Make My Funk the P-Funk

P-Funk keyboardist Daniel Bedrosian brings to life the recording and musical activity of Parliament-Funkadelic in 1975, an epoch-making year marked by the release of three seminal albums: Chocolate City, Let’s Take It to the Stage, and Mothership Connection. By the end of it, George Clinton and P-Funk were catapulted into superstardom, becoming a massive platinum success with multiple hit singles.

Incorporating exclusive insights and memories from significant P-Funk members, including Clinton himself, the book investigates how P-Funk evolved throughout the year and eventually crystallised a unique sound most associated with the group. Bedrosian pulls back the curtain on these three albums, revealing important details of production styles, artistic processes, musical influences, themes, historical importance, and so much more. He also dives into major P-Funk lore and political and social influences during this time, including Clinton’s Afrofuturism.

At the beginning of 1975, Chocolate City – as a tribute to Washington D.C. – saw George Clinton putting Black people in the White House. By the end of the year, Mothership Connection – much more a movement than an album – saw him launching Black people into space, solidifying the band’s music as its own subgenre and laying down the foundation for many different types of popular music, including hip-hop.