(January 19, 2018) It’s been a long time since Parliament has created new music. Thirty-eight years to be exact. Parliament disbanded in the early 1980s, but the funk never really went away. George Clinton had hits such as “Atomic Dog” as a solo artist, and the members of the P-Funk family reconstituted and played under a variety of names, including most recently The Big Ole Nasty Getdown.
Clinton has reconstituted Parliament and the group began previewing its new single “I’m Gon’ Make U Sick of Me” in concerts in 2017. The song features some classic Parliament elements such as a driving, percussive on the one bass line and a tight horn section. “I’m Gon’ Make U Sick of Me” also features something new, in that it wasn’t something heard in popular music when Parliament was in their creative heyday in the mid and late 1970s: A rapper (Scarface). But rap really can’t be separated from Parliament or the other branches of the P-Funk family tree in four decades since rap became a force in popular music. Hip-hop and P-Funk have been linked through sampling, and perhaps only James Brown has been sampled more than the P-Funk Family. Clinton has become a mentor and frequent collaborator with rappers such as Snoop Dogg, and so it should not be surprising that rapper Scarface gets a cameo on this latest addition to the P-Funk songbook. Check it out.
Howard Dukes
Parliament feat. Scarface
“I’m Gon Make U Sick of Me”
