The Green-Eyed Bandit

Even a hot shower can't keep the funk off of Erick Sermon.

(A recent post on this blog got me thinking about some things. Here is one. More about hip-hop to come.) 

Hip-hop is an interesting genre of music. Like jazz and rock-n-roll, it is a purely American art form. Style has ALWAYS been a very important part of the culture. It's style, style, style! Early hip-hop groups performed in clothing that would not have caught any one's eye. But, by the late 1970's to early 1980's, groups like Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five and Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force were wearing some rather flamboyant get-ups. A lot of leather. A lot of sparkly things. A lot of feathers. It wasn't until Run DMC came along that the street style became prevalent.

The clothes bring me to this: funk. Those early acts wore those shiny get-ups as an ode to their funk roots. Look at pictures of groups like the Soulsonic Force, then look at Parliament Funkadelic. It's the same thing. It's a show. It's entertainment. It's a costume. Now, fast forward to Andre 3000's journey into big black-women-wig androgyny. Again, it's just the funk.

Hey, Ya.

Hip-hop music has always been a mixture (salad bowl, chili, or alloy?) of different genres. It pulls and celebrates music from everywhere. 1970's DJ's competed against each other by finding obscure breaks from different records from all over the world. All through hip-hop's 40 year history, DJ's and producers have culled the planet's records to find that special break, snare, or weird sound that no one else has found. But, there are a two genres that have been a part of hip-hop music from the start: soul and funk. This is about funk.

My life with hip-hop goes back to Kurtis Blow's ode to basketball in 1984. I became infatuated in 1990*, so I have a great deal of background knowledge on the subject. Most people credit Dr. Dre's The Chronic with ushering in the funk-dominated hip-hop sound. There is truth to that, but he is not responsible for the funk in hip-hop.

One of the most important people in hip-hop history is Erick Sermon. He and Parrish Smith made dollars with phenomenal group EPMD. As a producer, he brought funk heavy samples to the genre like never before. The Green-Eyed Bandit has produced for artist like Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Method Man, The Lost Boyz, Ludacris, and Heavy D & The Boyz. He is partly responsible for for the careers of DAS EFX, Redman (a long time collaborator) and Keith Murray.

After The Chronic came out in late 1992, I saw Erick Sermon on TV (on BET's Rap City, I think), talking about Dr. Dre and his monumental album. I remember Sermon talking about how he had always been funky, but that he had never heard anyone in hip-hop do just pure funk like Dr. Dre. It was almost as if Dre had broken a rule, or to put it a better way, proved that there wasn't a rule.

At the risk of making this blog a collection of lists, I have provided some examples of funk-heavy bangers from Erick Sermon. Many pre-date Dr. Dre's the Chronic. They are guttural. They are neck breaking. The make you say, "God damn!!!"

They are funk.

In a later post, I will discuss the era of hip-hop that was most pivotal in the lives of 30-somethings: 1993/1994. Stay tuned...

*: Because of things like: LL Cool J, Digital Underground, Eric B & Rakim, Salt-N-Peppa, Queen Latifah, D-Nice's "Call Me D-Nice", Candyman's "Knockin Boots", the movie House Party, The FreshPrince of Bel Air, MC Hammer, and, yes, Vanilla Ice (I was 10, OK?)