George Clinton Recalls Hearing De La Soul & Others Sample His Records
George Clinton says “the funk” and recent copyright battle keep him motivated.
by Danielle Harling
George Clinton
As one of the pioneers of Funk music, North Carolina-born singer George Clinton has worked with and inspired a number of artists. During a recent interview with XXL magazine, the Parliament-Funkadelic lead singer was asked about hearing one of the first Parliament-Funkadelic samples on a Hip Hop song, De La Soul’s 1989 single “Me, Myself And I.”
In regards to Funk being sampled on Hip Hop records, he says the two genres have the same DNA.
“I mean, I loved all of the samples and the way the music was used,” George Clinton said. “To me, that’s just the way the new generation of people do things. When Rock ’N’ Roll came in the ’50s, people thought they was crazy. When we came along with funk in the ’60s and ’70s, people thought we was nuts. Hip Hop came along spittin’ the beat, they thought that was nuts. And now it’s done took over the world. And I feel like funk is the DNA right along with Hip Hop.”
George Clinton later explained that it felt “pretty natural” hearing his music sampled since he was already used to hearing songs paired with one another in the club.
“Well it seemed pretty natural because I had heard segues in clubs, how people would segue to get you onto the dance floor by playing one record and then immediately going into another,” he said. “You started hearing that coming. So it wasn’t a complete shock when I heard that people were making records.”
The Parliament-Funkadelic helmsman also spoke on what keeps him motivated, given the decades he’s already dedicated to music.
“The funk,” George Clinton said. “When you love what you’re doing, you figure out your position and a way to keep doing it. It’s not hard when you like what you’re doing. I’m having fun being able to just be here. What gave me the energy this time was this fight again with the court [over my copyrights]. I vowed that I wouldn’t get sick or tired until I kicked they ass. The Mothership is going into the Smithsonian next year. For that music to be disrespected the way the record companies are trying to do—nuh uh. I’m not gonna stand by for that. I won’t be funkin’ in the name of that.”
George Clinton’s interview with XXL magazine is featured in their Summer 2015 issue.
For true hip-hop heads, George Clinton needs no introduction. The funk innovator who brought Parliament and Funkadelic to the world's ears in the 1960s and 1970s unexpectedly provided the basis for the Golden Age of hip-hop on both coasts decades later, via De La Soul and Public Enemy on the East Coast and Dr. Dre and the G-Funk era on the West. After five decades as one of the most important trailblazers in music, and with a memoir now on shelves and an appearance in Kendrick Lamar's "i" video, XXL chopped it up with the Godfather of Funk about his long-term connection to hip-hop.
XXL: In your book you mentioned that one of the first hip-hop songs you heard that sampled Parliament / Funkadelic was De La Soul's "Me, Myself and I", right?
George Clinton: Oh yeah. I mean, I loved all of the samples and the way the music was used; to me, that's just the way the new generation of people do things. When rock 'n' roll came in the '50s, people thought they was crazy. When we came along with funk in the '60s and '70s, people thought we was nuts. Hip-hop came along spittin' the beat, they thought that was nuts. And now it's done took over the world. And I feel like funk is the DNA right along with hip-hop.
What was your reaction when you first heard yourself sampled?
Well it seemed pretty natural because I had heard segues in clubs, how people would segue to get you onto the dance floor by playing one record and then immediately going into another. You started hearing that coming. So it wasn't a complete shock when I heard that people were making records.
After all these years, what keeps you going?
The funk. When you love what you're doing, you figure out your position and a way to keep doing it. It's not hard when you like what you're doing. I'm having fun being able to just be here. What gave me the energy this time was this fight again with the court [over my copyrights]. I vowed that I wouldn't get sick or tired until I kicked they ass. The Mothership is going into the Smithsonian next year. For that music to be disrespected the way the record companies are trying to do - nuh uh. I'm not gonna stand by for that. I won't be funkin' in the name of that.
Check out our full interview with George Clinton righthere.
Interviews are copied below (as shown on XXL and seems to be from Nov or Dec 14 - Notice by me)
For a man like George Clinton, it's not easy to be surprised. The funk pioneer and Godfather of legendary groups like Parliament and Funkadelic, as well as the most sampled artist of the Dr. Dre-fueled G-Funk era, has seen a lot of fads and musical movements come and go in his 50-plus years in the business. But the zest for the abstract is still strong for Clinton, and he's still got his ear to the streets - just look at his brief cameo in Kendrick Lamar's "i" music video if you need any proof.
