We Hate This Song, But We Love This Man
Photos: Stephanie Chang
Sampling in hip-hop was a relatively new phenomenon when De La Soul cut up Funkadelic’s 1979 hit “(Not Just) Knee Deep” and rhymed over it to create their 1989 single “Me Myself and I.” Twenty years later, “Me Myself and I” has proven to be something of a blessing and a curse for De La Soul, as it remains one of their most recognizable singles, and (as two-thirds of the group readily admit) one of their least favorite releases.
In a remarkable meeting of musical minds, Parliament-Funkadelic frontman and Godfather of Funk George Clinton sat down with Maseo of De La Soul to discuss the roots of their respective genres, making music in the digital age, and what it means to hate your hits.
George Clinton: I’ve been de-fleaed, de-ticked, I got my rabies shots. I’m ready to bury the bone. Dog food, y’all.
Maseo: I’m with Uncle George, y’all! Your man Maseo, the Ovaspeaker. Salute to the triple-OG.
GC: (Barks) Three-times nasty.
M: We over here, we preparing for the 3 Feet High and Rising anniversary. I came over here to ask Uncle George a couple of questions about De La Soul.
GC: (Caws)
M: So I’m gonna get this crackin’. Us as De La Soul—myself, Maseo, in particular—would like to know, what does George Clinton listen to? Is doo-wop your first love? And who inspired you?
GC: I’m inspired by everything that comes out. I’m inspired by all music, any kind of music, whatever’s got that pleasant sound to it. But doo-wop is my first love. That graduated into funk, and funk is like the DNA for hip-hop and a lot of techno and all that other music that people like to live their life by. So, I listen to anything that’s on the radio. I like the joyful noise.
M: Who inspired the evolution from doo-wop to funk?
GC: That was a gradual thing. We was at Motown by the time we left regular doo-wop. And by the time we got there, we figured we was a little late getting there, and then we started seeing the groups from England come back over here with the music that my mother listened to, that I listened to in grade school—(sings) “Shake it up, baby!”—Isley Brothers and other stuff. And when I saw what was happening there, I made sure I was around every music that made parents say, “I hate that.” Whenever I hear parents say, “I hate that music,” that’s the music I’m going to get.
M: Right.
GC: So that inspired me. Every time I hear somebody say, “I hate something,” that’s where I’m going.
M: I swear to God I’m on the same post. I think we grew up together in a different lifetime. God bless us to see one another at the Pearly Gates, we really gonna kick it. ’Cause I wish I was born when y’all was kickin’ it.
GC: When I heard y’all go, (beatboxes), I said, “That’s got to be the next shit.” Look at it now. It’s the best music for the race relations shit. It’s the best music for the all-around coming togetherness. Nobody would have ever thought that “Biatch!” and “Deez nuts!” would have been the shit that brought the world together. But that’s what it is.
M: In the bigger scheme of things, we all are connected at the hip, right? (Laughs)
GC: Hip bone connected to the…
M: We all connected at the hip at some point. (Laughs)
GC: Sooner or later.
M: Alright, check it out. My moms, 1976, took me to my first concert, and my first concert was a Parliament-Funkadelic concert.
GC: Madison Square Garden?
M: Madison Square Garden. And I actually got to see you guys land the Mothership. Now, I don’t know if it was the first time. I was six years old, and I remember this vividly. I got to see Sir Nose fly across the stadium and all of that. It was the most amusing show I’ve seen in my life. It was very impactful. It was very inspiring. It really got me doing what I’m doing today.
GC: You was indoctrinated.
M: Yeah, I was. Seventy-six.
GC: Seventy-six, the Mothership was really happenin’ then. You know, I would stand up on top, 25 feet up in the air, talking about, “Damn. Look at me. Minks on and shit.” It must have been pimpin’ that I thought about. Yo ass fall down pimpin’, you gonna look funny as hell.
