Interview

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will host a Hall of Fame Series interview with inductee George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic on Saturday, July 30 at 1 p.m. in the Museum’s Foster Theater.

Clinton will be interviewed by the Rock Hall’s Curatorial Director Howard Kramer. Questions will be taken from the audience at the end of the interview. George Clinton is the founder and principal songwriter of Parliament-Funkadelic and has been a solo funk artist since the early 1980s. He has been called one of the most important innovators of funk music, next to James Brown and Sly Stone.

Inspired by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, George Clinton formed a doo wop group called the Parliaments as a teenager in New Jersey in the 1960s. The Parliaments eventually found success under the names Parliament and Funkadelic in the 1970. The two groups combined elements of bands and musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Cream and James Brown while exploring different sounds, technology, and lyricism. The group garnered more than 40 R&B hit singles (including three Number Ones) as well as three platinum albums. Since the 1980s, Clinton has been performing and recording as a solo artist and is considered to be one of the most sampled musicians of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 with Parliament-Funkadelic and continues to tour solo and with the band throughout the world. In addition to his own music, Clinton has produced records for artists such as Bootsy Collins and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has appeared in numerous films and television shows and is a longtime supporter and advocate of musician’s rights.

In conjunction with his Hall of Fame Series interview, George Clinton will perform with Parliament-Funkadelic at this year’s annual Family Unity in the Park Concert & Fireworks Show on Saturday, July 30. Located in Luke Easter Park at Kinsman and Martin Luther King Boulevard in Mt. Pleasant, the concert is FREE and open to the public, and will also feature performances by Sugarfoot’s Ohio Players and Anthony David.

Funk legend George Clinton has launched legal action against the Black Eyed Peas over allegations they illegally sampled his classic hit "(Not Just) Knee Deep" on the remix to their single "Shut Up."

Clinton's lawyers filed the copyright infringement suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Friday.

In the court papers, the veteran star claims the Black Eyed Peas have cashed in on their 2003 track at his expense, thanks to various remixes released as a result of the chart smash.

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Biography

Parliament-Funkadelic is a Funk music collective headed by George Clinton, that specialized in the style of music known as P Funk and performed under the names Parliament and Funkadelic (two bands consisting of the same members, recording for different labels), but also in a score of offshoot groups and solo ventures. Recording under myriad names, this group had thirteen Top Ten hits in the U.S. R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983, including six number one hits in the R&B Charts. They were elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Collectively, the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically-charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums, and memorable live performances. Today the band tours as either George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars or George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic.

The etymology of the term P-Funk is subject to multiple interpretations. It has been identified alternately as an abbreviation of “Parliament-Funkadelic”, “pure funk” or “Plainfield Funk”, referring to Plainfield, New Jersey, the hometown of the band’s original line-up. The liner notes of CD versions of the Motor Booty Affair album suggest that the “‘P’ stands for ‘Pure.’” The breakout popularity of Parliament-Funkadelic elevated the status of P-Funk to describe what is now considered to be a genre of music in its own right. Fans of this genre of music often refer to it as “The P.”

Parliament Funkadelic Clip