Watermelon Funk Etches Their Name as the Next Disciples in P-Funk Lineage in New Album ‘Afrodesiac’
Ft. Members of Parliament-Funkadelic, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram Band, Termanology, and More
Available on October 31, 2024
At this stage in his multifarious career, funk keyboardist DeShawn “DVibes” Alexander abides by a few ground rules.
First, he isn’t into advance singles; he’s into albums, period. “I don’t want to show all the cards that I’ve got in my hand,” he says. “I want people to hear the whole thing.” Second, he wants to be in a band, not some nebulous solo project: “As fun as it is to play a game of 21, it’s way funner to play five on five. That way, you can pass the ball; you have camaraderie.” Third, and perhaps most importantly, he wants to “hydrate your soul.”
“Ain’t no funk music? I’m here to change that,” Alexander declares. “I’ve got a funk army behind me.”
The funk army in question? Welcome to Watermelon Funk — the brainchild of Alexander and guitarist Bryce “BQuiz” Quinn. Alexander appears on a dizzying array of keyboard instruments — piano, organ, wurlitzer, clavinet, Moog, Korg, and beyond. They’re augmented by a phalanx of greats, hailing from the Parliament-Funkadelic universe, like vocalists Garrett “Star Child Jr.,” Benzel Baltimore Cowan, Chiedza “Lady Chi” Kundidzora, and beyond.
“Your weak points are your boy’s strong points,” Alexander contends, extending the hoops metaphor. “Everybody gets a chance to score, and win, and get closer to their dreams.” And Watermelon Funk’s new album, Afrodesiac— out on Halloween Day— brings Alexander’s dreams ever closer to fruition. With these so-called “Funkaholics” on his team, he can do no wrong; the 19-track collection, from “Funkalicious” to “Heart of a Champion,” is a crisp, cohesive, kinetic display of Watermelon Funk’s chemistry and vitality.
Alexander was born in Denver, Colorado, and hails from extraordinarily musical stock. By three, he was already making music; by seven, he was the organist in his grandfather’s church. His dad’s mother is from Liverpool, England; on that side, he even has relatives who worked with a certain moptopped quartet. Initially self-taught, he began taking lessons in middle and high school, then enrolled in Berklee College of Music. “That’s where I began my journey,” he muses.
At Berklee, Alexander assembled a 10-piece hip-hop crew called Viva La Hop, and produced their debut album, Fantasize! From there, he became a trusted collaborator and tourmate with the Marcus King Band, Son Little, Lettuce, Eric Krasno, Talib Kweli, Robert Randolph, and beyond.
He first dreamt up Watermelon Funk in 2016; the name came from an experience on a gig with Kweli at New York’s Blue Note. “I heard Herbie Hancock’s ‘Watermelon Man,’ but it was Bernie Worrell’s version,” he recalls. “I was like, Man, this isn’t ‘Watermelon Man.’ This right here is Watermelon Funk. That’s how the name sparked.”
Needless to say, it caught fire. In 2021, Watermelon Funk released their inspired, self-titled debut album, followed by Enter the Galaxy of Woo two years later. From the jump, cats from Lettuce and Fishbone were involved — but the band’s aesthetic, and membership, is most steeped in everything Parliament-Funkadelic. “I really reached in — to dive straight into the funk,” Alexander states. “That’s my style that I love.”
To craft an album album, Alexander and Quinn did a monumental amount of pruning — which shows just how prolific they are. In fact, one of Alexander’s superpowers is his ability to produce large volumes of music, with sometimes a staggering 300-plus works in progress at a time.
“I needed to have a catalog,” Alexander explains of his early development in this regard. “A lot of the musicians I looked up to as producers — when people asked them for some music, they were like, I already have something in that vein.”
No conversation about Alexander’s catalog would be complete without mention of longtime collaborator, vocalist Brittany Beckett. Beckett joined the ranks of Watermelon Funk’s Funkaholics for the 2023 release Enter the Galaxy of the Woo and lends her talents on lead vocals on six tracks throughout Afrodesiac. She is a staple in the band’s live performance setting, illuminating the stage with her electrifying stage presence and theatrical elements that draw from experiences as a producer and dancer.
Watermelon Funk - Afrodesiac. Coverart
And if you’re looking for fresh, inspired, contemporary funk that weaves around anything derivative — well, this is the vein for you. One clear highlight is the maximally horny “Freak” — featuring Star Child on vocals, and a guest feature from rapper Termanology. So is the Prince-hued “Frequency,” and their outstanding cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s “If You Want Me to Stay.”
Afrodesiac’s final song, “Heart of a Champion,” though, may be its most revealing: plain and simple, it’s about never giving up.
“Especially in our industry, it’s so easy to give up, because there are so many things that make it challenging,” Alexander says. “I’m a man of color; it’s harder to raise funds to get help. You see all the challenges that are set above you; do I stand in front of them, or do I let them destroy my dream and my vision?
It’s this frame of mind that helped him weather low points in his life — and alchemize them into joyous funk, along with his band of brothers and sisters. “By the time you get through all of that,” he says, “you look up, you see that you beat everything in front of you. Now, you’re the champ.” The only attitude to have — and there’s no Afrodisiac quite like it.