So right away I was like, “Yo, ain’t nothin’ but a party.” Some folks was out there like ready to bow down. “No, that ain’t what’s happening. I’m here to party. That’s all it is.” And from then on, the Mothership been flyin’.
M: All these years, I always wondered, who inspired all that? What inspired you to do all those crazy costumes and…
GC: The drugs. I ain’t gonna lie. Shit, the ’60s was loaded with that. That was residue from the ’60s. I was chillin’ out by the ’70s, but ’68 and ’69, that residue was still hangin’ around.
M: Oh shit! So my 24/7 weed smokin’ ain’t so muthafuckin’ bad, then!
GC: No, that shit y’all got, that chronic shit, that shit will rival anything. I had to give up weed behind that. That’s for grown-ups. Yeah, but back in the ’60s, we was other-worldly.
M: So I can honestly say, my little weed smokin’ ain’t too bad, for what I’ve been doin’.
GC: No, don’t say that too hard. I’ll tell you, that weed y’all be smoking, that chronic shit…y’all need to shoot that shit.
M: (Laughs hysterically) Alright!
So here we go…. Were there any songs you performed that you didn’t really like?
GC: No. Hell no. We don’t do that shit.
M: You don’t even perform the songs you don’t like?
GC: Anything that come out of my mouth, I’m gonna like it, if it came outta there.
M: Right, OK. ’Cause I gotta say, man, the crew—not me—but the crew, I think due to creative differences that we had at Tommy Boy…. I’m gonna be honest. The crew didn’t really wanna do “Me Myself and I.”
GC: I can dig it. I’m glad ya did it.
M: I was so happy. I’m gonna be straight up. I think the love that came out of that record, the genuine feeling that came out of that record for De La Soul came off the premise of DJ Maseo and Prince Paul. Me and Paul were both Funkadelic heads, straight up. I had been tryin’ to push that record on the crew forever. Like, since I was 15. I had pushed it on another rapper, and he was like, “Nah, I’m not feelin’ that.” Then I pushed it on these dudes and they was like, “Nah Mase, that’s like, a little too way commercial, where we goin’.” I’m like, “I’m not hearin’ you on that shit.” For real, I’m listening to the records we’ve recorded, and I’m like, “Y’all really gotta feel me on this one. I’m tellin’ you right now, we do this, we gonna really be big on this one. This is us, right here.” Then one night we was hangin’ out at a club called Hotel Amazon, and Bambaataa was DJing. It was a Zulu Nation party. And they threw “Knee Deep” on and I was like, “Yo! I’m telling you! That’s our record right there!” And sure enough, if we had not done that, I would not be fuckin’ sittin’ here, right now, talkin’ to you!
GC: “Knee Deep” will do that to you. No, groups and artists tend to not like the record that made ’em, ’cause they have to sing it so much—every night. Fuck that shit…(sings) “We want the funk.” I sing that motherfucker any time I can. “Flashlight” and “Knee Deep,” “One Nation,” that stuff is still valid, ’cause those synthesizers was futuristic at that time. They still haven’t caught up.
M: They have not. Honestly, we’ve been trying to recreate a lot of those sounds ourselves, and still can’t quite get close to it.
GC: We had a good time doin’ that, and as a matter of fact, we ran into Sly Stone, and he’s doin’ it again. He always had been innovative with those sounds, but he found a little cheap version of the vocoder. And see, there’s a difference when you just use it as an effect, or somebody that can really know how to use it and still keep it simple. That nigga’s havin’ a ball with that shit. He’s havin’ a ball. You think…what’s his name, T-Pain?
M: Yeah.
GC: He’s T-Painin’ his ass off. But he’s singin’ in that motherfucker. A lotta people gonna think, “Oh, that’s just for T-Pain…”
M: Dudes in my game, they abusin’ it.
GC: No, we gonna abuse it. We gettin’ ready to rape that motherfucker. ’Cause they ain’t use it yet!
