Latest news with #Funkadelic
Black America Web
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Childish Gambino: A Genius Shaped by Diverse Influences
Source: Phillip Faraone/VF24 / Getty Donald Glover, better known by his stage name Childish Gambino, is an artist defined by his versatility and relentless ambition. Whether it's acting, writing, or making music, Gambino's work reflects a complex web of influences that spans genres and generations. From hip-hop legends like OutKast, Eminem, and Kanye West to funk and soul trailblazers such as Funkadelic and Sly & The Family Stone, and even the shimmering beats of LCD Soundsystem, Gambino's artistry is a melting pot of inspirations. This collision of styles and sounds has given birth to some of the most innovative projects in modern music. A standout example of these influences coming to life is his critically acclaimed album Awaken, My Love! , which wears its funk and soul inspirations on its sleeve while offering a distinctly modern twist. The Funkadelic Spark Behind Awaken, My Love! Full albumbelow. Released in 2016, Awaken, My Love! marked a dramatic departure from Gambino's earlier projects, trading sharp raps for soulful crooning and psychedelic funk arrangements. The album channels the raw energy and emotional depth of 1970s funk, heavily inspired by artists like Funkadelic and Sly & The Family Stone. Glover himself has credited these pioneers as integral to the album's creation. RELATED | Childish Gambino Surprise Drops New Album 'Atavista' & Announces World Tour Growing up, his father played records like Funkadelic's Maggot Brain , which Glover described as both 'sexual and scary' in an interview with Billboard . Sly Stone's ability to blend political messaging with groovy, genre-defying sounds also had a lasting impact on Gambino's vision for Awaken, My Love! A prime example of this influence is the track 'Redbone.' Its falsetto vocals and hypnotic bassline evoke Bootsy Collins-era Funkadelic while maintaining a contemporary edge. The haunting yet seductive tone of the song mirrors the visceral feelings Glover recalled experiencing when hearing Funkadelic as a child. Beyond its funk roots, 'Redbone' became a cultural anthem, finding renewed fame in the Oscar-winning film Get Out . See the scene in the movie below where Redbone is playing: One of the most fascinating connections between Gambino and his influences is the thread tying his work to artists like OutKast. Known for their fearless innovation and unapologetic eccentricity, OutKast opened doors for hip-hop to venture into uncharted territories. Their influence is particularly evident in Gambino's commitment to constantly reinventing his sound. Take 'Me and Your Mama,' the opening track of Awaken, My Love! It fuses the operatic grandeur of OutKast's The Love Below with the wild experimentation of vintage funk, proving that Gambino, much like Andre 3000, thrives in defying expectations. Similarly, LCD Soundsystem's electronic landscapes helped shape Gambino's earlier works, particularly in his album Because the Internet . Full album below. Tracks like '3005' incorporate the layered synths and emotional vulnerability reminiscent of James Murphy's best works. The fusion of electronic and emotional storytelling laid the groundwork for the soul-baring moments found later in Awaken, My Love! A Legacy in the Making Childish Gambino's artistry is a testament to how inspiration can be both a tribute to the past and a springboard into the future. By channeling the poetry of OutKast, the rawness of Funkadelic, and the intricacies of LCD Soundsystem, he has created a body of work that feels timeless yet refreshingly original. What makes Gambino's craft so compelling is not just the influences he draws from, but how he transforms them. He doesn't merely mimic; he reimagines. With Awaken, My Love! , the artist took the funk and soul soundscapes of the '70s and introduced them to a modern audience, ensuring that the music that inspired him lives on in new and vital ways. Childish Gambino's evolution proves that no genre or era exists in isolation. Instead, music flows across time, offering endless roots and rhythms to inspire the artists of tomorrow. Take a look below at some of the music from artists Childish Gambino has been influenced by. Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Forbes
