Dancing In The Key of Life: Steve Arrington & Dâm-Funk

Dancing In The Key of Life: Steve Arrington & Dâm-Funk - "Goin' Hard" (I Be Trippin')

Even since I've been into Stones Throw (Champion Sound-Donuts Era), the semi-respected Bay Area record label has slowly morphed into the place to go for cool, head-jerking vinyl. Peanut Butter Wolf has hand-picked a wide array of emcees, weirdo producers, Funk/Folk revivalists, solo artists, etc. Stones Throw's genre-blending "Hip-Hop & more" roster presently includes: Madlib, James Pants, The Stepkids, Matthew Larkin Cassell, deceased mega-producer J Dilla, Steve Arrington, Quakers (Geoff Barrow), Jonti, The Lions, Dâm-Funk, Jonwayne, and countless others. Announced just last Friday, 2 of the label's most note-worthy musicians have teamed up for a collaborative LP - Steve Arrington & Dâm-Funk! Arrington, former Slave Funky drummer turned spiritual foot-soldier, has bonded with Dâm-Funk, who's quite arguably G-Funk's last remaining post-90's producer.

Steve Arrington self-released his first album in 20 years, Pure Thing (2009), "[which] led to Dâm-Funk reaching out to Steve to propose collaborating on an album for Stones Throw Records. It only makes sense, as Dâm and Stones Throw creator PB Wolf originally met through Dâm giving Wolf a rare bootleg DVD of a Slave live TV performance," Stones Throw lamented in a quasi-press release. Higher is currently slated for a tentative August 6-7th wide release, from which 2 tracks have been unleashed, so far: the grammatically (in)correct "Goin' Hard" and "I Be Trippin.'" While Dâm-Funk tightens up the last few musical nuts and bolts, Steve Arrington is busy prepping for a "spot date" US tour with a newly-formed band and long-time fans/openers like Q-Tip and DJ Quik.

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