Borough President Melinda Katz and NYC Parks present the Only in Queens Summer Festival featuring George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic.
P-Funk architect & funk innovator with a host of Queen’s own classic hip-hop pioneers as part of The Only In Queens Summer Festival
George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
The granddaddy of funk! Rock and Roll Hall of Famer George Clinton, along with James Brown and Sly Stone, is credited as one of the principal engineers of funk, a groovy mix of soul, R&B, disco and rock elements. Clinton started off his prolific career as a staff songwriter at Motown Records in the 1960’s. He later orchestrated the construction of two of the earliest bands in the funk classification, Parliament and Funkadelic, which would eventually merge under the name P-Funk (which later morphed into the P-Funk All-Stars). Their sound was a magnificent union of influencers Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Brown (The Godfather of Soul), and would earn them over 40 R&B smash singles (with three #1’s) and an impressive three platinum albums. The 80’s saw Clinton’s solo career launch (still performing with numerous members of P-Funk), as well as a delving into producing, for hot acts Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bootsy Collins and more. With wildly named tracks like “Loopzilla,” “Atomic Dog,” and “Do Fries Go with That Shake?” (that perfectly mirrored his kaleidoscopic sound), Clinton continued to top the charts. Clinton delighted as rap artists sampled his music, enjoying the compensation. As he put it, “Aint a better time to get paid than when you’re my age.” With sixteen albums to his name, Clinton continues to tour and set the stage afire with original funk.
Main Source
One of the only hip hop groups in history to unite artists from New York City and Canada, Main Source’s diversified sound is due in no small part to their border-crossing origins. The original lineup included two Toronto-based DJ/producers, Sir Scratch and K-Cut, and one Queens-native MC/producer, Large Professor. The aforementioned Professor would eventually vacate the group and be replaced by New York local MC Mikey D, keeping the Queens contingency intact. The unit’s first album, 1991’s Breaking Atoms, was well received, with thought-provoking singles “Looking at the Front Door,” “A Friendly Game of Baseball,” and “Watch Roger Do His Thing” getting the most traction. A brief derailment for the group followed, but with Mikey D supplanted into the reformed trio, they were able to release 1994’s (Expletive) What You Think. The group was propelled to an even wider audience as Madonna sampled the bassline track from “What You Need” for her hit “Human Nature.” All of the group’s members (past and present) continued to enjoy success in the industry, with K-Cut breaking out and producing music for the likes of Big Pun, Maestro Fresh-Wes, Fu-Schnickens, Queen Latifah, and Shaquille O’Neal.
Marley Marl
Hosted by Roxanne Shante