George Clinton is a music icon. His revolutionary music and wild style choices have cemented him as one of the people who has always pushed envelope in the music industry. He’s recently collaborated with hip hop artists such as the Wu-Tang Clan, Outkast and most recently, Kendrick Lamar. In a recent interview with Pigeons and Planes, Clinton spoke on the dynamic between new and old music, working with Kendrick Lamar and more.
Clinton comes across as hilarious in the interview, not holding back when he says that he thought “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” “sounded silly as hell when I first heard it.” That didn’t discourage him from collaborating with Kendrick Lamar, though. Upon first meeting the Compton emcee, he was surprised to find that “[Kendrick] captured my mind right away.”
Unsurprisingly though, Clinton reveals that K Dot has great musical intuition. “He knows how to pick the right shit to make a real record for today,” declares the Parliament bassist. His favorite song on To Pimp A Butterfly isn’t even the one he appears on (“Wesley’s Theory”), it’s “Hood Politics.”
While he doesn’t immediately love most new music, the P-Funk master accepts the dynamic of new vs old. He listens to his grandkids, and relies on them to capture what people are responding to. “I’ve always made it my business as a songwriter to keep up with young people that pay attention to songs, even if older people this it’s the corny shit, that’s what they supposed to think. they getting old,” Clinton explains. “I look for stuff that gets on my nerves; I know it’s going to be the next big thing when it gets on m nerves.”
The only people George Clinton can compare Kendrick to? Prince and Sly Stone. That’s one hell of a comparison, but we can dig it. Read the whole thing for a truly illuminating look at two influential artists.