As funk disentangles itself from disco, and hip hop wraps itself in anything old enough and urban enough to sound new, there becomes a tangible need for vintage R&B re-releases on a large scale. Re-enter Funkadelic; Priority’s four-album retrospective spans the pinnacle and decline of this seminal hard-funk act.

George Clinton’s Funkadelic provided the Funk to Parliament’s P, and, despite the promiscuous member-swapping between the two groups, Funkadelic kept its sound distinct from that of the other Funk Mob operations. More obsessed with birthin’ hips than motherships, Clinton once described Funkadelic’s music as being, “Too black for white people and too white for black people.” Even when playing more rakish funk than funky rock, the band has a lean and aggressive sound that mates the Family Stone with the Cult Blue …yster. And let’s not forget Funkadelic’s status as the biggest influence on the West Coast hip hop sound, behind (guess who?) Parliament.

Hardcore Jollies provides the most “classic” Funkadelic cuts, driven more by Eddie Hazel’s guitar than by the rhythm section. However, One Nation - whose title cut is among the most famous funk chunks out there - ushers in an emphasis more on groove and bizarre pseudo-activism. There the band peaks; Uncle Jam is laced with long, directionless cuts and a less organic drumming style, while Electric Spanking employs campy synthesized sounds and swaps many of the brilliant P-Funk soldiers for an over-tired Sly Stone. Not that those last two are bad records; they tear the roof off the electro-funk suckers who defined the urban early ’80s. But compared to One Nation’s brilliance, they are pale shadows of the Funkadelic that asked, “Who Says a Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?!” by way of urging black music to dwell everywhere and anywhere it pleased.

[DJ Fatkid still puts the Terry in Funk.]