Parliament-Funkadelic

George Clinton built Parliament-Funkadelic as a deliberately doubled organism: Parliament on Casablanca Records delivered funk as comic-book mythology and arena-friendly pop; Funkadelic on Westbound Records played harder, more psychedelic, more abrasive versions of the same grooves. Both used the same musicians — the deep bass of Bootsy Collins, the shredding guitar of Eddie Hazel — and Clinton’s overarching conceptual vision of “Dr. Funkenstein,” the Mothership, and the One Nation of funk believers.

Mothership Connection (1975) was Parliament’s masterpiece: a concept album about an intergalactic funk parliament arriving on Earth to deliver the groove, performed with the Mothership descending on stage at arena shows. “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)” was its anthem. Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove (1978) was the counterpart: an hour-long meditation on collectivity through rhythm.

Their significance is audible in hip-hop: Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle are essentially Parliament-Funkadelic updated for the 1990s; hundreds of hip-hop producers have sampled “Flash Light,” “Atomic Dog,” and the P-Funk catalog more broadly. For this graph they are the deepest root of West Coast hip-hop’s funk heritage.