One of the world’s biggest superstars linking with the West Coast’s premier funkateer? It’s
happened — ‘7 Days of Funk’ by DAM FUNK and Snoopzilla (aka Snoop Dogg) is the most
surprising and brilliant collaborative album we’ve heard in a long while. Breezy futuristic
grooves and LA hip-hop of the finest kind, it’s set to be a 2014 classic. We talk to DAM about musical
evolution, how music can offer escape, and Los Angeles’ distinctive sound...
Words: NEIL KULKARNI
usic, for so long,
has focussed only
on what’s ‘real’,
has been all about
being
‘realistic’
and ‘keeping it
real’. I think music
should also help people to escape, should be
something mystical that gets you OUT of where
you are right now, that enables you to look beyond
your surroundings and . . . dream. I want music to
recover its mystical edge, that ability great music
has to take you out of the window you’re looking
out of and fill you full of light.”
Amen, hallelujah and you’re absolutely
goddamned right: Damon G. Riddick, aka DAM
FUNK, is spot on in both his diagnosis and
proposed curative to the modern malaise of
mundanity rendering so much of what we hear
from our decks and speakers so resolutely,
tediously stuck in the here-and-now. His latest
shot to your decaying system, the astonishing
‘7 Days Of Funk’ LP, is a full-phat curative to any
tendency for 2014’s music to tie itself down to
the lumpen and customary. In collaboration
with Snoop Dogg (rechristened Snoopzilla in
a neat homage to P-Funk/Bootsy Collins-style
characterisation), ‘7 Days’ is the year’s first true
masterpiece, a record that will engross and engulf
and enrapture you in equal measure, even as it’s
also seductively loosening your brain and booty.
The 42-year-old Pasadena-native (now based
in LA) has been producing his unique brand
of forward-looking funk for well over a decade
now (check out the stunning ‘Adolescent Funk’
collection for a fantastic précis of his early work),
working odd jobs to support himself and his music,
never changing his game or chasing the transitory
illusion of ‘crossover’ or commercialism. Hooking
up with Snoop (after Mr Broadus was impressed
with DF’s DJing at an exhibition by sleeve-artist
Joe Cool) on opening track ‘Hit Da Pavement’,
both realised what they were on to was way too
good to simply be a one-off, and they lashed
down the pocket supernova of ‘7 Days’ quickly,
naturally, as free from radio-friendly constraint or
concern as they could be when one of the players
is one of the biggest superstars on the planet.
“The thing is, Snoop, above all, is a music fan,
068 djmag.com.au
a listener, a lover of music, a major fan of the
funk,” regales Damon. “He didn’t HAVE to do
this, ‘7 Days’ is a total labour of love. I couldn’t
believe how hard he works, how involved he got,
how he seems to be able to work so hard all the
time. He’s never not working. I remember riding
on the freeway a little while after the album was
completed and I got a call on my phone. ‘Hello?’
‘It’s Snoop’ ‘What’s up?’ ‘Look to your left’. I turn
to the left and HE’S THERE, IN THE CAR DRIVING
NEXT TO ME, smiling! He can be everywhere at
once. He doesn’t need to be so hard-working but
he is because he still loves music so much. As
someone who grew up listening to him, it meant
so much what he did on ‘7 Days’. Snoop was the
first rapper who sounded like he was from OUR
world. To work with him now was really a dream
come true.”
that had stopped happening or moving on. Almost
as if it was considered a joke. The way funk started
to be seen, through commercials and movies was
as a stereotype, as something that essentially was
a throwback...”
...Afros, flares, big collars... “Exactly — that kind
of retrograde vision of funk, as, I think, writers
and some musicians liked to promote, pushed
other styles into the background and for me that
was a real shame and a misrepre