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Sunday Conversation: Bootsy Collins On James Brown, George Clinton
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - MAY 18: In this image released on June 1, Honoree/musician Bootsy Collins speaks ... More onstage during the 9th Annual Black Music Honors red carpet at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on May 18, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo byfor Black Music Honors) There are few people in the history of music as colorful and entertaining as the supreme funk bassist Bootsy Collins. As the bassist in Parliament/Funkadelic Collins became a star in his own right in the '70s, developing such memorable alter egos as Casper the Funky Ghost and Bootzilla. But underneath his persona as an alien rock star was one of the greatest bass players of all time, a guy who came up with unforgettable basslines again and again. Collins just released his new album, Album of The Year #1 Funketeer. It is vintage Bootsy -- fun, playful, entertaining, trippy and musically brilliant. I spoke with Collins about the new album, AI, George Clinton and doing LSD with James Brown. Steve Baltin: You say you're going to record stores. How much fun is that for you still to have the new album out on Friday and get to go interact with people? Especially in that setting where it's so intimate and they could tell you their favorite songs and everything. Bootsy Collins: I actually love that setting. It's like what you don't get at live shows because you don't really have time to mingle with people. So, it's a different kind of ball game when you get a chance to be that close and intimate with fans that love you and want to be around you, want to meet you, so it is good. It's different than the live shows cause you get up there and play for a couple of hours or whatever. And the fans might get a chance to see you up close and personal, but the record store is definitely the spot for that. Baltin: You and I are old enough to remember like the aura of the record store. Collins: Yeah, it means so much to people I run into nowadays. They tell me about those good old days, when they met me in the record store and they had a certain conversation with me. They remember all of that stuff. It's a beautiful thing. The kids won't miss it cause they don't know what the experience was, but I'm missing that. And I look forward to going to those places because the way it's going one of them might not be there the next day. So get it while you can. Baltin: It makes sense for you to do the record store tour for the moment because it's such a great album, but Album of the Year #1 Funketeer has so many guests on it. This is a way for you to go out and promote it because I imagine doing it live is going to be difficult with all the guests on it. Collins: I thought about that after doing something that I really wanted to do and doing so many different styles that I wanted to do on this album. So, I wanted to just go with it because that's the way I felt and usually the way I feel about music is, I wouldn't say it's right or wrong, it's just that it's my call whether to do that journey or not and that's a good thing. Baltin: I imagine it's fun for you because you know everybody, and everybody wants to work with you. Why not have fun with it and collaborate with your friends? Collins: Yeah, that, to me, is what brings the excitement along with what's going on now. You're getting older and how do you keep the buzz going. Especially you cut down on getting high, the girl thing, you cut back on that, those would have liked the motivations to get out on the road when you don't have that, what are you going to do? All the fun reasons we had to go out are being eliminated, so there has to be some kind of substitute. My substitute is dealing with any and everybody that's into it, that really loves it, that really wants it and learning from them, they learn whatever they learn from me and I learn whatever I learned from them. Baltin: Does the girl thing ever go away as a guy? Collins: It never goes away. If anything, it probably gets stronger. It never goes away, and we never get smarter than that. I bet you know about that (laughs). Baltin: Oh yeah, doesn't matter how old you get. The right woman turns you into an idiot (laughs). Collins: Absolutely (laughs). Baltin: You have Dave Stewart on this album. Dave's worked