Funky Friday – Episode 84: Empire State Of Funk
- Noah McDonough
- 9 hours ago
- 12 min read
🎧 Quick Links:
🎧 Listen live on KDOG 9 AM Pacific Time→ Here
🎧 Listen live on KCSM HD2 9 PM Pacific Time→ Here
📆 Add to Calendar — Funky Friday (Weekly):
• 9 AM KDOG
Add to Google Calendar
• 9 PM KCSM HD2
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📖 Full Episode Recaps + Setlists → Here
📻 Renegade Radio Site → Here
Airdate: 9.11.26 - 9 AM Pacific Time on KDOG & 9 PM Pacific Time on KCSM HD2
Funky Friday – Episode 84: The Empire State Of Funk
Happy Friday and welcome to Funky Friday Episode 84: Empire State of Funk.
Funky Friday falls on September 11 this week.
Twenty-five years after New York City became the center of a tragedy that changed the country and the world, we're heading to the five boroughs.
Not to revisit the violence of that day, but to honor the city, its people, and the culture they have given the world.
And we're doing it the way we know best.
Through the music.
New York has never had just one sound.
Too many people.
Too many neighborhoods.
Too many cultures.
Too many ideas moving through the same crowded streets.
Jazz poured out of Harlem clubs.
Latin rhythms traveled through the Bronx and Spanish Harlem.
Soul music filled theaters, dance halls, and neighborhood record stores.
Disco took over downtown clubs.
And funk moved through all of it.
This week, we're exploring what happened when New York musicians took the groove and rebuilt it in the image of their city.
Because New York funk was never sealed off from the music around it.
It absorbed everything.
Jazz improvisation.
Latin percussion.
Soul vocals.
Rock guitars.
Disco strings.
Electronic keyboards.
The pulse of the nightclub.
The electricity of the street.
The result wasn't one easily defined New York sound.
It was a musical crossroads.
In Manhattan, Harlem had already established itself as one of the great centers of Black music in America. The neighborhood's theaters, clubs, churches, and ballrooms created generations of musicians who could move between jazz, gospel, soul, and rhythm and blues.
In the Bronx, DJs extended the most exciting instrumental sections of funk records by moving between two turntables. Dancers waited for those breaks. MCs began speaking over them. Fragments of existing recordings became the raw material for something new.
Funk wasn't disappearing.
It was being taken apart and reassembled.
The drums became breakbeats.
The basslines became foundations.
Horn stabs became punctuation.
Entire records became instruments.
That transformation would send New York's musical influence around the world.
But the city's funk story isn't only about famous clubs, groundbreaking records, or the birth of hip-hop.
It is also about neighborhoods.
Harlem.
The Bronx.
Brooklyn.
Queens.
Manhattan.
Each had its own musical communities, gathering places, and cultural mixtures. Musicians didn't simply represent New York; they represented particular blocks, boroughs, and local identities within it.
That is what makes the city's contribution to funk so difficult to reduce to one style.
New York funk could be raw.
Or refined.
Jazz-driven.
Latin-inflected.
Disco-polished.
Built for headphones,
lock parties, or crowded dance floors.
Sometimes it arrived in a suit.
Sometimes it came through enormous speakers plugged into a streetlight.
And sometimes the same groove belonged to both worlds.
When this episode airs on September 11, we'll remember the people whose lives were lost, the families who carried that loss, and the city that refused to be defined by its darkest day.
New York endured.
New York rebuilt.
And New York kept creating.
So this week, Funky Friday is headed uptown, downtown, across 110th Street, through Jamaica, Queens, and into the clubs, studios, parks, and block parties where the Empire State found its groove.
Five boroughs.
Countless sounds.
One city that changed music forever.
Welcome to New York.
Welcome to the Empire State of Funk.
Signal Discovery
This week’s Signal Discovery stays right here in New York.
Funkin’ for Jamaica: The Story Behind the Song follows trumpeter Tom Browne back to Jamaica, Queens, the neighborhood that inspired his 1980 jazz-funk classic.
