Of all the obnoxious, nonsensical electronic styles out there, how the hell didn’t ghetto funk get to be the biggest? Back in 2011, we so badly wanted it to be the next big thing, but didn’t happen. All the decent ghetto funk hits were remixes and the much more garish electronic styles owned the years up ’til now.
The reason I’m such an advocate for this style of electro funk is that like the thing it’s attached to most, remixes, ghetto funk is meant to be taken lightheartedly with a sound much more for mindless dancing – in the best sense of the word – than anything else. I’d actually say it’s my favorite style to dance to overall, though individual songs are a different story.
It kind of reminds me of what swing might have felt like back in the day.
Remixes are more subjective than their original. What I mean is not only is the sound important, but the sound relative to the original as well. How good, how different.
So not everyone is going to like every one of these. Sometimes we’re all just too wrapped up in the original to enjoy it at a new angle and sometimes they’re just not perfectly mastered. Most of these producers haven’t hit big enough to have the resources for that, but it doesn’t mean they don’t know how to put sounds together.
In only two months we’re on our second best of remixes for 2014 (vol 1) and there are too many good ones to count (21). It’s mostly on the electro-house | disco-soul spectrums, but when is it not on here (we love our disco-soul). We also threw in some Ghetto Funk to bring it back.
One thing we’re finding with these 2014 remix lists are the mashups are lacking. I don’t know if my ear is getting uptight or what, but I still can’t find a single damn good mashup in 2014. Well, one of these are technically a mashup, but I bet you can’t spot it.
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/154079512" params="color=000000&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="20" iframe="true" /]Bobby C has been the go to guy for my Ghetto Funk needs lately and now the label has released a quad-banger of his for all of us. The Bobby C Sound TV EP is comprised mostly of rap & reggae funksters signed with that BCST carefree, lazer funk sound. If we only had more Ghetto Funk like Bobby on our radios this wouldn’t be such an underground gem. Spread it wide, people.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/79428991" iframe="false" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18" /]The Indian dialect is one of the very few outside the US that I actually enjoy listening to musically. I guess it comes down to the beat and how they flow to it that gives ’em their charm.
In Bobby C Sound TV’s latest, ‘Yogi Fire’ has that Indian-style finesse with the ghetto bass Bobby C helped make so popular, at least on here. And although the vocals on the track may remind me too much of the Bollywood stereotyped song & dance, once that bass kicks in, all things go good!
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/52689920" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18" width="60%"]Bobby C is know around here for his television ghetto wobblin’ and now he’s up to no good on a classic hip-hop soundtrack. If you haven’t heard the Geto Boy’s “Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta” or the movie that made it so popular, Office Space, then what the shit kinda movies have you been watching all these years Either way, his upbeat, ghetto funk rendition of this gangsta ass beat is a hell of a romper.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/35410460" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18"]To start off our Best of’s for 2011, we went with one of the more obscure lists, duh Ghetto Funk. If you don’t know what ghetto funk is then you better get to knowin it. With a blend of electro funk and bass buzzin wobbles, ghetto funk is the next evolution in the genre.
Our list is filled with ghetto funkers remixing the soulful classics, ranging from Jurassic 5 to Hall & Oates. A few of these are from late 2010, but they didn’t get to go up on our last year’s Ghetto Funk list (because there wasn’t one), and they’re just too damn good not to put up on here. So prepare yoself for a funky good time.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/15625706" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18"]I can rave and rant about how well this Ghetto Funk hits, but I think I’ve set it enough, especially with hip-hop! This time Bobby C “Shuts em Down” with Public Enemy in one of his best ghetto funk remixes, yet. DAMN, does this shit BUMP! (sorry just one more time)
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/30532791" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18"]Not only can Bobby C funk out some of my favorite classic rap tracks (check it), but he also puts a fiine ghetto funk spin to some funny ass comedic bits. This time round he puts it on one of The Lonely Island’s best bits, “it’s not gay, when it’s in a 3-way.” Funny & Funky = good times.
If you’re diggin this, make sure to check his remix of Flight of the Conchords’ “Sugar Lumps.”
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/27970333" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18"]Damn it’s good to hear some De La Soul revived. And damn does Bobby C revive it with a classic feel, bringing out those funky instrumentals more than ever before. Which actually brings up my biggest qualm with hip-hop, like De La, from back in the day – the instrumentals never seemed to be fully expressed. Was it because that was the standard or just a lack of quality production Either way, Bobby C fully expresses it here.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/26556484" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18"]I realized with these ghetto funk producers that choosin the right tracks doesn’t rely too much on the production as much as the choice of vocals. For the most part, if you pick the right producer that ghetto funk will be alive in every track, but their choice of singers & MC’s separates the good from the ghetto great.
Originally, this feature was going to be about the Ghetto Funk collective which Bobby C is a part of. Going through all their music, I realized half of my picks were from Bobby C. So I decided to give this post up to him and leave the rest of the Ghetto Funkness for later.
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