God Made Me Funky

Give urban funksters God Made Me Funky a hand. Call me jaded, but when I first received this debut disc from these self-described purveyors of the "nu-funk,” my first impulse involved intense eye-rolling and tongue clucking in anticipation of psuedo P-Funk stylings and lame-o "this is how we do it son!” type histrionics. But far from being pretentious, the 16-track project from this Toronto-based urban collective is stone cold solid — a funked-up fusion of jazz, hip-hop and R&B dipped in old school reverence. GMMF’s obvious James Brown/Parliament/Jamiroquai funk sentiment burns brightly and is backed by scintillatingly smooth musicianship. All of the standard funk motifs are present: you’ve got the call and response ("Bartenda”), the smoked out psychedelic ("Majikarpet”) and the urban anthem ("God Made Me Funky”). The subterranean groove of "Subway” will grab you, that is, if the melodic musings of lead single "Ur Own Way” isn’t already holding your ears hostage. So yeah, give GMMF a well-deserved hand. A soul clap even.