Hey Hey Hey... Slapbak is on tour with Shock G
It must be AMAZING Shows :lol:
"Shock G played the Bay Area recently with a veteran funk band.
Shock G teamed up with the L.A. funk band Slapbak and is on the road out west as a Hip Hop / Funk Band !
If anybody knows about Slapbak, they had an album in the early 90's with Bootsy on one track, and a lot of straight stank for the rest of that album and three or 4 more albums after that.
They have a newer CD now called "Ghetto Funkology" (
a mistake in the name... It's Funkography... Funkology is my theme in the Schkopi forum Rickey 
) and they are large in Europe. (what's new). What they have is ferocious talent in bass player Jara Harris, some killer drummers, a strong and sexy vocalist
Aleida Rodriguez, and they have mastered the (Cali?) art of rapping over funk riffs.
They have a new CD called "2 Black 4 Black Radio" and depending on your taste, it's more of the Bomb, or more of the same. But I always respect Slapbak for staying on the road, and recording HARD CORE FUNK
while too many bands struggle to get a groove on a record nowadays.
= =
I went to see this show at the DNA Lounge, a hip SF club that caters to cool Hip Hop, rock and techno bands.
After a bunch of rappers did their thing, Slapbak came onstage with their outrageous look, and Jara Harris on bass and lead vocals driving some nasty hooks into the jam.
After about three Slapbak tracks, the band went into JB's 'Payback' which is one of their strongest jams.
Shock came onstage during Payback the way George would slowly ooze onto the stage during Cosmic Slop. Very Clintonian in his chill manner.
Shock was very casual and had a dinky little backpack on, as if he just got off the Greyhound bus and went onstage. But once he got there it was all goodies.
He vamped with the band while Money B got onstage, and they broke out into "Same Song" while Payback was playing by the band. Very tight.
After some later hits like "Return of the Crazy One" the band gave way to the drums and scratches. Some other rappers like the Luniz got into the mix, while Money B did some stuff from his solo albums which do well out here.
Shock then got on the piano and started doing this jazzy trippy stuff and the band came back and vamped a lot of spacey, moody tones while folks rapped and sang a kind of melancholy, grown up hip hop thing.
Then Shock got serious about the band, and got the crowd into a singalong with Knee Deep, giving props to George Clinton at almost every verse. Then he starts rapping "Kiss You Back" on the track.
As he is rapping parts of the song, he goes into his backpack and pulls out a silly fur hat, then a tacky white blazer and finally that Humpty nose & glasses thing. He turns around and on the one flips into a spastic and energized Humpty in full effect.
He nails the pop star trip while nailing its triviality at the same time. Money B and Humpty clown all over the stage, rapping the Humpty Dance over KNEE DEEP played by Slapbak to perffection.
I was exquisitely impressed.
After all the juice was expended, the Humpty gear went into the crowd, and Shock talked about his new album "Fear of a Mixed Planet." He then starts giving props to EPMD and Kool & the Gang for doing this song he is
about to play.
Shock then teaches the crowd to sing the horn bridge to Jungle Boogie. Not just the 'get down get down' horn parts, but the entire horny bridge in Jungle Boogie, a classic complex riff from KG.
Then Shock and Money go into an icey remake of EPMD's "Youre A Customer", getting the crowd to chant the KG horn parts on the breaks. It was funk genius hip hop, with a young crowd getting schooled in how to
participate in The Funk while getting their dose of hip hop.
I was impressed again how Shock could keep funkateers and hip hoppers equally splanked in the same room.
==
I've never seen Outkast live or any other purported Hip Hop funk act, outside of P-Funk on a good night.
I did see Shinehead once, and his funky reggae hip hop band was mindblowing.
And my ears still hurt from seeing Trouble Funk way back in the 80's, and they do rap while they are blowing the walls off with percusion funk go go.
A few years back I saw the Mos Def show with Bernie Worrell and those new york Funk/rock cats, whose name I forgot. I have respect for Mos Def but he was overmatched by those mofos....
But I have NOT seen anything that blended MASSIVE FUNK with unrivaled hip hop, outside of this show.
RV
rickeyvincent.com "