Psychedelic funk

Following the late 1960s work of Jimi Hendrix, the music and drug culture of psychedelia began to have a widespread impact on African American soul and funk musicians.[5] Black funk artists such as Sly and the Family Stone borrowed techniques from psychedelic rock music, including wah pedals, fuzz boxes, echo chambers, and vocal distorters.[3] Producer Norman Whitfield would draw on this sound on popular Motown recordings such as The Temptations' "Cloud Nine" and Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."[4] In 1970, Hendrix formed the short-lived trio Band of Gypsys, described as "ground zero" for psychedelic funk.[6] By the early 1970s, the main elements of psychedelic funk were adopted as signifiers of "urban blackness" and incorporated into blaxploitation films.[1]

In the 1970s, groups such as Parliament-Funkadelic developed this sensibility, employing synthesizers and acid rock-oriented guitar work into open-ended funk jams.[4][3] Led by George Clinton, P-Funk would shift the genre away from song-form and toward groove and texture, emphasizing the abject elements of psychedelia in contrast to earlier artists, according to theorist Kodwo Eshun.[1] The 1970s group War (with singer Eric Burdon) recorded in a psychedelic funk-rock style featuring prominent rhythm and horn sections, bass lines, and drum breaks, as well as lyrics protesting racism and police brutality.[7] The 1974 album Inspiration Information by Shuggie Otis explored psychedelic funk and later received acclaim when it was reissued by David Byrne's Luaka Bop label.[8]

West African groups such as Blo and Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou played forms of psychedelic funk in the mid 1970s, both drawing on the Afrobeat of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti.[9][10] A collection of 1970s psychedelic funk recordings from Ghana and Togo was released in 2010 as Afro-Beat Airways: West African Shock Waves by the Analog Africa label.[11] Music from Nigeria's 1970s psychedelic funk scene was later documented on the compilation Wake Up You! The Rise & Fall of Nigerian Rock 1972-1977, released in 2016.[12]

In the early 1970s, jazz artists such as Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock combined elements of psychedelic funk with urban jazz to pioneer jazz fusion.[13][14] New wave band Talking Heads explored psychedelic funk, influenced by George Clinton, on a trilogy of acclaimed albums in the late 1970s.[15][16] Subsequent artists would be influenced by the style including Prince.[4]

In the 1990s, the popular psychedelic funk style known as G-funk emerged from the West Coast hip hop scene, represented by Warren G, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg.[17] Many G-funk recordings sampled tracks by earlier psychedelic funk bands, most prominently Parliament-Funkadelic.[17] The 1990s hip hop duo OutKast were also influenced by black psychedelic musicians such as Sly Stone and Clinton.[18]

Examples of psychedelic funk from world music scenes have been collected on compilations issued on the World Psychedelic Funk Classics label.[19] The 2016 album Awaken, My Love! by Childish Gambino borrowed the psychedelic funk sound of Clinton and Bootsy Collins, with Vice negatively describing it as "pure Funkadelic cosplay."[20]

• Funk
• Psychedelic music
• Psychedelic culture