M: They ain’t really usin’ it?
GC: No! They did alright. They made it a sound effect. But when we did it…you look at Bootsy. Wah-wahs and shit was almost over by the time we got there. We reinvented that shit. Bootsy went crazy. Boot–zilla! We bought a bass that’s got four outputs. You got a cord for each string. There’s multiple gadgets on each string. Each one of ’em has its own amp. He was a toy boy. Remember Bootzilla? “Rhinestone rock-star monster of a doll, baby!”
M: Do y’all hear that? This is incredible. This is the legend right here. The icon himself.
GC: No. Hell no. We don’t do that shit.
M: You don’t even perform the songs you don’t like?
GC: Anything that come out of my mouth, I’m gonna like it, if it came outta there.
M: Right, OK. ’Cause I gotta say, man, the crew—not me—but the crew, I think due to creative differences that we had at Tommy Boy…. I’m gonna be honest. The crew didn’t really wanna do “Me Myself and I.”
GC: I can dig it. I’m glad ya did it.
M: I was so happy. I’m gonna be straight up. I think the love that came out of that record, the genuine feeling that came out of that record for De La Soul came off the premise of DJ Maseo and Prince Paul. Me and Paul were both Funkadelic heads, straight up. I had been tryin’ to push that record on the crew forever. Like, since I was 15. I had pushed it on another rapper, and he was like, “Nah, I’m not feelin’ that.” Then I pushed it on these dudes and they was like, “Nah Mase, that’s like, a little too way commercial, where we goin’.” I’m like, “I’m not hearin’ you on that shit.” For real, I’m listening to the records we’ve recorded, and I’m like, “Y’all really gotta feel me on this one. I’m tellin’ you right now, we do this, we gonna really be big on this one. This is us, right here.” Then one night we was hangin’ out at a club called Hotel Amazon, and Bambaataa was DJing. It was a Zulu Nation party. And they threw “Knee Deep” on and I was like, “Yo! I’m telling you! That’s our record right there!” And sure enough, if we had not done that, I would not be fuckin’ sittin’ here, right now, talkin’ to you!
GC: “Knee Deep” will do that to you. No, groups and artists tend to not like the record that made ’em, ’cause they have to sing it so much—every night. Fuck that shit…(sings) “We want the funk.” I sing that motherfucker any time I can. “Flashlight” and “Knee Deep,” “One Nation,” that stuff is still valid, ’cause those synthesizers was futuristic at that time. They still haven’t caught up.
M: They have not. Honestly, we’ve been trying to recreate a lot of those sounds ourselves, and still can’t quite get close to it.
GC: We had a good time doin’ that, and as a matter of fact, we ran into Sly Stone, and he’s doin’ it again. He always had been innovative with those sounds, but he found a little cheap version of the vocoder. And see, there’s a difference when you just use it as an effect, or somebody that can really know how to use it and still keep it simple. That nigga’s havin’ a ball with that shit. He’s havin’ a ball. You think…what’s his name, T-Pain?
M: Yeah.
GC: He’s T-Painin’ his ass off. But he’s singin’ in that motherfucker. A lotta people gonna think, “Oh, that’s just for T-Pain…”
M: Dudes in my game, they abusin’ it.
GC: No, we gonna abuse it. We gettin’ ready to rape that motherfucker. ’Cause they ain’t use it yet!
M: They ain’t really usin’ it?
GC: No! They did alright. They made it a sound effect. But when we did it…you look at Bootsy. Wah-wahs and shit was almost over by the time we got there. We reinvented that shit. Bootsy went crazy. Boot–zilla! We bought a bass that’s got four outputs. You got a cord for each string. There’s multiple gadgets on each string. Each one of ’em has its own amp. He was a toy boy. Remember Bootzilla? “Rhinestone rock-star monster of a doll, baby!”
M: Do y’all hear that? This is incredible. This is the legend right here. The icon himself.
