George Clinton and Funkadelic have just dropped some futuristic visuals for ““Ain’t That Funkin Kinda Hard on You (We Ain’t Never Gonna Stop Remix)”. The track and the video also feature Kendrick Lamar and Ice Cube.
The video starts off with Kendrick manning a spaceship and abducting a very lucky victim from New Mexico (which is known for its number of spaceship sightings for all those alien enthusiasts out there). The rest of the video is exactly what we would expect from George Clinton and Funkadelic- there’re crazy costumes and of course a raging party that merely looks like a futuristic version of those banging block parties that go down in the heart of summer.
In a recent interview, Clinton admitted that he when he heard Kendrick’s “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe”, he thought he sounded “silly as hell” but changed his mind about the rapper after working with him on “Wesley’s Theory” for TPAB. The funk master went on to say of Kendrick, “He reminds me of Sly Stone in the way he’s poetic and political” and Kendrick’s “choice of artists like Flying Lotus, Ronnie Isley, Pharrell Williams, and myself to work on the record shows he knows how to pick the right shit to make a real record for today”. Thank god Clinton saw the light or else we’d seriously be missing one of the key funk components that made TPAB so unique and groovy.
The remix of “Ain’t That Funkin Kinda Hard on You” and the music video for it serves as a reminder of the importance, potency and versatility of funk music. It endures decades after its pinnacle in the music industry and is interwoven into contemporary music in ways that we may not initially notice. Of course we can hear the funk inspirations in TPAB but hearing Ice Cube rap over the funky bass heavy beat reminds us of the G Funk era in hip-hop that influenced and continues to influence so many artists and rappers. Everything from the synths to the bass line are elements that George Clinton and Funkadelic gave to us through their music.
The futuristic themes of the music video really bring home the fact that while funk was birthed decades ago, it is still very much in the cards for the future. Watch it below to get your full dose of funk for the day.