Bhi Bhiman on Sly and the Family Stone's "Stand!" (1969)

Explicit content warning

04/11/19 • 55 min

The Album: Sly and the Family Stone: Stand! (1969)

When San Francisco’s Sylvester Stewart and his Family Stone released Stand! in the spring of the 1969, it further cemented the group’s reputation as the definitive pop act of the era, whose multiracial makeup mirrored the band’s multi-musical fluency in rock, pop, soul and funk. They captured the post-summer of love optimism of the times in songs like “Everyday People” and “You Can Make It If You Try” and though those good times wouldn’t last in the years to follow, for that brief, shining moment, Stand! thrust Sly and the Family Stone into the spotlight as avatars for a national feeling of possibility and positivity. Can it be it was all so simple then? Stand! was the pick of guest Bhi Bhiman, the singer/songwriter from Los Angeles (by way of St. Louis). Armed with an eclectic set of influences, Bhiman's dabbled in everything from songwriting with The Coup's Boots Riley to collaborating with comedian Keegan-Michael Key to releasing his most recent album, 2019's Peace of Mind, as a podcast. Together, we discuss how Stand! reflected the soon-to-be-dashed optimism of its time, how the Family Stone doesn't get enough credit for Sly's sound and ponder how Ike and Tina Turner managed to rip off "Sing a Simple Song" without catching heat. More on Bhi Bhiman

Interview with Billboard
"In 'Rhythm,' Bhi Bhiman's Music Isn't Limited By National Borders" (NPR)
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Previous Episode

The Art of Sampling #1, James Brown's "In the Jungle Groove" (1984)

The Album: James Brown: In the Jungle Groove (1986) This is the first of what will eventually be four episodes, released quarterly, that focus on the art of sampling. As Morgan explains in this episode, sampling isn't simply a key aesthetic within pop music styles, especially hip-hop, it's also an important way through which the past becomes present, allowing us to rediscover artists of yore. No artist in the 1980s benefitted more from this than James Brown. By the end of the decade, Brown's long funk discography had seemingly been mined thousands of ways over but if you had to trace things back to a ground zero, you'd find In the Jungle Groove, the 1986 compilation from Polydor that practically felt designed for sampling, especially by highlighting some of Brown's fiercest and funkiest tracks, complete with new edits and remixes, none more far-reaching than "Funky Drummer," a former 45-only jam that the comp not only released in its full form but also took Clyde Stubblefield's iconic breakbeat and looped it into its own standalone track. For our inaugural Art of Sampling episode, we revisit In the Jungle Groove and talk about both our favorite songs off the comp as well as our favorite uses of those various tracks. Listen to how we give it up and turn it loose. More on In the Jungle Groove

Album reviews (Rolling Stone 500 and Pop Matters)
Sampling database (WhoSampled)
"The natural history of the 'Funky Drummer' break"

Show Tracklisting (all songs from In the Jungle Groove unless indicated otherwise):

Funky Drummer
Digable Planets: Where I'm From
N.W.A.: Fuck Tha Police
Public Enemy: Fight the Power
Funky Drummer
Nas: Get Down
The Incredible Bongo Band: Apache
Nas: Made You Look
Masta Ace Incorporated: Boom Bashin'
George Michael: Waiting For That Day
Skull Snaps: It's A New Day
The Winstons: Amen Brother
Public Enemy: Bring the Noise
Funky Drummer
Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose
Talkin' Loud And Sayin' Nothing
Keek and Qagee: Don't Say It, Sing It
Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose
Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved
Gang Starr: Gotch U
CeCe Peniston: Finally (Remix)
Full Force: Ain't My Type of Hype
Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved
Hot Pants
I Got To Move
Showbiz and AG: Diggin' In The Crates
Cypress Hill: How I Can Just Kill A Man (Blunted Remix)
Funky Drummer

Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.

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Next Episode

Sy Smith on Meshell Ndgeocellos "Plantation Lullabies" (1993)

When Plantation Lullabies first hit the scene back in 1993, there wasn't anything really like it. Meshell Ndgeocello was a bald, badass, and bold woman with bars talking about sexuality, racism, and gender relations while paving the way for neo-soul music and artists.

Plantation Lullabies gave us many, many things, and Sy Smith (who has played alongside Meshell for years) came by the studio to talk to us about it. We discuss the impact it had on neo-soul, the shades of funk and go-go throughout the record, and the freedom it offered to black America.

Settle in, because this episode and this album are essential to any Heat Rocker.