George Clinton In Hip-Hop & Well Beyond [Playlist Stream]

Today we salute the incomparable George Clinton for his 75th year of doing laps around the Milky Way. Having begun his career as a writer for Motown in its most influential mid-sixties stretch, Clinton has held an uncanny command for hit-making that's guided his craft and the Mothership for nearly fifty-years strong, cementing him as one of music all-time great bandleaders alongside legends and former collaborators like Sly Stone, James Brown, Prince and damn-near any name you can think of under the red sun.

And while many of us are more than familiar with Clinton's Funkadelic and Parliament output (not to mention the countless offshoots and solo side-projects of P-Funk alum that he's contributed to over the years) today, we're celebrating his own deceptively (knee) deep catalogue of solo work and features. In recent years alone, he's had his hand in the creation of cosmic cuts by Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar, but his collaborative spirit and tireless creativity can be felt in all eras and genres, though most prevalently in hip-hop. So we've strung together a little commemorative playlist of some of his most potent and astrally-projected works, dating back to his early-eighties solo standoff to the heaps of work he's put in with legends like OutKast, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and more.

Here's George Clinton in hip-hop and well, well beyond. May the funk be with you.