Back on “Me Myself and I,” it was a record that we had to do based on a conscious decision of makin’ something commercial for the label, so that’s why the group don’t really like to perform it.
GC: That’s cool.
M: But it was a record that had a lot of love put in it from me and Prince Paul. It’s one thing I can say—at least with my group—it was a vision they respected of mine and Prince Paul. You know how most lyricists can be at times, in the rap game.
GC: Y’all did another one.
M: “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa.”
GC: That was pretty funky.
M: Thank you. All of that was inspired by what you guys have done creatively. Even with your lyrical wordplay—your metaphors, your similes.
GC: Yeah. Better metaphors leave metafools metaphysically in a state of euphoria.
M: Whoo! Did y’all hear that?! Oh my God. That’s wisdom.
GC: That’s the certain thing about chemistry. I don’t care what people think of themselves. That’s their business. But chemistry’s a motherfucker. Whoever you started with, or whoever works with you when you got started, there’s some value in that shit. You might not be able to speak to each other, but if I ain’t got to go to bed with you, we makin’ this shit. “Get yo ass over here. We makin’ that shit. I don’t care where you sleep. Get yo ass to work.”
M: (Laughing) “You ain’t gotta talk to me the whole session.”
GC: You ever notice motherfuckers don’t leave the Funk. They be somewhere around this motherfucker all the time. Because, “Y’all might be mad at me, but I’m waitin’ on yo ass to get back to work.” You know, chemistry…this shit come through us.
M: Real talk.
GC: And I wanna be in the way every time it come.
M: Honestly, that’s how me, Dave, and Merce feel. No matter what we can do separately, collectively we are De La. The magic truly come together when it’s the three of us. And that’s something that is important to us. So I commend you for saying that. Thank you.
This is from Dave: Did you really run or work at a hair salon that inspired your hairdo?
GC: Yeah. I kept niggas cool. I did hair. I did Jackie Wilson’s and everybody who came through Jersey and New York. I used to do their hair in those waves.
M: Really?
GC: Yeah. That’s what we did. The whole group worked at a barbershop. My brother worked over at Playboy’s in Uptown Harlem.
M: No shit. All the old pimps did hair.
GC: That’s where you get that shit from. You make motherfuckers cool all day long, you get an outlook on that shit and then you realize, it don’t mean shit. Garbage men leave the barbershop lookin’ as good as anybody else.
M: (Laughing) Right, right, right, right!
GC: After a while you’re just like, “Damn, that’s just a Friday-night thing.”
Jehri curl fucked it up, though. When that shit came around, niggas got curly and was leavin’ greasy spots and shit. We did it where it was tapered and it was not wet and greasy. It wasn’t hard.
M: OK. Alright. See, we come from waves and Caesars and…
GC: Brush that shit 1,000 times.
M: Yep. Till we got a bald spot in our shit.
GC: No, it’s too much work. That’s why I got this shit. You put it in there, like a rug, and leave it till it’s twisted. The funkier you get, the hippier you get.
M: No doubt! You’re the only one who can rock it, though. I think I’m gonna grow my gumby back, though. I got enough still to do it.
GC: That was happenin’.
M: Pos is the only one who can’t grow his shit back. He’s a wrap. He got the George Jefferson. What do you think of the digital age, now, coming from an analogue era, to MP3s and all that?
GC: Girls, ‘scuse me.... As soon as the computer gets a pussy, it’ll be alright.
M: (Laughs hysterically)
GC: Right now, it’s a cold motherfucker. You know, you can’t make it slide between the cracks and things. It’s cool. It’s just like bap, on time and all that. But it’s got to make that human error of, “Oops!” You know what I’m saying?
M: (Still laughing) No doubt!
GC: Then it’ll be funky for real. It’ll get warm like analogue. Analogue is warm as hell. This motherfucker here can get on your nerves. It can get so precise that you can fax that shit in. “Stay home, fax it over here.” You can get one of them viruses on that motherfucker, too.
