Cut the intro, let's get the roll on!
A few months ago I saw a 4onefunktion show in San Francisco's Elbo Room. They were opening up for the now hip to the press and blog starchild, Dam Funk, Los Angeles boogie DJ and new Stonesthrow signed West coast luminary. The sounds of 4onefunktion and thumping, sticket cosmo-boogie set courtesy of Dam Funk catalyzed my monstrous fascination for boogie funk.
Digging through the virtual crates of boogie, I quickly fell upon Zapp, a boogie band that I heard endlessly on Power 106 throwback shoes when I was kid, little did I know. And, I think little could I appreciate the sounds of Zapp's "Computer Love" or "More Bounce to the Ounce" when I was snot nosed Jewish kid, not knowing anything of throbbing dance clubs or electronized blues love ballads. Times have changed. Although I'm still Jewish, years of grinding with Hiphop, from the spray paint to the swagger, have certainly informed me how fucking amazing this music is.
Zapp was formed in 1978 among the Troutman brothers, Roger at its head with Terry, or "Zapp", on the vocals. The vocals though are insane. They are the blues sent from Jupiter. The talk box zapped down from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, upgraded for the electronic age, and made souful by sliding effortlessly through melodic chords over heavily synthesized hand-clap slapp bass. The songs are multilayered and polyrythmic, definitely taking influence from the sustained beats and switchovers, sometimes without ever needing a bridge, that define the P-Funk sound.
The tightest album is the 1982 Zapp II, the creatively titled second album, sandwiched between the groundbreaking Zapp of 1980, which made the band famous with "More Bounce..." (the still most sampled track in their repertoire) and Zapp III of '83. All the joints pack heat, beginning with eleven minutes of the nasty, synth groove "Dance Floor", that achieves just what its name suggests when cut up on the wheels of steel. But the most satisfying, the absolutely delicious, and fucking furious kick comes with "Doo Wa Ditty", the track that inspired the sound of G-Funk, and helped define the sonic vibrations of a whole generation of Los Angeles gangsta' funk. And Zapp can flip up the style, smoothing the bump with the melodic groove pummeled on with a balance between keyboard and synth heavy rhythms on "A Touch of Jazz".
Picture it: slick low-riders cruising down the block under the spotlight of ghetto birds, you know that grand theft auto type shit, bumping up and down to the sounds of... Zapp baby.
What would Dre be without Zapp. What grind would Snoop be on? Would Warren G had ever learned how to sing? Or would Cube have ever kicked it with Angela Davis and releashed Lynch Mob monster moves on Death Certificate? All this of course led up to Tupac's funky apotheosis with "California Love", arranged by Zapp and featuring the talk-box in its electric prime. To flip over the cliches about West Coast sound, let's not forget that EPMD sampled "More Bounce..." in their most popular, and still lasting track, "You Gots to Chill."
Boogie is the funk that connects the dots for me. This is the synth banging, club throbbing, wet and sticky funky soul music that connects up my love for the James Brown brand of funk and the dirty electronic grooves.
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