#pulp fusion

A Song A Day #178 - When Hip Hop artists began extensively sampling old funk, soul, and jazz records in the mid-eighties it was like I was suddenly enrolled in an incredible course in musical history. I imagine that I would have inevitably gotten into James Brown but Hip Hop both accelerated and deepened my knowledge of his music and his extended family of artists. I have no sense of where my musical interests would have taken me when it comes to old funky grooves without the emergence of Rap and Hip Hop culture.

The process really took off in the late-eighties with an amazing array of sampladelic masterpieces like the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique (produced by the Dust Brothers), Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold us Back (produced by the Bomb Squad), and De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising (produced by Prince Paul). Funky nuggets and gems were be uncovered by the truckload for anyone paying close attention. Those three albums in particular just backed up the truck and dropped off the motherlode for music fans.

In the nineties we saw the rise of reissues and compilations of incredible music that the true diggers were shining a light on. The British label, Harmless, released a series of comps of “funky jazz classics and original breaks” called Pulp Fusion that were packed with great tunes. I listened to the original release in that particular series again and again. Burning Spear by S.O.U.L. (Sounds of Unity and Love) was one of my faves and something I likely would not have heard without Hip Hop and the culture of digging that it spawned. S.O.U.L. were a funky soul group from Cleveland that released only two albums, What Is It (1971) and Can You Feel It (1972) on Musicor Records.