P-Funk Take Flight With Outkast, Prince, ODB, Chili Peppers On Board

Galaxy of stars pay tribute to pioneering funkateers on new album, TV special.

by Jon Wiederhorn
George Clinton, the galactic arbiter of all that is funky, has been tearing roofs off with various permutations of his Parliament/ Funkadelic collective since the late 1960s. Over time, he has watched jazz, rock and alternative stylists absorb his teachings. But over the past few years he has become increasingly convinced that hip-hop artists are most qualified to pass the torch of funk to the next generation. That's why he recruited some of the top rappers in the game to contribute to a forthcoming album and TV special.

Outkast, Busta Rhymes, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Scarface, Too Short, JT Money and Jamal are some of the rappers who will lend a hand to the forthcoming P-Funk Allstars album, H.L.D.Y.H.T.B.B.Y.A. (How Late Do You Have to Be Before You're Absent). The LP is scheduled for release on Clinton's C-Conspiracy label in October and will include songs like "Snot and Booger" and "Yesterday Ja Vu." Rockers slated to contribute are Tommy Lee and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis and Flea; P-Funk alums like bassist Bootsy Collins, keyboardist Bernie Worrell and guitarist Michael Hampton are on board as well.

Outkast, Busta Rhymes, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Scarface, Too Short, JT Money and Jamal are some of the rappers who will lend a hand to the forthcoming P-Funk Allstars album, H.L.D.Y.H.T.B.B.Y.A. (How Late Do You Have to Be Before You're Absent). The LP is scheduled for release on Clinton's C-Conspiracy label in October and will include songs like "Snot and Booger" and "Yesterday Ja Vu." Rockers slated to contribute are Tommy Lee and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis and Flea; P-Funk alums like bassist Bootsy Collins, keyboardist Bernie Worrell and guitarist Michael Hampton are on board as well.

Clinton's relevance to hip-hop isn't just second-hand. He hung out in a Detroit studio with Eminem when the rapper was 15, and was at Dallas Austin's place in Atlanta when Goodie Mob and Outkast were recording in the early '90s. "When Outkast and Goodie Mob started happening, it was like watching my kids make it," Clinton said.

The last George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars album was 1996's T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership). Since then, the group has toured regularly with various members, but legal disputes with Mammoth, their former label, caused them to remain in recording limbo for years. This month, the band was finally granted legal permission to release new material, a representative from Clinton's management said. Some of the songs on H.L.D.Y.H.T.B.B.Y.A. were recorded for an album Mammoth never released, and the rest were done over the last few years.

According to Clinton, one of the sessions' most amusing moments came when ODB contributed to a song that also features Busta Rhymes (Clinton declined to reveal the song's name). "ODB is clever like Sly Stone," he laughed. "He did his thing, and everybody was waiting for him , and he said, 'OK, I'll be right back.' He had wrote the words down on this wrinkled piece of paper. So, when he didn't come back, I picked up the paper — and he had said everything that was written on there." Clinton laughed, and continued, "He was so slick. He was finished and he knew he was finished. He wasn't planning on coming back."

But Clinton said his musical highlight was working with Prince on a track called "(Brother Can You) Pare a Dime?" Even though the pair didn't work in the same studio — they collaborated by phone and mail — Clinton said they vibed as if they were together. "We really connected on that one," he enthused. "It was the funkiest thing I ever heard him play. He took the stuff I had 'P'd on, and then he 'P'd on it, and it was spectacular."

On October 30 and 31, a galaxy of P-Funk alums — including Clinton, Collins, Worrell, Hampton, horn player Maceo Parker and others who have beamed in and out of the ranks over the years — will gather in Los Angeles to record a two-hour TV special called "P-Funk Nation Celebration: History of Parliament/ Funkadelic and Influences."

For the show, the funkmasters will again be surrounded by stars. Outkast, Prince, Lenny Kravitz, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Macy Gray, Snoop Dogg and Raphael Saadiq have already signed on to join the band for Parliament/ Funkadelic classics like "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker"), "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" and "Dr. Funkenstein." Other artists who agreed verbally but haven't yet signed contracts include Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Smokey Robinson, and Rolling Stones guitarists Ron Wood and Keith Richards, Clinton said. Clinton's management is currently in negotiations with several networks to air the program, which will be directed by Reggie Hudlin, who wrote and directed "House Party." "He said he went to Harvard just to learn how to do movies so he could actually film the P-Funk story," Clinton said. "We met him in the '80s, and we've been working on getting something like this together with him ever since."

