Old School Mondays:: Funkytown Pros
There’s nothing clever about this week’s OSM - I was simply rooting around in a box of hip hop cassettes, looking for something to post, when something at the bottom caught my eye. That something was my copy of Funkytown Pros one & only long-player, Reachin’ A Level of Assassination.
I say that like you or anyone else other than super rap nerds are going to know who the Funkytown Pros are, but I barely know who they are. I’ve always been confused by them, due to the simple fact that the version I have has a picture of like 10 dudes on the cover, but in reality, the Funkytown Pros appear to be mainly 2 guys: MC Boiwundah and Producer Devastatin’ The Rhythm Fluctuator. This LA duo specializes in underground, semi-political hip hop and although I always liked the album, I really have no idea what prompted its purchase. I’m pretty sure I bought it at the mythical Soul II Soul records, a store that specialized in imported hip hop and R&B (they also specialized in separating gullible white kids from their allowance as their tapes retailed for over $20 a pop).
Anyway, I still like how this album sounds today. The production still stands up really well - it’s filled with familiar samples, but the Rhythm Fluctuator did indeed fluctuate almost all of them so that the sounds are definitely funky & catchy, but also offbeat and somewhat weird. As an MC, Boiwundah rocks the most mono of monotones, and fills his lyrically dense rhymes with equal parts social commentary and wack-mc disses. The Tom Tom Club jacking Genius was always my jam on this album, but looking back there are a number of solid songs, so here’s a couple more that I like. Enjoy.
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MP3:: Funkytown Pros - Genius
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MP3:: Funkytown Pros - White Green
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