But the P-Funk captain is not just a songwriter and bandleader, he's one of the most innovative record producers that music has ever seen, and with his work across the funk, soul, R&B, pop and hip-hop landscapes he's got plenty of experience in the production world. Now with a new memoir on stands - titled Brothas Be Like, Yo George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You? - detailing his career and life within the music industry, XXL spoke to the man to find out who he believes are the funkiest hip-hop producers of all time.
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Hank Shocklee (The Bomb Squad) Hank Shocklee and them. Them, I'll never forget. They were hard, funky. The production on Public Enemy was just unbelievable.
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DJ Muggs "Jump Around, jump around." House Of Pain. Yeah, Muggs and them did Cypress Hill and them. But that stuff, it didn't stay around long, but that groove that they had on those records. Yeah.
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Pharrell Pharrell is in another whole class by himself. You said hip-hop, but he does everything. I mean, when you get to that stuff, he did Mystikal. He's the best. [Laughs] Pharrell is able to do anything. He's a mainstream producer. He can do almost any kind of record. He's one of those guys that has educated himself on a lot of different vibes, and he's been that way since his group came out. Throw in that "Bouncin' Back" from Mystikal; that is so left field. When I talked to Mystikal, I thought that he had provided the music for the track, but Pharrell did the music. 'Cause the music is definitely New Orleans music, but he said Pharrell came with it. Just for him to even be aware of that kind of music is brilliant. I can see with Mystikal, because he had the whole Louisiana vibe with him. But for Pharrell to bring the whole second line, New Orleans music, for him to bring that on, that was scary.
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Rick Rubin Rick Rubin, the ones that can last when shit change. And who can be up on it, whatever it is, and for it to even be allowed in the studio with the kids. Because the kids really wanna get rid of your old ass when their turn comes. [Laughs] They don't want you around suggesting nothing. But if you're respected or can respect them enough to co-exist when they come in, then I think you're doing well. That's why Pharrell is one of those ones; you're still trying to catch up with him. And it looks like it's gonna be that way for a while now. And Rick Rubin is the same thing; whatever new thing comes up, he gets a shot at it and the kids don't throw him out of the studio. [Laughs]
After half a century on the front lines of musical innovation, you'd think that George Clinton might be slowing down. But the Parliament-Funkadelic chieftain still has his hands in the mix. Clinton oversaw the funk revolution that began in the mid-1960s and took over throughout the 1970s, paving the way for disco and laying the groundwork for what would eventually become the beginnings of hip-hop decades later. But these days, Clinton's influence is no less prevalent. Just take Kendrick Lamar's recent music video for his newest single "i" —many people acknowledged that Ronald Isley's presence gave a throwback feel to the visual, but only the eagle-eyed caught the fact that, as Kendrick leaves the club towards the beginning of the video, he stumbles past Clinton reading a copy of his just-released memoir, Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You?: A Memoir.
"To me, that's my favorite thing to do," Clinton says about the link between old and new in a recent phone conversation with XXL. "If you notice, rock'n'roll in the '60s, they looked all the way back to Muddy Waters and Lightnin' Hopkins; even Jimi Hendrix, they took from 25 years prior to them. That works good when music is referred back to. I don't care what the new generation is in, if they can remember to reach back to some of their roots—because the root is still in the music somewhere. If people are shakin' their ass, there's some funk in there somewhere. You may not be able to find it, but it's in there. [Laughs] That's why I have no problem with, like right now, electronic music is on the rise. That's what era we're in. You just gotta find a way to make that muthafucka funky."
Clinton's influence should be well-known to hip-hop fans. His songs have been lifted and sampled by the likes of Dr. Dre ("Let Me Ride," "Fuck Wit' Dre Day," "Bitches Ain't Shit"), Snoop Dogg ("Who Am I (What's My Name)?"), Warren G ("Regulate"), Digital Underground ("The Humpty Dance"), Ice Cube ("Steady Mobbin'"), De La Soul ("Me Myself And I"), Eric B. and Rakim ("I Know You Got Soul") and seemingly countless others. But he's also been featured on a slew of rap tracks by the likes of 2Pac, OutKast, Too $hort and plenty more, all in the spirit of keeping things funky.