with Jagger with everyone. You guys put all that experience together and all of a sudden, you've got what it's like to work with James Brown and Jagger when the two of you get together. Collins: We just talked to him today. We've had a relationship for a lot of years now and it's amazing because when you really look at it this cat is just so plugged in and at any moment, he can spark out with something that's pretty incredible. We did the song that's actually not on the album, but he claims that it's an anthem and when he said that, I was like, 'Wow, when I listen to it, it does sound like an anthem.' So, we might put it out as a bonus track. Baltin: Take me through some of the people you worked with on this record because it's such a fun record. What were you looking for in people you collaborated with? Collins: It was, let's see, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, The Dogg Pound, and some of the new artists, Myra Washington, Phantasma, she's from over in Germany. She's just an incredible singer and rapper and lyricist. This guy named Baby Triggie, Wiz Khalifa. It's just everybody that came on board, and we just started collaborating with each other. This is what we came up with. Baltin: Was 'I Am AI' made with AI? Collins: Yeah, actually it was. I just wanted to have something relating to that as original as I could get it with the old era and what's happening now involved with the recording of it. People were saying you shouldn't do anything about AI. Well, for me, it's like a lot of times you can't stop what's coming. I know it's coming. I know it's already here and people either embrace it or learn and learn how to work with it, then to work around it, because it's coming, it's here. Baltin: Was it fun for you to work with AI? Collins: Oh, yeah. I had a blast. I think AI had a blast too. They were winking at me and a few of the girly AI's was pretty on it. I had to catch myself a few times (cracks up). Baltin: When you put all these artists together did you have any idea what would happen? Collins: The combination of people don't necessarily do music together. Like Barbie T., she closes out the record as a tribute to Buckethead. I actually cut his very first record, Buckethead Land, the album. We cut it here out here on the farm in the barn. And we've been friends since 1991. Last week he came and played, he had a gig in town and we started on his new record, Buckethead Land 3. It's incredible what's going on. This universal force is bringing things together. Things looking like they falling apart, but there are things coming together too. Baltin: Who was your longest relationship in music? How long did you work with James? Collins: We just did about 11 months with James, and it was non -stop. But our relationship didn't end. I just couldn't take it, plus we would take LSD and all that. It just didn't match up. How would you feel playing with James Brown and you take LSD? Baltin: I interviewed James Brown, not on LSD. And it was f**king tough. It might have been easier on LSD. I'm not going to lie. Collins: (Cracking up) Oh, man, to be a fly on the wall. He was so serious. It's like, 'Why are you freaking serious?' That's when we really start taking LSD because he kept saying that I was loaded anyway. The truth was I didn't want to be loaded on his set because we had too much responsibility to be on it, to watch his hands and watch his feet and every little move he makes. We had to be on it and couldn't do that on LSD, tripping like a mug. Baltin: How long did you work with George? Collins: We actually just got back together, working in the studio together. That's funny you brought that up. He's probably the longest person that I've ever worked with. Yeah, George would be the longest one, everybody else is like we still stand communicate and everything, but working together that's a little different. Baltin: I've interviewed George many times over the years, and he seems to be in a great place now. So how much fun is it when you guys are both in a good place and you can just enjoy the friendship? Collins: It's a good place to be really. Because first of all, you made it through all the real hard times being together. Then when you come back around, you got another kind of appreciation. And I think that's coming from both of us without even without even having to say it. So, yeah, it's a beautiful thing.
