Funk Music Icon George Clinton Has the Best Thoughts Ever on 'Cultural Appropriation'
One of the great blessings of my life is that I had older brothers who exposed me to a way broader and more eclectic selection of music than all my buddies who were listening to the same FM stations as everybody else. For that I’m eternally grateful. And one of the relatively obscure groups we listened to in my house was Parliament-Funkadelic. If you’re not familiar, think of them as an Earth, Wind & Fire, but with the groundbreaking Funk of a James Brown.
Now Rolling Stone has an interview with the band’s front man George Clinton, the musical genius who coined the phrase “Free your mind and your ass will follow.” And while the whole interview is great, it’s Clinton’s take on “cultural appropriation” that is the true money shot:
How do you feel about white artists doing black music?
I’d bite off the Beatles, or anybody else. It’s all one world, one planet and one groove. You’re supposed to learn from each other, blend from each other, and it moves around like that. You see that rocket ship leave yesterday? We can maybe leave this planet. We gonna be dealing with aliens. You think black and white gonna be a problem? Wait till you start running into motherfuckers with three or four dicks! Bug-eyed motherfuckers! They could be ready to party, or they could be ready to eat us. We don’t know, but we’ve got to get over this shit of not getting along with each other.
Holy shit. It’s like this 76-year-old who was dropping LSD at Woodstock has become the sage of our times. Seriously, this isn’t an answer to an interview question, it’s a manifesto. These words should taught to every college kid. Especially the ones running around burning all their calories worrying about whether Justin Timberlake is stealing black culture or Bruno Mars sounds too white or whatever. Better yet, it should be chiseled in granite at the main entrance to ever institution of higher learning in the country, immediately.
A guy like George Clinton grew up witnessing vile shit like Jim Crow laws and segregated drinking fountains. And to him, music was the way to bring people together, not separate them further. To unite, not divide. And still is. The whole history of music has been about blending styles to make something new and magical. That’s how Blues and Country had a baby named Rock & Roll. And he’s absolutely right that when we run into aliens with four dicks and bug eyes that might be ready to party or to eat us, we’re going to regret all the time we wasted worrying about whose music belongs to who.
In all sincerity, “We’ve got to get over this shit of not getting along with each other” should be printed on all our currency. George Clinton for President, 2020.