5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Michael Hampton of Parliament Funkadelic

Name  Michael Hampton a.k.a. Kidd Funkadelic

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Best known for  Joining Parliament Funkadelic at age 17, and over the past 50 years playing more than 5,000 shows in 400 cities across six continents with them, totaling over 10,000 hours on stage. I certainly didn’t count all that up, a friend calculated it with AI help on the research. It’s hard to grasp all that, but I can feel it.

Current city: Morrisville, PA

Really want to be in  I’m plenty satisfied in this chair in my living room. But give it a few hours, I’ll probably want to be back playing in Japan or Australia or somewhere. Maybe in Milan playing at the Olympics.

Excited about  The two albums I’ve released since last summer (LG350 Guitar, Into the Public Domain), and the two more new albums I’ve already got in the bag (King Kong, The Kidd). I’m also pretty pumped for the studio sessions I’ve got coming up with Joe “The Butcher” Nicolo.

My current music collection has a lot of  Kamasi Washington, The Weeknd, Sevendust, Django Reinhardt, Chimaira, Kiss, Cypress Hill,  Led Zeppelin, Tower of Power, live Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Eric Gales.

And a little bit of  Classical guitar, high-energy gospel, German electronic.

Preferred format  YouTube, because I still love learning new music, and on YouTube I can slow down videos to learn fast songs. First time I used YouTube though, something went wrong and it sounded like a record melting. I had heard records skip and lose speed before, but this sounded like ghosts swimming in lava or something. I thought I might be losing it, then I found out what buffering problems are. The internet won’t last forever though, so I still collect CDs.

5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:

1

Band of Gypsys, Jimi Hendrix

Band of Gypsys represents a real coming of age for me. I was almost a teenager when I bought it, starting to notice girls, feeling cool being good at baseball. It was the first Hendrix I ever encountered, and it completely evolved what I thought music could be. I had heard scratchy distortion before on Wilson Picket’s “Engine Number 9”, but Jimi, no comparison, he took that sound to the moon. Me and my friends used to bang out hand drums on my father’s car while listening to the album. We probably dented his hood up something serious while listening to “Who Knows.” People call Band of Gypsyssome of the earliest funk rock, which is a style I’m told I helped to establish, so I must have learned some tricks studying it. When I first got a guitar it definitely pushed me to practice, and honestly, it still does.

2

Greatest Hits, Sly & The Family Stone

Everything on here is total gold, but “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” was a life-changer for me. I recall entering a house party the weekend the album came out, that track was playing, and suddenly, for the first time, I felt like I could actually dance. I wasn’t afraid to get loose, I wasn’t self-conscious anymore, you know? All due respect to the Holy Ghost, but that night, during that song, I felt something like the Ghost in me. I had been developing some early, weak version of the Robot dance alone in my room, I busted that out in front of everybody, and boy did I ever feel like the man. Those lyrics—“Thank you for letting me be myself”—they totally represented my feelings. I went at it that night until my friends sat me down, a few times. Whenever I doubt myself, this album helps brings me back to trusting my instincts.

3

Super Bad, James Brown

Super Bad did for me what Sly’s music did, but instead of simple confidence, it had me wanting my very own style that no one could replicate. I had no idea what James was singing about, what those grunts and noises meant, but that man wasn’t asking any questions. I’d put the album on and I’d feel just as bold as him. Super Bad was also when I learned what “being in the pocket” means. At the time, I really couldn’t describe what I was hearing, but the band wasn’t just playing well, they were so locked-in the music seemed like it was playing itself. For those unfamiliar, the pocket is a sweet spot in the rhythm where players can lay back on the beat, and just ride a united groove with no effort. It’s the key to funk really. It was so magical, the only reminder it was normal people playing was I could hear a foot pedal squeaking throughout the recording. Super Bad may be the pinnacle of funk for me, and probably will be until we’re done on this physical plane.

4

Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow, Funkadelic 

Free Your Mind… (1970) was when was when Funkadelic really started feeling one-of-a-kind to me, interdimensional if you will. The grooves on that self-titled album were amazing, but this album had a serious wow factor to it. Just how perfectly they used the effects, the studio edits, the mixing mastery. A song would start one way and build like a train gaining speed, then change up entirely, but still feel right on point. No matter what crazy stuff was happening, or where it ended, it all made sense. What Bernie Worrell was doing on keyboard and Eddie Hazel on guitar were big parts of that. They kept everything held together when things got way out there. If you’d have told me back then I’d be playing with those guys, I would have told you to see a doctor. This was the last Funkadelic album before I joined, and listening to it reminds me of the days right before my life adventure with them began.

5

Meddle, Pink Floyd

My older brother turned me onto Meddle. I was around 11 years old, and it was some of the first music I’d ever heard coming off of vinyl, so that was incredibly special. My mind couldn’t process how the music was going from the vinyl to the needle to the speakers. Watching and hearing that happen was a wild enough experience, but listening to “Echoes,” the song that takes up the whole B-side, I kid you not, that was my first real psychedelic experience. I hadn’t had my first drink yet, and I was truly tripping out. Around that time, I had been wondering what a studio looked like, and the effects on that song really sent my imagination spinning. I was really into sci-fi as a kid and it felt like it could be the soundtrack to a sci-fi movie. The A-side is great too. It’s a perfect album to listen to in one sitting, and it was the first chilled-out, dreamy music that I really got into. It’s still a cool one to throw on these days, forget the world, and just zone out. 

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Name  Michael Hampton a.k.a. Kidd Funkadelic Best known for  Joining Parliament Funkadelic at age 17, and over the past 50 years playing more than 5,000 shows in 400 cities across six continents with them, totaling over 10,000 hours on stage. I certainly didn’t count all that up, a friend calculated it with AI help on the research. […]Liza Lentini{authorlink}https://www.spinmagazine.com/feed/SPINMusic News, Album Reviews, Concert Photos, Videos and Morehttps://static.spinmagazine.com/files/2023/08/cropped-logo-spin-s-340×340.png