The Guardian
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Maybe I'm Amazed by John Harris review – a father and his autistic son bond through music
One of my favourite books growing up was my dad's copy of The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics. I spent hours flicking through images of an eyeless, trombone-mouthed golden man swallowing naked bodies, and a full-page, black-and-white comic strip by legendary psychedelic artist Rick Griffin. It didn't matter that I hadn't yet listened to most of the songs – the surreal visual riffs felt like dispatches from an undiscovered country. Later, the Beatles became my favourite band. I chain-listened to the albums, read endless books, watched the movies and recited Beatles' lore to anyone within earshot. 'Oh dear,' said my mum one morning, as I reeled off an account of how a 40-piece orchestra improvised the rising crescendo in A Day in the Life, 'you've become a Beatles bore.' Maybe I'm Amazed opens with John Harris's 15-year-old son, James, ecstatically absorbed in a live performance by Paul McCartney, 'so held in the moment that he is almost in an altered state'. Harris then loops back to before James's birth, and tells the story of his son's arrival, his preschool diagnosis of autism, and how his differences manifest as he grows up. James loves music – the Beatles chief among a rich buffet of bands and tracks he listens to, over and over – and so Harris divides the book into 10 chapters named after songs, each with a particular resonance. Harris writes about music with wit, clarity and a welcome lack of pretension. One chapter takes its cue from Funkadelic's 'weird … incongruous' track Fish, Chips and Sweat – about a carnal encounter that takes as its backdrop 'the least sexy meal imaginable'. Another from Nick Drake's Northern Sky, a song whose lyrics evoke 'a sudden euphoria that leaves you silent, and still'. Harris even bravely attempts a rehabilitation of Baker Street, 'a masterclass in the arts of arrangement and production', so hackneyed from familiarity we might miss the complicated stories implied by its 'sparse, carefully chosen words'. Threaded throughout this are he and his wife Ginny's struggles and anxieties around parenthood, and James's emerging strengths and challenges. He demonstrates absolute pitch – the ability to instantly identify individual notes – and can name the keys of random songs played to him on Spotify. 'Imagine having as instinctive and vivid a connection with music as this,' muses Harris. 'From time to time, James speaks to me using songs,' he writes, recounting a moment when, after refusing to go to school, James commands Alexa to play the Smiths' The Headmaster Ritual, with its lyrics 'Give up education as a bad mistake'. As a parent, I recognise the all‑consuming worry described here. Harris and his wife quickly find that support for children with special educational needs is callously absent – they spend their savings paying for early, intensive therapy for James, and preparing the legal case for the support he'll need in school (local authorities routinely force parents to pursue them through the courts for the care they are legally obliged to offer, calculating that most will lack the resources to do so). But, as an autistic person, I sometimes found it hard reading about behaviours and tendencies I've exhibited all my life viewed through the lens of neurotypicality. Harris is left 'flummoxed and sad' when, on a trip to Chester zoo, James ignores the penguins and plays with the wood chips covering the path, picking them up and dropping them. 'I get the sense if he was left to his own devices, he might repeat the cycle indefinitely.' James is absorbed by the wrong thing – wood chips' splendid tactile diversity, and the miracle of gravity. I don't wish to punish Harris's honesty. Like all parents, his journey involves plenty of learning on the job. He writes powerfully about 'almost Victorian levels of cruelty' inflicted on autistic people in care, and how, through his and James's shared love of music, his initial doomy grief gives way to a constellation of admiration, fear, humour, awe and, of course, love. I wept several times, and the book wouldn't have that power without the author's willingness to be real and vulnerable. As he observes, autistic traits appear throughout humankind. You might say we're like everyone else – only more so. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Maybe I'm Amazed: A Story of Love and Connection in Ten Songs by John Harris is published by John Murray (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lizzo Responded To Criticism Her Music Doesn't Work In A "Second Trump Term America" With A Whole Bunch Of Posts