After the TV special, Parliament/ Funkadelic will embark on a global trek they're calling the Final Landing of the Mothership Tour. It will be their first tour in 18 years to feature many of the original members, but don't call it a reunion. "This is something we planned to do a long time ago because of planned obsolescence," Clinton said. "We all wanted to go out and do other things, but the idea was always to do Parliament/ Funkadelic again together at some point. Now, the thing is to be able to put the show on with the technology of today and do all the songs of then and some of the songs we've had since then, and show people that it's all part of the Mothership story."

Clinton also said that, despite the tour's title, it won't be the last. "This is actually the beginning," he said. "All the rest of it has been rehearsals."

This report is from MTV News.

http://www.vh1.com/artist...tars.jhtml

Continuing the tradition of funk songs having stupid titles.

Finally...
This was planned like 4 years ago or so (if not more...)

Neversin.

Neversin said:

well dont get too excited, someone just pointed out to me that this article was dated march 2004, so...oh well

Oh dear God, why with the rappers? All they do is mess up a perfectly good song with their tiresome jive-talkin' drivel.

SquarePeg said:

Ah well... This is becoming like the ever tired "Prince will play at Glastonbury *enter any year*"

Neversin.

According to New Funk Times, George Clinton will be playing live on Oct.30th in Milwaukee, Wi than on to Fargo,ND on 11/02/04..

I was getting excited until I saw the bit about the article date

Anyway, surely Prince will be out trick or treat'n on October 31st anyway ?

NouveauDance said:

hey! rappers aren't totally bad! besides having macy gray is wayyyyy worse!
i hope this is 4real though...

Gav said:

Exactly, I was sure I read exactly the same article several months ago....

NouveauDance said:

Are you suggesting that "...the only good rapper is one who's Dead... On it?"



[Edited 10/27/04 14:56pm]

misty2k said:

I'm not suggesting, I'm stating it black and white.

Sure some 80s rap was cool, but come on, how can a genre stay so stagnant and tiresome - PLEASE get over rap as the dominant force in Black American pop music, move on!

NouveauDance said:

no only the drunk and high ones hint hint ODB.but how do they spoil it?

OdysseyMiles said:

Actually Yesterday Ja Vu is vry good and subtile. Yesterday means what you understand but Day Ja Vu would mean "already seen" in french. Actually it would be "deja vu" but the prononciation is the same as day Ja Vu. So it makes something like:
Yesterday-Already-seen.
It makes more sense than it seems at first sigth.
Someone having something with "snot and Booger" ?
(Actually I even understand none of these words... P
)

The statement that have regarding the rap situation (which many of u may say "what the f@$#?!!") is that like hip-hop, not rap. Hip-hop 2 me is where the rhymes r actually accompanied by real music ( meaning real grooves, not 2 repetitive,etc). Not necessarily real instruments, but by people who really respect the art form that is music. 4 example, real hip-hop artists in my opinion r the Roots, Common, Outkast ( if just don't call them simply music), Black Star, and all of the cool old school (D.M.C, Leaders of the New School, Public Enemy, Kurtis Blow,etc). Many of U may disagree with me, but this is the state of mind have picked up in my very musical life.

misty2k said:

Funny.

God, I love... hate... that song!

Hello, just wanted to know which is the correct date Oct.30 or 31st? what time will it air and what channel? It wasn't clear on the post.

I forgot where I saw this I think it was part of prince's musicology tour info but this was announced prince gig and its taking place sometime this week here in Los Angeles.

Daddypop

Maybe Prince will do a TV special someday soon--on HBO or Showtime esp--that will retire the hits forever. I'd like to see really get the attention the tour and concert deserved....(I know HBO offered him a show, but they had too many restrictions- he'll just have to negotiate with them). Who knows?
C'mon P!

Yea, when will this air and what channel????

PhilG said:

yes actually i was going to go see the funk king this weekend but at the last minute decided that 30 dollars was too much too see his ass lol. If P was there tho man..... enuf said im goin to bed

Musicology2004 said:

Go see him $30,- is absolutely worth it.
George is not getting younger and you can notice that in his shows, but he's still able to get the roof of the MF

Has anyone noticed that Tommy Lee will contribute to the album?

DavidEye said:

Yeah he's gonna do a reworking of a JB's classic.


It's gonna be called, "Rabbits in the Lee Patch"

If this is happening, no one in the P-Funk family or band knows anything about it. Next year is the 30'th aniversary of the landing of the MOTHERSHIP. Maybe somethang will happen then, but don't make any plans on traveling to LA on Sunday.

NouveauDance said:

Hate to say it, but rap has been around for a long time and will be a part of music history long after we're gone!

Geritzla said:

Very true. It's still majorly shit though.

Taureau said:

Very true.

God... I hope not! I plan on being around for a while!

I hate to break it to you guys but 'ol George will be here in my city on Oct 30th.