Project. Anyone who wants to learn about how hip hop grew from an underground party scene in New York to a worldwide music phenomenon should pick this book up.
Once you start reading the stories compiled by Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn and told by Russell Simmons, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and others, you’ll be hooked. It’s a quick, fascinating read that shouldn’t be missed.
When it comes to breakin’ things down on the dance floor, some people are naturally funky. Other people need some help. If you’re dance moves could use a little guidance, here’s a free dance lesson from the Godfather of Soul himself…
They didn’t call him the Hardest Working Man in Show Business for nothing. Now get out there and practice your robot. The next time you’re at the club or at a party, you can break out your new moves and have a funky good time.
Thanks Mood Mosaic for pointing out this sick video clip.
Holiday cheers to all. We’re nearing the end of our Disco December month, and it’s time to throw down a music history post to explain how disco gave birth to house music.
Here it goes…
So a gay guy and a black dude walk into a warehouse….just kidding! Well, actually that’s not too far off. Here’s the short version.
Soon after Disco Demolition Night (when white kids killed disco at a White Sox game), Chicago started developing a new, electronic, drum-machine happy sound.
Frankie Kunckles brought his gay-friendly crate of thumping disco tracks to Chicago and the kids got into it. Stuff like “Let No Man Put Asunder” from First Choice (off the Salsoul disco label) rocked the Warehouse in 1983.
Soulful, bangin’ disco tracks collided with wtf-sounding beats from Jesse Saunders, Farley Jackmaster Funk and a bunch of other DJs, remixers and record producer types in Chicago.
All the kids wanted to buy the records that were playing at the Warehouse in Chicago, and after some abbreviating –- the house music label was born.
In Detroit, Juan Atkins (/Cybotron), Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson originated a techno touch alongside the Chicago house music sound.
Look — there’s a video on it – Pump Up the Volume- a documentary that outlines the history of house music’s muddied origins. From swinging disco tracks to squelching experimental knob-turning to the base kick of techno’s first producers, this three-part video has it all. Special thanks to the fine people at ToTheDisco.com for pointing this vid out. Pump Up The Volume - History of House Music - Part 1
In Part 2, you can learn about how Brits got hold of the stuff and used their Northern Soul infrastructure and connections in Ibiza to club the music out to the Euro masses. Detroit’s take on house also gets attention.
Part 3 takes you through some of the more recent house music scenes, you know — all that splinter faction definition label stuff. Anything Goldie says is hilarious, and Armand Van Helden seems like a pretty chill dude.
Sure, these Google vides don’t offer the best presentation. And yeah, some of the music you’ll hear is a bit wack, but this documentary from 2001 is a bridge that connects the house music of today to the disco classics of yesteryear.
Alrighty Funk Deli fanatics, it’s time to get back to this whole Disco December thing. Today we’re gonna take a look at one of the most important and influential record producers of the disco era. Tom Moulton is a legend. The man is responsible for remixes, 12-inch singles and the ever-popular disco break phenomenon. A true audiophile and lover of funky music, Tom Moulton created his own brand of music production techniques. Any record that bears the label “A Tom Moulton Mix” is gonna be sick. It’s that simple.
When it comes to extending breaks, tweaking frequencies and building a bigger, better sound for disco, Moulton is a true wizard. The guy’s touched up 1000s of records in his day and he’s produced some seriously upbeat and funky disco tracks. From his work at the Salsoul disco label with bands like Instant Funk, First Choice, Double Exposure and O.R.S., to his classic remixes of B.T. Express and MFSB and The Andera True Connection, Moulton is a true disco propagandist. He spread the good word about disco before anyone knew what the genre was suppossed to be. Although he was never an actual DJ, Moulton is perhaps the most influential music producer in the history of disco music. Read the rest…
November’s done kids, and it’s time to get you fired up for the happy vibes of the holidays. Funk Deli’s rolling out a new theme for the entire month. Disco December has officially begun.
For all you funksters out there wondering if Disco December will mean less funky stuff on this site — think again. We serve up the funk on a daily basis, and that’s not gonna change. Over the next month, you’ll enjoy funky slices of disco everything – disco mixes, artists, disco labels, rare disco finds, books, disco history lessons, events, disco décor — you name it. Read the rest…
Flea Market Funk is a blog operated by DJ Prestige. We stumbled upon this blog while looking for funky items to share with you. If you love diggin’ through crates of used records hunting for lost jams, forgotten 45s and funky hand-me-downs, you should certainly check this site out.
On his blog, DJ Prestige shares quality mixes, adventure stories from the front lines and lists of the treasured wax that he’s recently uncovered. DJ Prestige may look like Fidel Castro on acid, but he knows his funk. The purpose of his blog is to “open some people’s eyes to some records they otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to.” Read the rest…