Lizzo is firing back at the criticism she's received over her song "Still Bad" with a series of X posts, and the discourse is getting heavy. On March 17, Lizzo released a comeback single, "Still Bad," a track from her upcoming fifth album, Love in Real Life, which is expected to be released later this year. Last week, at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, Lizzo opened up about struggling with "dark depression" in 2023. That year, the "Truth Hurts" singer was sued by former backup dancers on allegations of sexual and racial harassment and a hostile workplace environment. Lizzo has denied all allegations. At her concert, Lizzo said she named the album Love in Real Life because "I was so heartbroken by the world and so deeply hurt that I didn't want to live anymore, and I was so deeply afraid of people that I didn't want to be seen. Eventually, I got over that fear." She told the audience as she was walking through the crowd at the concert she attended, "something miraculous happened." Lizzo shared that a random person reached out and said, "'Lizzo, I love you,'" and they embraced, and "it felt so damn good." When other people joined in, she said the experience was "fucking life-saving" and the only type of love you can get in real life and not the internet. And she's not wrong based on the discourse this week. Amid challenging the multiple ongoing lawsuits by former employees alleging sexual and racial harassment and a toxic work environment, Lizzo is also responding to the toxicity of internet echo chambers. Lizzo clapped back at the criticism that her music doesn't work in this era. "Saying my brand of 'poptimism' doesn't work in a 'post Covid world' is a lazy take.. As if I didn't release 'about damn time' post pandemic..," she began. "As if I didn't write 'about damn time' to be a post lockdown anthem to inspire us to get outside and together again.. and was successful at it btw ;)" She's referring to this viral X post that specifically said, "this brand of poptimism doesnt work for me post covid and in second term trump america." "Same people saying my music is 'too optimistic' would've been real mad in the 60s at James Brown and Motown," she continued, comparing her music to other prominent Black artists who faced criticism for their popular music. "Imagine listening to 'say it loud I'm black and I'm proud' and saying it's too optimistic imagine listening to 'hey yah' and saying it's too poppy… what André say? Yall don't wanna listen ya just wanna hate," she wrote. "I think seeing and hearing a black woman make real music with radical joy triggers miserable people… but I follow in the footsteps of Janet, of Funkadelic, of Earth Wind and Fire… nobody's doing it like me for Us. And I stand on that." "Aretha & Whitney got backlash for being 'too pop' and they kept going… and so will I." "The way this world treats black women is sickening… blacklisted Janet and now 20yrs later yall calling her music 'cute black girl bops' & giving her flowers… Dogged Whitney for her love life & called her a drug addict for laughs but now yall wanna honor her Yall laughed at Tina's abuse and never let her forget… The least protected person in America…" Lizzo wrote, "'Still Bad' is a breakup song with the world. It literally starts with me saying 'I'm bouta throw my phone away' it's a call to action for the negativity we experience on our phones and how we need to disengage and recenter. The girls that get it, get it." "In the music video I'm literally taking my power back from the 'birds' (tweets) that tried to keep me down with negativity…," she continued. Lizzo said she's also doing this for herself, referencing a video describing who she would perform with a new rendition of the 2001 "Lady Marmalade" from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. "Everything I do is for her. The way the world treated this girl was so nasty & vicious. I'm going hard for her— my Shayla." She also referenced the backlash she's received for sharing her weight loss journey on the internet. "I have no loyalty to hatred— u mad I lost weight? Stay mad. Ur bitter I make hits? Stay bitter. I only have loyalty to love and real people not click bait critters." Lizzo continued her series of posts by encouraging people to fight against negativity on the internet. "Talkin shit about me is a cheat code to going viral. I seen people who's only viral video is the one where they're talking shit about me… If u gotta mention me to finally feel seen… honestly ur welcome," she wrote. "What happened to me was supposed to destroy me but it has only set me free!" Lizzo delcared. "Now I know none of this is real. The only thing that's real is the love that I share with my family, my friends, nature, my fans, in Real Life." "Free yourself from the opinions of people that do not matter Realize that the only person that matters is Yourself," she added. The "About Damn Time" singer finished her posts, writing, "God put me here to share my story and that story is how a fat black woman WINS. Have a amazing, blessed day on Purpose Go get some fresh air, this internet shit will break u down I'm going for a walk." Lizzo really had time for the haters, and I was sat for the entire ordeal. Who doesn't love an outspoken pop girlie?
