Sly Stone/Van Hunt

With the power of funky pop being as addictive as religion, one of the musical prophets responsible for many a musical conversion is the aural superman Sly Stone. Before being schooled to Stone’s politics of artistic integration—that included the race of his band members as well as multihued influences heard in his music—the only thing that mattered to me was the electrifying mojo of his grooves. Jamming to the hypnotic tracks like “Everyday People,” “Dance to the Music” and the seminal seasonal slow dance “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” Stone’s music lit the fuse of a cultural explosion known as funk. Although in the late 1960s/early 1970s, funk was still a word your momma might slap you in the mouth for uttering aloud, it soon became part of America’s popular lexicon.

By the time the Family Stone imploded during the making of their fifth album There’s a Riot Goin’ On in 1971, funk was used to describe everything from the Flagg Bros fashions advertised in Ebony magazine to the latest blaxploitation film flickering on “Da Deuce,” to the premier soundtracks of the movement constructed by masters of the genre including James Brown, The Ohio Players and Parliament-Funkadelic. While there was no denying the frantic freakiness and bugged aural visions of the Afroed young dudes taking it to the stage and doin’ it to death on Soul Train, few could match Sly’s sheer musical audacity. He combined rock and soul, gospel and grim in a way that inspired future generations of visionary young innovators, ranging from Afrika Bambaataa to Tricky, Prince to D’Angelo.

Just listening to Voodoo, one can almost imagine ?uestlove and D watching old footage of brother Sly on Dick Cavett or Merv Griffin, before slinking their blunted selves back into Electric Lady studios. A recently bootlegged D’Angelo track “1,000 Deaths,” which sounds like Prince might be on guitar, perfectly captures that grimy jam session feel of “Thank You For Talking to me Africa” while still being absolutely, brilliantly original. And now there’s a new generation coming forward, call them Generation Soul—with funk soul brothers like Van Hunt carrying the torch that Sly sparked.

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http://www.soulsummer.com/funk-soul-brothers-van-hunt-and-sly-stone