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.
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.
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This trio, hailing from southern Germany, takes the hip-hop game and funkifies it with “beautiful crunchy bass lines, coupled with pumping grooves.” Never would I thought such funky-ass remixes could come from Germany, but they are definitely one of the top players in this funksta game right now.
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With Funkanomics’ funked out edit, “Melvin“, featuring Timbaland and now their “Jucachavezxx”, I’m becoming a real fan of these funkadelic mashup madmen.
Let’s see if we can spot all the samples on here. I’ll start it off with an easy one, Doobie Brother’s “Black Water” – though, I think it’s a cover, hmmm…
[audio:Jucachavezxx.mp3|titles=Jucachavezxx]
At the school of Funkanomics, Timbaland is head of the GhettoFunk department. (eh, I tried)
From the first beat, Funkanomics’ “Melvin” fulfilled my funkelic needs. But when Timbaland dropped in, he took the track to a whole new level. Timba needs to lean on funk a little more, beatwise, hopefully this will open up his ears to it.