Browne remembers a musical community where generations mixed, James Brown lived down the street, Count Basie was around the corner, and young musicians could eat Chinese food while listening to Freddie Hubbard perform at the Village Door.
But this isn't just the story of one record.
It's also the story of the neighborhood that produced it, vocalist Tonni Smith’s essential contribution, Browne’s sudden success, and the unexpected path that eventually took him from music into aviation.
Because “Funkin’ for Jamaica” wasn't written about an island.
It was written about a community.
I’m Noah McDonough.
Welcome to New York.
Welcome to the Empire State of Funk.
Funky Friday – Episode 83: The Land Of Funk
🔥 SETLIST + RENEGADE NOTES
The Jimmy Castor Bunch - “It's Just Begun”
Personnel: Jimmy Castor - saxophone, timbales, vocals; Doug Gibson - bass, backing vocals; Harry Jensen - guitar; Lenny Fridie Jr. - congas; Gerry Thomas - trumpet, piano. Written by Jimmy Castor, John Pruitt and Gerry Thomas; produced by Castor-Pruitt Productions.
Renegade Note: Jimmy Castor gives us one of the clearest bridges between New York funk and the culture that would become hip-hop. A Manhattan native, Castor released “It's Just Begun” in 1972, but the song's second life may be even more important to our story: Afrika Bambaataa remembered it as a favorite at South Bronx block parties, and its explosive percussion break became embedded in B-boy culture. We're beginning Empire State of Funk with a song whose title happens to describe exactly where New York music was headed: it had only just begun.
Harlem River Drive - “Harlem River Drive (Theme Song)”
Personnel: Jimmy Norman - vocals; Eddie Palmieri - piano; Charlie Palmieri - organ; Victor Venegas - bass; Reggie Ferguson - drums; Robert Bianco - guitar; Ronnie Cuber - saxophone; Eladio Perez - congas; Nicky Marrero - timbales; Allan Taylor and Marilyn Herscher - backing vocals. Written by Calvin Clash and Eddie Palmieri.
Renegade Note: Here New York's cultural collision becomes the music itself. Eddie Palmieri assembled Harlem River Drive around musicians from Latin music, jazz, soul and R&B, creating a project that could have happened almost nowhere but New York. Palmieri later described the album as containing “everything that was happening at the time”: soul, rock and jazz. The 1971 title song gives Empire State of Funk its East Harlem sound: piano, organ, congas, timbales, horns and soul vocals occupying the same street.
Mandrill - “Fencewalk”
Personnel: Carlos Wilson - saxophone, trombone, flute, guitar, vocals; Lou Wilson - percussion, trumpet, vocals; Ric Wilson - saxophone, percussion, vocals; Claude Cave - keyboards, vibraphone, percussion, vocals; Fudgie Kae - bass, percussion, vocals; Omar Mesa - guitar, percussion, vocals; Neftali Santiago - drums, percussion, vocals. Written and arranged by Mandrill.
Renegade Note: Mandrill may be one of the best embodiments of what we're calling “Five Boroughs. One Groove.” The Wilson brothers were born in Panama and built Mandrill in Brooklyn, folding Latin and Caribbean percussion into funk, soul, jazz and rock. “Fencewalk,” from 1973's Composite Truth, reached the R&B Top 20, but its rhythmic afterlife stretched much further; it would later be sampled by hip-hop artists including Ice Cube. New York funk wasn't developing inside neat musical categories. Mandrill was knocking the fences down.
B.T. Express - “Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)”
Personnel: Louis Risbrook - bass; Bill Risbrook - tenor saxophone, flute; Carlos Ward - alto saxophone, flute; Richard Thompson - guitar; Dennis Rowe - percussion; Leslie Ming - drums; Barbara Joyce - vocals; Michael Jones, later known as Kashif - keyboards. Produced by Jeff Lane.