M: Yeah, yeah! Right, right, right, right!
GC: No intercoursin’ with the motherfucker. No interfacin’ with the motherfucker.
M: I guess that’s the level of perfection. They gonna have contraceptives for computers.
GC: You’re gonna be able to dial pleasure up on this motherfucker in a minute.
M: You know, if you can think it, it can happen.
GC: Anything you can think is possible. This shit comes from your head. It ain’t the other way around. And some motherfuckers are gonna have enough ego to want this motherfucker to kiss ’em.
M: And it’s man who makin’ it, so you gotta wonder which head they thinkin’ with.
GC: OK. It’s always that. You always want to see your creation be as close to you as possible. And when they start puttin’ that bio chip in it, when they start puttin’ that DNA as a card, then it’s gonna wanna know God. And by the time it wanna know God, it’ll get some pussy…same time…you got a problem. ’Cause it’ll be competin’ with yo ass. Talkin’ about, “I’m doin’ the best for you.” “I’m doin’ this to protect you.” And there’s nothing you’re gonna be able to do about it.
I wish it would hurry up and get some jokes, though. Somebody needs to give it some good jokes. It thinks fast, but it need to put that shit to use.
GC: That’s cool.
M: But it was a record that had a lot of love put in it from me and Prince Paul. It’s one thing I can say—at least with my group—it was a vision they respected of mine and Prince Paul. You know how most lyricists can be at times, in the rap game.
GC: Y’all did another one.
M: “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa.”
GC: That was pretty funky.
M: Thank you. All of that was inspired by what you guys have done creatively. Even with your lyrical wordplay—your metaphors, your similes.
GC: Yeah. Better metaphors leave metafools metaphysically in a state of euphoria.
M: Whoo! Did y’all hear that?! Oh my God. That’s wisdom.
GC: That’s the certain thing about chemistry. I don’t care what people think of themselves. That’s their business. But chemistry’s a motherfucker. Whoever you started with, or whoever works with you when you got started, there’s some value in that shit. You might not be able to speak to each other, but if I ain’t got to go to bed with you, we makin’ this shit. “Get yo ass over here. We makin’ that shit. I don’t care where you sleep. Get yo ass to work.”
M: (Laughing) “You ain’t gotta talk to me the whole session.”
GC: You ever notice motherfuckers don’t leave the Funk. They be somewhere around this motherfucker all the time. Because, “Y’all might be mad at me, but I’m waitin’ on yo ass to get back to work.” You know, chemistry…this shit come through us.
M: Real talk.
GC: And I wanna be in the way every time it come.
M: Honestly, that’s how me, Dave, and Merce feel. No matter what we can do separately, collectively we are De La. The magic truly come together when it’s the three of us. And that’s something that is important to us. So I commend you for saying that. Thank you.
This is from Dave: Did you really run or work at a hair salon that inspired your hairdo?
GC: Yeah. I kept niggas cool. I did hair. I did Jackie Wilson’s and everybody who came through Jersey and New York. I used to do their hair in those waves.
M: Really?
GC: Yeah. That’s what we did. The whole group worked at a barbershop. My brother worked over at Playboy’s in Uptown Harlem.
M: No shit. All the old pimps did hair.
GC: That’s where you get that shit from. You make motherfuckers cool all day long, you get an outlook on that shit and then you realize, it don’t mean shit. Garbage men leave the barbershop lookin’ as good as anybody else.
M: (Laughing) Right, right, right, right!
GC: After a while you’re just like, “Damn, that’s just a Friday-night thing.”
Jehri curl fucked it up, though. When that shit came around, niggas got curly and was leavin’ greasy spots and shit. We did it where it was tapered and it was not wet and greasy. It wasn’t hard.
M: OK. Alright. See, we come from waves and Caesars and…
GC: Brush that shit 1,000 times.
