In this hour, Badd Kitti curates a cross section of east coast funk, highlighting the regions’ influence on the development of the genre.

Part 1 – East Coast Funk (1970 – 1980) ** Subscribers Only **
Featuring Kool & the Gang, Mandrill, MFSB, The Black Byrds, Skyy and more…

Part 2 – Living Room Jam ** Website Only **
It’s a Party in Your Living Room! Kick off your shoes, push the furniture back and jam to Badd Kitti’s set of Heavy Funk!

Featuring The Gap Band, Rose Royce, Mass Production, Slave, and more…

– Background –
From the time James Brown released the first Funk song in 1967, his new sound was almost immediately adapted to the musical styles of nearly every region of the country.
While the west coast, led by Sly Stone, mixed funk with psychedelic rock,  and the mid-west and south had a heavy blues influence, east coast funk is mainly characterized by a mixture of jazz, and afro-cuban rhythms.

With bands such as Kool & the Gang, Mandrill and Cameo, New York’s progressive, jazzy funk dominated the east coast funk sound. However, Philadelphia’s Gamble & Huff would fuse funk with doo wop soul, and a heavy gospel feel to create what we now know as disco – a dance rhythm just as influential as Brown’s (and Clyde Stubblefield’s) “fat back” groove.

Of course these styles were mixed and matched. War (west coast) and Mandrill both adopting an afro-latin style, and Parliament/Funkadelic (east coast) under Sly’s influence, creating arguably Funk’s most enduing sound.