Renegade Note: Now we move into Brooklyn. B.T. Express grew from the Brooklyn-based King Davis House Rockers and became one of the city's defining mid-'70s funk bands. “Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)” became their breakthrough in 1974, built around precisely the ingredients New York dance floors were demanding: locked bass and guitar, horns and layers of percussion. The city is beginning to move from the rawer funk of the early '70s toward music increasingly designed around the dance floor.
Cameo - “Rigor Mortis”
Personnel: Larry Blackmon - lead vocals, drums, percussion; Gregory “Doc” Johnson - keyboards, piano, vocals; William Revis - bass; Eric Durham - guitar; Arnett Leftenant - saxophone; Nathan Leftenant - trumpet; Tomi Jenkins and Kurt Jetter - vocals. Written by Larry Blackmon, Nathan Leftenant and Arnett Leftenant; produced by Larry Blackmon.
Renegade Note: Before Cameo became synonymous with the sleek electronic funk of “Word Up!,” Larry Blackmon's band was a much larger and considerably rawer New York outfit. Blackmon grew up in Harlem and originally assembled the group in 1974 as The New York City Players before the name became Cameo. Their 1977 debut Cardiac Arrest was recorded partly at Music Farm Studios in New York, and “Rigor Mortis” captures that first incarnation: horns, guitar, bass and percussion hitting considerably harder than the Cameo many listeners remember from the 1980s.
Chic - “Good Times”
Personnel: Nile Rodgers - guitar, vocals; Bernard Edwards - bass, vocals; Tony Thompson - drums; Raymond Jones and Robert Sabino - keyboards; Alfa Anderson and Luci Martin - vocals; Fonzi Thornton, Michelle Cobbs and Ullanda McCullough - vocals; Sammy Figueroa - percussion; Jean Fineberg - saxophone. Written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers.
Renegade Note: By 1979, New York funk had acquired a very different kind of precision. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards built Chic around the city's club culture, and “Good Times” turned Edwards' bass and Rodgers' clipped guitar into one of the defining grooves of the era. For our story, though, what happened next is just as important. The groove was recreated for the Sugarhill Gang's “Rapper's Delight,” creating one of the most obvious musical bridges between New York's disco-funk dance floors and commercially recorded hip-hop. This isn't a detour into disco; it's part of the road to the Bronx.
Fatback - “Backstrokin'”
Personnel: Bill Curtis - drums; Johnny “Flip” Flippin - bass; Johnny King and George Victory - guitars; Fred Demery - saxophone; George Williams - trumpet; Gerry Thomas - trumpet, keyboards; Billy King - percussion.
Renegade Note: Fatback takes us from polished Manhattan nightlife back toward something leaner and more street-level. Drummer Bill Curtis formed the group in New York, building its sound around the heavy rhythmic pulse suggested by its name. By the time Hot Box arrived in 1980, Fatback had already crossed another important line: the band's 1979 “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” was among the earliest commercially released hip-hop songs. “Backstrokin'” doesn't need to rap to make the connection; its stripped-down bass-and-drum groove shows just how close New York funk and early hip-hop had already become.
Tom Browne - “Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)”
Personnel: Tom Browne - trumpet, handclaps; Toni Smith - vocals, handclaps; Marcus Miller - bass; Bernard Wright - electric piano, Prophet synthesizer; Bobby Broom - guitar; Buddy Williams - drums; Errol “Crusher” Bennett - percussion; Dave Grusin - acoustic piano; with Alvin Flythe, Mike Flythe, Kevin Osborne, Omar Hakim, Martha Rojas and Victoria Sylva contributing rap/handclaps. Written by Tom Browne and Toni Smith; produced by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen.