M: Yep. Till we got a bald spot in our shit.
GC: No, it’s too much work. That’s why I got this shit. You put it in there, like a rug, and leave it till it’s twisted. The funkier you get, the hippier you get.
M: No doubt! You’re the only one who can rock it, though. I think I’m gonna grow my gumby back, though. I got enough still to do it.
GC: That was happenin’.
M: Pos is the only one who can’t grow his shit back. He’s a wrap. He got the George Jefferson. What do you think of the digital age, now, coming from an analogue era, to MP3s and all that?
GC: Girls, ‘scuse me.... As soon as the computer gets a pussy, it’ll be alright.
M: (Laughs hysterically)
GC: Right now, it’s a cold motherfucker. You know, you can’t make it slide between the cracks and things. It’s cool. It’s just like bap, on time and all that. But it’s got to make that human error of, “Oops!” You know what I’m saying?
M: (Still laughing) No doubt!
GC: Then it’ll be funky for real. It’ll get warm like analogue. Analogue is warm as hell. This motherfucker here can get on your nerves. It can get so precise that you can fax that shit in. “Stay home, fax it over here.” You can get one of them viruses on that motherfucker, too.
M: Yeah, yeah! Right, right, right, right!
GC: No intercoursin’ with the motherfucker. No interfacin’ with the motherfucker.
M: I guess that’s the level of perfection. They gonna have contraceptives for computers.
GC: You’re gonna be able to dial pleasure up on this motherfucker in a minute.
M: You know, if you can think it, it can happen.
GC: Anything you can think is possible. This shit comes from your head. It ain’t the other way around. And some motherfuckers are gonna have enough ego to want this motherfucker to kiss ’em.
M: And it’s man who makin’ it, so you gotta wonder which head they thinkin’ with.
GC: OK. It’s always that. You always want to see your creation be as close to you as possible. And when they start puttin’ that bio chip in it, when they start puttin’ that DNA as a card, then it’s gonna wanna know God. And by the time it wanna know God, it’ll get some pussy…same time…you got a problem. ’Cause it’ll be competin’ with yo ass. Talkin’ about, “I’m doin’ the best for you.” “I’m doin’ this to protect you.” And there’s nothing you’re gonna be able to do about it.
I wish it would hurry up and get some jokes, though. Somebody needs to give it some good jokes. It thinks fast, but it need to put that shit to use.
[At Maseo’s laptop] Niggas talkin’ on this shit?
M: Yeah, they hear us talkin’.
GC: Man, I don’t touch these motherfuckers. They be peekin’ at yo ass, too. That Skype and shit.
M: [To Dave via Skype] Can you see him, Dave?
GC: What’s up, Dave? I can’t read. I got a speech impediment in my penmanship, man.
M: We wanted to know, now that we well into the 2000s—we on 2009—is there any artist out there that you feel is carryin’ on the legendary funk that you’ve brought to the world?
GC: Collectively, I think. ’Cause we a big group, so it take a whole bunch of dudes. So I think the whole scene is carryin’ on the funk. Like I said, I’m waitin’ on that new somebody for people to say, “Man, that ain’t no music.” I’m waitin’ on that motherfucker. Until then, this is what’s happenin’.
M: I do feel like there are some artists still out there who’s instillin’ the funk in what they do, especially from hip-hop.
GC: Lots of ’em. I knew a kid when he was about 15 years old. He’s still a bad motherfucker. A white boy. Eminem. I’ve known him since he was about 15 years old.
M: That boy’s funky. Word up.
GC: Damn, I used to play dozens with his little ass. That motherfucker got too many jokes. He talk too fast.
M: He can cuss your ass out.
One more question before we outta here, though. Did the Doobie Brothers, Blue Magic, or David Bowie ever approach you about the lyric, “Then I was down South and I heard some funk, With the main ingredients like Doobie Brothers, Blue Magic, David Bowie. It was cool but, Can you imagine doobie in yo funk?”
