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