Renegade Note: Queens finally gets its anthem. The Jamaica in the title isn't the Caribbean island; it's Jamaica, Queens, where Browne grew up. Recorded at A&R Studios in Manhattan and released on 1980's Love Approach, “Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)” went all the way to No. 1 on Billboard's R&B chart. And look at the young New York talent surrounding Browne: Marcus Miller on bass and Bernard Wright on keyboards, with Omar Hakim among the handclaps. This isn't merely a song associated with Queens. Browne wrote a funk celebration of his own neighborhood.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - “The Message”
Personnel: Melle Mel - lead vocals; Duke Bootee - co-lead vocals, percussion; Grandmaster Flash - DJ; Doug Wimbish - bass; Skip McDonald - guitar; Keith LeBlanc - drums; Reggie Griffin, Jiggs Chase and Sylvia Robinson - Prophet-5; Gary Henry and Dwain Mitchell - keyboards. Written by Edward Fletcher, Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover and Jiggs Chase; produced by Fletcher, Chase and Robinson.
Renegade Note: This is where the journey we've been hearing reaches the Bronx. Grandmaster Flash developed his revolutionary DJ techniques inside the South Bronx culture that turned the instrumental breaks of funk songs into something entirely new. “The Message” arrived in 1982 with a different ambition: instead of simply moving the party, Melle Mel and Duke Bootee described the pressure of urban life around them. By this point the transformation is complete. The funk break is no longer merely part of the song; it has helped become the foundation of a new musical language.
Bobby Womack - “Across 110th Street”
Personnel: Bobby Womack - lead vocals; performed by Bobby Womack & Peace with additional musicians; Carol Kaye - electric bass; Emil Richards - percussion; orchestral personnel otherwise not fully identified. Written by Bobby Womack and J.J. Johnson; produced by Bobby Womack; Johnson composed and conducted the film score.
Renegade Note: Bobby Womack wasn't a New Yorker; he was born in Cleveland. But few songs place us in New York as immediately as “Across 110th Street.” Written with jazz composer J.J. Johnson for the 1972 film of the same name, the song uses Harlem's traditional southern boundary as both a real location and a dividing line between very different experiences of the city. Its lyrics deal with poverty, crime, drugs and survival, giving us a far more complicated New York than postcards and skyscrapers. After spending the hour celebrating what the city created, Womack leaves us back on its streets.
🔗 Quick Links:
🎧 Listen live on KDOG 9 AM Pacific Time→ Here
🎧 Listen live on KCSM HD2 9 PM Pacific Time→ Here
📆 Add to Calendar — Funky Friday (Weekly):
• 9 AM KDOG
Add to Google Calendar
• 9 PM KCSM HD2
Add to Google Calendar
📖 Full Episode Recaps + Setlists → Here
📻 Renegade Radio Site → Here
Funk Facts
THE JIMMY CASTOR BUNCH - It's Just Begun
Built around an explosive combination of bass, drums, guitar, congas, horns, and Castor's vocals, with the rhythm section constantly pushing forward rather than settling into a relaxed pocket. The arrangement moves through tightly organized vocal and instrumental passages before opening into the percussion-heavy sections that helped make the song so valuable to DJs and B-boys. Listen to how frequently the instruments function rhythmically rather than melodically: guitar, horns, bass, and percussion strike against one another in short bursts, making almost the entire band part of the beat.
HARLEM RIVER DRIVE - Harlem River Drive (Theme Song)
Built around electric bass, drums, guitar, piano, organ, congas, timbales, horns, and vocals, combining the rhythmic vocabulary of Latin music with soul, jazz, and funk. The percussion is particularly important: rather than simply decorating the drum kit, congas and timbales create additional rhythmic layers underneath the song. Piano, organ, guitar, and horns then work around that foundation in short phrases, giving the arrangement the density of a large ensemble while maintaining a remarkably deep pocket.
MANDRILL - Fencewalk
Driven by bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, horns, and a dense collection of percussion instruments. “Fencewalk” demonstrates Mandrill's ability to make a large ensemble sound both heavy and agile. Short guitar figures, horn punches, percussion patterns, and vocal responses continually interlock around the bass and drums. The groove draws simultaneously from funk and Afro-Caribbean rhythmic traditions, creating a rhythmic density that distinguishes Mandrill from many of the American funk bands working during the same period.
