so is there such a thing as Funk Hip Hop Fusion?

Astasheiks said:

so is there such a thing as Funk Hip Hop Fusion?

Oh c'mon, before Prince there'd been a guy called Jimi Hendrix, and a band named Funkadelic, and various funk bands had given a shot at rock on songs here and there, just as much as rock bands had given a shot at funk on a few songs here and there, all before Prince tried it. Prince has many merits but fusing rock and funk? No way!

As for hip-hop and funk fusion, there have been countless songs and albums where both genres crossed-over, they're essentially 2 branches from the same tree anyway.

The first few albums by Kurtis Blow are basically just a guy rapping over classic late 70's funk music (and they're great party albums!).

In the 90's various attempts have been made to mix funk, hip-hop, jazz and soul to various degrees. Take a listen to albums by US3, Buckshot Le Fonque, Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Foley, as well as Miles Davis' Doo Bop, Guru's Jazzmatazz series, Me'Shell Ndegeocello's first 2 albums, George Clinton's The Cinderella Theory, Hey Man... Smell My Finger, Dope Dogs and TAPOAFOM, and (last but not least) Prince's own Gold Nigga and Carmen Electra!

More recently you may enjoy the album Hippology by Visioneer and some songs by Avenue D and Nam:Live.

[Edited 12/18/13 7:40am]

Thank U for the In Dept Response!

Yeah George Clinton (Funkadelic and Parliament) is highly responsible for that. George Clinton with his bands orchestrated that. Not only that but he was one of the first to make the electronic machine bass very popular, which became a staple that led the way uban funk sounded and soon to follow modern dance music. Flash Light by Parliament being a big example, just listen to the bass line on that song far ahead of its time. From there spawned the Rick James, Prince, and beyond.

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George Clintons' Computer Games album practically created hip hop and modern "urban sound". Mid 80's hip hop came around and they mostly sampled and mixed songs. George Clintons songs being heavily sampled. That whole West Coast G-Funk sound came from GC's P-Funk (short for Parliament-Funkadelic), all that music people got famous from like Dr. Dre was from sampling GC's works (which Dr. Dre admits).

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There is such thing as Funk Hip Hop fusion, its George Clintons late early 90's work. Which by then his music had been sampled so much sadly he felt he had no choice but to join the hip-hop scene more heavily.

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George Clinton is a man whos criminally underrated despite his enormous influence. His groups and him have so many consistently good high rated albums of any artist I ever have seen, yet not much is heard.

[Edited 12/18/13 9:19am]

I thought Sly & The Family Stone was credited with that...

By the way, you know how there is speed metal?...Is there speed funk?

Byron said:

I thought Sly & The Family Stone was credited with that...

By the way, you know how there is speed metal?...Is there speed funk?

Funk has a tendency to stop being funky with faster tempos. Some of Prince's stuff is about as fast as it's going to get for funk.

If the original poster meant that Prince was the first to fuse rock and funk--as has been pointed out, that's far from the case. I would say that when Prince put the two together he did it (most of the time) in different ways than Funkadelic or other predecessors did. Part of that probably has to do with fusing different forms of rock and funk than the others did--he's a generation younger, and not only had funk changed, but so had rock.

Rock Funkadelic is more rock than rock Prince, by the way.

And, obviously, more funk.

Prince is (I've said it before and I'll say it again) pop--and that's probably the difference. That's there along with the funk and the rock.

But I think he deserves credit for fusing things in a different, and ultimately unique way.

G-FUNK

In the late 70s early 80s American music had separated into 2 very distinct markets (were they ever unified?) - disco/soul (black music) and rock/pop (white music). what prince did (by choice or accident - probably a bit of both) was to combine/merge/overlap these genres (with a pop sensibility) yes P-funk and Jimi had done the rock thing before but not in such a radio friendly cross-market way. Other black artists quickly followed (MJ, Tina Turner etc) and went rock/pop, While white rock/pop artists went a bit soul/funk and started to use funky synths and drum machines (Van Halen, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Peter Gabriel, Bowie etc).

So in conclusion, Prince didn't invent Funk-Rock but he made it popular. So he deserves some level of credit.

novabrkr said:

Byron said:

I thought Sly & The Family Stone was credited with that...

By the way, you know how there is speed metal?...Is there speed funk?

Funk has a tendency to stop being funky with faster tempos. Some of Prince's stuff is about as fast as it's going to get for funk.

VERY good point ...one I had not thought of lol

Funky Nassau is fast - couldn't be any funkier.

Mother Popcorn - ditto

Funky Charge - ditto

i could go on...

Byron said:

novabrkr said:

Funk has a tendency to stop being funky with faster tempos. Some of Prince's stuff is about as fast as it's going to get for funk.

VERY good point ...one I had not thought of lol

It is a good point.

Dandroppedadime said:

Funky Nassau is fast - couldn't be any funkier.

Mother Popcorn - ditto

Funky Charge - ditto

i could go on...

Those aren't that fast...

Think Bombs Over Bagdad.