Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On

Standing on the Verge of Getting It On (1974) is deep into the P-Funk period — the psychedelic funk George Clinton built by running James Brown’s rhythmic vocabulary through Hendrix-era amplification and a cosmology all his own. Eddie Hazel’s guitar work across both Funkadelic albums carries the same quality of sustained, distorted intensity that made Hendrix’s approach distinct; Clinton absorbed it and pointed it somewhere stranger.

George Clinton’s catalogue is, sample for sample, one of the most quoted in hip-hop history — the breakbeats and bass lines that producers systematically reached for when building the sonic vocabulary of the golden age. Placing these records alongside ATCQ and Pete Rock closes a circle: the same musicians, the same grooves, appearing forty years apart in a continuous conversation.