B.T. EXPRESS - Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)
Built around a relentlessly repeating bass-and-guitar figure, steady drums, percussion, keyboards, horns, and vocals. The arrangement demonstrates how effectively funk can develop without abandoning its central groove. Rather than introducing dramatic harmonic changes, B.T. Express gradually alters the texture surrounding the rhythm section: vocals enter and disappear, horns punctuate phrases, percussion thickens the beat, and instrumental parts shift position while the underlying pulse remains almost unchanged. Repetition isn't a limitation here; repetition is the engine.
CAMEO - Rigor Mortis
Built around a hard bass line, drums, rhythm guitar, keyboards, percussion, horns, and Larry Blackmon's highly rhythmic vocal delivery. This is Cameo before the band's later electronic sound became dominant, and the arrangement has the muscular attack of a large 1970s funk ensemble. Guitar and horns repeatedly stab into spaces around the rhythm section while the vocals behave almost like another percussion instrument. The result is considerably rawer than the Cameo many listeners know from the 1980s, but the band's obsession with precision is already obvious.
CHIC - Good Times
Built around Bernard Edwards' famous bass line, Tony Thompson's disciplined drums, Nile Rodgers' clipped rhythm guitar, keyboards, percussion, strings, and layered vocals. What makes the arrangement remarkable is how much space exists between those elements. Edwards' bass is extraordinarily active, but Rodgers avoids competing with it, placing short guitar figures into the openings around the bass and drums. Thompson holds everything together with an almost mechanical steadiness. The result sounds luxurious on the surface, but underneath it is an exceptionally disciplined funk rhythm section in which every musician seems to know exactly where not to play.
FATBACK - Backstrokin'
Built around a huge repeating bass figure, drums, guitar, keyboards, percussion, horns, handclaps, and chant-like vocals. Compared with the denser arrangements of many 1970s funk bands, “Backstrokin'” is strikingly economical. The bass and drums carry most of the weight while the other instruments appear in short rhythmic bursts around them. The vocals function less like a conventional melody than another repeating component of the groove. By stripping the arrangement down this far, Fatback makes rhythm itself the main event.
TOM BROWNE - Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)
Built around Marcus Miller's elastic bass, Buddy Williams' drums, Bobby Broom's guitar, Bernard Wright's electric piano and synthesizer, Tom Browne's trumpet, percussion, handclaps, and Toni Smith's vocals. Miller's bass is particularly important, moving between deep foundational notes and quick syncopated figures while the drums maintain a remarkably controlled pocket underneath. Browne's trumpet provides melodic punctuation rather than dominating the arrangement, allowing the rhythm section to remain at the center. Jazz-level musicianship is being applied to a groove designed to move a dance floor.
GRANDMASTER FLASH & THE FURIOUS FIVE - The Message
Constructed around a stark repeating synthesizer figure, bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, percussion, and vocals. Compared with the large funk ensembles heard earlier in the show, the arrangement is almost skeletal. That emptiness is crucial: the repeating instrumental pattern establishes an unchanging urban backdrop while the voices occupy the foreground. Rather than using constant instrumental variation to maintain momentum, “The Message” allows repetition and space to create tension. The groove has been reduced to its essential components, leaving enormous room for the words.
BOBBY WOMACK - Across 110th Street
Built around bass, drums, guitar, percussion, keyboards, orchestration, and Womack's intensely expressive lead vocal. Unlike the more repetitive funk arrangements heard throughout much of the show, “Across 110th Street” uses its rhythm section as part of a larger cinematic structure. Strings and orchestral textures expand the emotional scale while bass, drums, and guitar keep the music rooted in the street. Womack's vocal repeatedly pushes against that controlled instrumental backdrop, creating tension between the polished arrangement and the desperation of the story being told. It sounds simultaneously like a soul song, a funk groove, and a movie unfolding in four minutes.
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