"If you see people dancing, funk is alive," he says. "I don't care if you callin' it disco, funk, hip-hop, bebop, rock—if they dancin' and they shakin' their butt, it's alive."
XXL spoke to the Godfather of Funk about his work with Dr. Dre and 2Pac, why Digital Underground was like the Funkadelic of its time, and the "gang" of records he made with OutKast in the mid-1990s that have yet to see the light of day. Tear the roof off the sucka.
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On Working With Kendrick Lamar In His "i" Video George Clinton: I love Kendrick Lamar; his version of hip-hop is like the Isley Brothers revival with a P-Funk feel to it. He is really good. [Laughs] That [cameo in the "i" video] was the best thing we could do. I mean, the song was so good there wasn't anything for me to do in the song. So I was just like, I'll sit here, and Ronnie Isley was there. And I was like, I can just sit here and observe. And they started off with "We Are One Nation Under A Groove," and that to me is the best thing; the whole video is new school, old school, young school, all got to know that they need each other. 'Cause if you're lucky then you'll be old school one day. You know it's funny, I see Snoop nowadays; they used to call me "Dad" or "Uncle" or "Old School," and now, look around, they're old school and I'm laughing at them. "Wow, you got grey hair!" [Laughs] He's the Uncle Snoop. [Laughs]
I mean, they were jammin', those kids were jammin' [at the video shoot]. I had just heard the song, and I couldn't do nothing anyway, but I was jammin'. There was just so much going on and they was groovin' to no end. Even for me, I remember looking at the Isley Brothers saying, I wanted to be like that, when they was doing "Shout." That was fitting, because even Kendrick doesn't realize that I admired Ronnie and them, 'cause they hit maybe seven, eight years prior to when we did. So I was looking at him like, "Ah, man, that's Uncle Ronnie!" [Laughs]
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On Ice Cube's "Bop Gun" And Digital Underground George Clinton: It's always fun working with Ice Cube. I've worked with him a number of times. It's always fun because you get to work with him, and it's not the managers bringing it in, or the engineer, you get to trade ideas and kick it. Same with Humpty and them with Digital Underground, 'Pac and them. They were like Funkadelic before they ever got to be Digital Underground. They were a band first. They were up there trying to be a band before they ever sounded like the Sugar Hill Gang. And then they got the hit record ["The Humpty Dance"] and it took a long time before 'Pac even came out of the dancing part of it and actually started to do his thing. But he was an actor right from the get-go. He understood the drama in it and all that other stuff. Same way with Humpty—they were really some of the smartest. This business is disheartening to a lot of people. But that "Humpty" record was one of the biggest records ever in hip-hop.
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On OutKast's "Synthesizer" George Clinton: I knew them with Dallas Austin before they were OutKast, before there was Goodie Mob, before it was Organized Noize; they were all one big group, Dungeon Family. They all used to hang out and they didn't have a contract yet. So by the time OutKast was the first one out of that crew to get a record deal, then Goodie Mob, Organized Noize was doing all of their records. So I watched them grow out of just being around the studio just waiting for their turn until they got to be as big as they got to be. I've always been working with them; I did Big Boi's last record the year before last, "Fo Yo Sorrows."
I've done so many things with them, if they put out some of the stuff I did with them... I did a gang of stuff with them. Unreleased, yeah. We just had tracks and we would just go over the tracks, just brilliant bullshit. [Laughs] That would have been starting in '95, '94, all right up until '99. I used to go to Rico [Wade]'s house—he was producing all of them at the time—and we would just be kickin' it, up to no good. Me, I'd be up to no good. [Laughs] But that was the place the music was being made. Myself, Too $hort, Scarface, we all would just end up at somebody's house putting tracks down, babbling over them, clowning.
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On Working With Too $hort George Clinton: A lot of the stuff I did with Too $hort [and Organized Noize] came out over the years. There was one [that stuck out], our whole group sang on it ["I've Been Watching You"]. That was one of the cuts. I just know the whole band was in the video with him. And it was Too $hort's first record that he did that actually got on the radio. And he's still the granddaddy. [Laughs] And he still sounds like Too $hort.