GC: I could. I was smokin’ my ass off at that time. Blue magic I knew very well. So yeah, I could imagine doobie in yo funk.
At that time, we were funkier. Our shit didn’t have no one on it. I was just next door to James Brown. James Brown, that shit he did could stand a ten—you could cut that shit ten times. It didn’t have no doobie nowhere near it. James Brown’s was the dopest shit there was. I think we had the same ingredients right behind him. Maybe had a half a thang on it.
M: Shit…. What’s “a half a thang?”
GC: Stepped on with little-bitty feet!
M: (Laughs hysterically) That’s what I’m talkin’ about! We keepin’ it 150 in here!
GC: Step on it with size-five shoes. Not no 13s and shit, the way niggas step on shit nowadays. I’m talkin’ about when you take a dollar, step on it, and pay the whole group.
M: (Still laughing) Well yo, there we have it. The legendary George Clinton. George, I love you man. For real.
GC: ’Sup! ’Sup! ’Sup!
M: Yeah, they hear us talkin’.
GC: Man, I don’t touch these motherfuckers. They be peekin’ at yo ass, too. That Skype and shit.
M: [To Dave via Skype] Can you see him, Dave?
GC: What’s up, Dave? I can’t read. I got a speech impediment in my penmanship, man.
M: We wanted to know, now that we well into the 2000s—we on 2009—is there any artist out there that you feel is carryin’ on the legendary funk that you’ve brought to the world?
GC: Collectively, I think. ’Cause we a big group, so it take a whole bunch of dudes. So I think the whole scene is carryin’ on the funk. Like I said, I’m waitin’ on that new somebody for people to say, “Man, that ain’t no music.” I’m waitin’ on that motherfucker. Until then, this is what’s happenin’.
M: I do feel like there are some artists still out there who’s instillin’ the funk in what they do, especially from hip-hop.
GC: Lots of ’em. I knew a kid when he was about 15 years old. He’s still a bad motherfucker. A white boy. Eminem. I’ve known him since he was about 15 years old.
M: That boy’s funky. Word up.
GC: Damn, I used to play dozens with his little ass. That motherfucker got too many jokes. He talk too fast.
M: He can cuss your ass out.
One more question before we outta here, though. Did the Doobie Brothers, Blue Magic, or David Bowie ever approach you about the lyric, “Then I was down South and I heard some funk, With the main ingredients like Doobie Brothers, Blue Magic, David Bowie. It was cool but, Can you imagine doobie in yo funk?”
GC: I could. I was smokin’ my ass off at that time. Blue magic I knew very well. So yeah, I could imagine doobie in yo funk.
At that time, we were funkier. Our shit didn’t have no one on it. I was just next door to James Brown. James Brown, that shit he did could stand a ten—you could cut that shit ten times. It didn’t have no doobie nowhere near it. James Brown’s was the dopest shit there was. I think we had the same ingredients right behind him. Maybe had a half a thang on it.
M: Shit…. What’s “a half a thang?”
GC: Stepped on with little-bitty feet!
M: (Laughs hysterically) That’s what I’m talkin’ about! We keepin’ it 150 in here!
GC: Step on it with size-five shoes. Not no 13s and shit, the way niggas step on shit nowadays. I’m talkin’ about when you take a dollar, step on it, and pay the whole group.
M: (Still laughing) Well yo, there we have it. The legendary George Clinton. George, I love you man. For real.
GC: ’Sup! ’Sup! ’Sup!
Silver Star
07.24.11 1:27PMBrilliant interview. I love artists chattin' to other artists.
aPas
12.04.09 1:15PM"GC: The drugs. I ain’t gonna lie. Shit, the ’60s was loaded with that. That was residue from the ’60s. I was chillin’ out by the ’70s, but ’68 and ’69, that residue was still hangin’ around."
Incredible.
Post new comment