Buzz Feed
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Lizzo Responded To Criticism Her Music Doesn't Work In A "Second Trump Term America" With A Whole Bunch Of Posts
Lizzo is firing back at the criticism she's received over her song "Still Bad" with a series of X posts, and the discourse is getting heavy. On March 17, Lizzo released a comeback single, " Still Bad," a track from her upcoming fifth album, Love in Real Life, which is expected to be released later this year. Last week, at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, Lizzo opened up about struggling with "dark depression" in 2023. That year, the "Truth Hurts" singer was sued by former backup dancers on allegations of sexual and racial harassment and a hostile workplace environment. Lizzo has denied all allegations. At her concert, Lizzo said she named the album Love in Real Life because "I was so heartbroken by the world and so deeply hurt that I didn't want to live anymore, and I was so deeply afraid of people that I didn't want to be seen. Eventually, I got over that fear." She told the audience as she was walking through the crowd at the concert she attended, "something miraculous happened." Lizzo shared that a random person reached out and said, "'Lizzo, I love you,'" and they embraced, and "it felt so damn good." When other people joined in, she said the experience was "fucking life-saving" and the only type of love you can get in real life and not the internet. And she's not wrong based on the discourse this week. Amid challenging the multiple ongoing lawsuits by former employees alleging sexual and racial harassment and a toxic work environment, Lizzo is also responding to the toxicity of internet echo chambers. Lizzo clapped back at the criticism that her music doesn't work in this era. "Saying my brand of 'poptimism' doesn't work in a 'post Covid world' is a lazy take.. As if I didn't release 'about damn time' post pandemic..," she began. "As if I didn't write 'about damn time' to be a post lockdown anthem to inspire us to get outside and together again.. and was successful at it btw ;)" @lizzo / She's referring to this viral X post that specifically said, "this brand of poptimism doesnt work for me post covid and in second term trump america." "Same people saying my music is 'too optimistic' would've been real mad in the 60s at James Brown and Motown," she continued, comparing her music to other prominent Black artists who faced criticism for their popular music. "Imagine listening to 'say it loud I'm black and I'm proud' and saying it's too optimistic imagine listening to 'hey yah' and saying it's too poppy… what André say? Yall don't wanna listen ya just wanna hate," she wrote. "I think seeing and hearing a black woman make real music with radical joy triggers miserable people… but I follow in the footsteps of Janet, of Funkadelic, of Earth Wind and Fire… nobody's doing it like me for Us. And I stand on that." Noam Galai / Getty Images for Atlantic Records, @lizzo / "Aretha & Whitney got backlash for being 'too pop' and they kept going… and so will I." "The way this world treats black women is sickening… blacklisted Janet and now 20yrs later yall calling her music 'cute black girl bops' & giving her flowers… Dogged Whitney for her love life & called her a drug addict for laughs but now yall wanna honor her Yall laughed at Tina's abuse and never let her forget… The least protected person in America…" Lizzo wrote, "'Still Bad' is a breakup song with the world. It literally starts with me saying 'I'm bouta throw my phone away' it's a call to action for the negativity we experience on our phones and how we need to disengage and recenter. The girls that get it, get it." "In the music video I'm literally taking my power back from the 'birds' (tweets) that tried to keep me down with negativity…," she continued. Atlantic Records / @lizzo / Lizzo said she's also doing this for herself, referencing a video describing who she would perform with a new rendition of the 2001 "Lady Marmalade" from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. "Everything I do is for her. The way the world treated this girl was so nasty & vicious. I'm going hard for her— my Shayla." She also referenced the backlash she's received for sharing her weight loss journey on the internet. "I have no loyalty to hatred— u mad I lost weight? Stay mad. Ur bitter I make hits? Stay bitter. I only have loyalty to love and real people not click bait critters." @lizzobeating / Instagram: @lizzobeeating Lizzo continued her series of posts by encouraging people to fight against negativity on the internet. "Talkin shit about me is a cheat code to going viral. I seen people who's only viral video is the one where they're talking shit about me… If u gotta mention me to finally feel seen… honestly ur welcome," she wrote. "Free yourself from the opinions of people that do not matter Realize that the only person that matters is Yourself," she added. @lizzo / The "About Damn Time" singer finished her posts, writing, "God put me here to share my story and that story is how a fat black woman WINS. Have a amazing, blessed day on Purpose Go get some fresh air, this internet shit will break u down I'm going for a walk."
