Bootsy Collins: The CABBAGES Interview
Bootsy Collins can remember a time when funk was a bad word. It may be hard to imagine now, with the sort of bass lines the Cincinnati native laid down on James Brown hits and Parliament-Funkadelic classics alike ubiquitous across all manner of popular music today. Yet to hear the 73-year-old vet tell it, the definitive psychedelic grooves he birthed into the universe weren't as well-received as one who wasn't around in the early-to-mid 1970s might presume.
"The radio stations and everybody wouldn't talk to us, at first," Collins says. "They wasn't down with it. If we couldn't talk about funk, then we had nothing to really talk about."
That initial and substantial opposition, in an era where airplay all-but defined success in the music business, reminds him of hip-hop's own struggles for mainstream acceptance. Several of those who did break through the industry barriers, particularly those on the West Coast, did so by leaning into what Collins and his compatriots like George Clinton and Bernie Worrell did decades earlier. The most obvious of those efforts, Dr. Dre's groundbreaking 1992 album The Chronic called back directly to works like Mothership Connection and Motor Booty Affair, via well-executed samples and radical Afrofuturist art vibes alike.
"When we were doing the P-Funk, a lot of 'em weren't even born," he says of Chronic contributors Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, and Snoop Dogg. "They took P-Funk and turned it into G-Funk, which was their own." All three of those rappers, along with Ice Cube and Wiz Khalifa, feature on Collins' latest full-length Album Of The Year #1 Funkateer, due out this Friday.
Conceived in alignment with philanthropic endeavors like his Funk Not Fight initiative, the album serves as a career-spanning synthesis of his performances across genres. In addition to multiple appearances from Snoop, whose existential debt to Collins feels perpetually unpaid amid the likeminded ad-libbing of "Hundo P," it gives ample space to other vocal and musical talents in Collins' starry orbit. "With the funk, everything just lines up without a whole lot of participation on your part," he says. "It's like the universe is listening and it already knows what you need–and everything you need just showed up for this album for each song."
Perhaps the most poignant of these collaborations is "The JB's Tribute Pastor P," where erstwhile bandmates from the James Brown days, namely trombonist Fred Wesley and the now-departed drummers John "Jab'o" Sparks and Clyde Stubblefield, get some well-deserved time in the spotlight.
"They're not in the [Rock & Roll] Hall of Fame and they never got paid for all of those samples," he says of the impetus behind the song, which also features drummer Daru Jones and rapper Harry Mack. "For them not to get credit was always a downer for me, so in that way, I had to put 'em on the record."
CABBAGES: Several of the most recognizable rappers on your new album began as fans, even devotees, of your catalog, and became known specifically for their takes on it. What's it like having them as guests on your own project?
Bootsy Collins: It's like a continuation. They was pushing that thing that they were doing, G-Funk, and wasn't nobody buying it. But when the people started locking into it and start coming to the shows, that made all the difference in the world. That's why we're really that closely related, because we came up in the same communities. Whether we lived in the same house or the same block, it's no matter. It's the same era. The difference is years, but it's the same kind of thing with a different name.
Whatever they're feeling, I'm feeling it by double. I guess the older you get, the more you start to realize that we're not invincible. That's what P-Funk thought the whole time. You start to realize, man, I do get a little tired here and there. And so you get all this great energy around you, all these artists, the rappers, the different musicians. The energy just continues to bubble. It works both ways. I am no greater or better than any of them, because we all kind of go through the same thing of finding ourselves and finding that talent.
I'm just so thankful that everybody that came on board really wanted to be here. Everybody really wanted to be here, and that's the vibe I wanted to pass into the world, that everybody wants to be here and contribute something. That's just a great feeling, to have people really wanting to just do what they do and do it with you. That's such a blessing, man.
Was it important to you to call back to your time in James Brown's band on this album?
I had to pay tribute to the JBs, because we've already did all kinds of tribute to James Brown. But it seemed like I was the musician that could pay a tribute to the band. What drew me to James Brown in the first place was how great the band was. These guys are my heroes. They inspire me. I get an opportunity to give back and say thank you. When I was with them, I was the youngest, so I always looked up to them before I even got with James.
When I was coming up, I wanted to be in a band with my brother Catfish. That was my whole reason for wanting to play, just to be in a band with him–not to be with James Brown. That was the last thing I could even think of; that was just too farfetched. I was like, how could that ever happen? The way he pulled us in off the street, we were youngsters–this is '68, '69–and then '70 we actually got with him. Meeting the band was unheard of, and we got a chance to do all that over at King Records. They recorded here in Cincinnati, Ohio. We had no idea we were going to wind up playing with them.
In addition to the JBs tribute, you've got this Buckethead tribute on there, "Barbie T and Me." As a fan of your work with Bill Laswell stuff, with Praxis and otherwise, it was very cool to hear that track. What inspired this one?
I actually cut his very first record here on the farm in 1991, Bucketheadland. I cut the whole record back in the barn. It's funny you mentioned that, because we have also hooked up for the next [album] Bucketheadland 3. We'd talked about it, but I didn't know we was going to start right now until I actually put [guitarist Barbara "Barbie T" Teleki] on the record. The next thing you know, me and Buckethead are talking again. It's been about, I guess, 10 years. He's been going through a lot, because his mother and father died in the same year. That one was really tough because he was so close to them. Actually we did a video of [2011's] "Minds Under Construction" at his house with his Dad.
Actually, he just left last week. He was here for about seven days and we was hitting it, recording. That's what we're working on now, and we're looking at around Halloween. I got Robert Trujillo, he's playing on a couple of them, Les Claypool, Victor Wooten. So we done already started. We done already started. It's on like popcorn.
You're one of the alter-ego originators in music, and a number of your many pseudonyms show up here–Bootdullivan, Casper The Funked Up Ghost, Zillatron. What do you feel like these offer you, as a creative person?
Well, these guys, they really just are personalities that want to come out and need to come out. Most people don't pay that no attention; they think it's just them. I've always felt like I wasn't alone. I had a small family and my mother and my sister and my brother, and that was pretty much it. But I've always felt like there's a lot in me that needs to come out, so I started to name these entities and, as things rolled on, I started to realize they was a part of the show. It ain't just Bootsy, it's all of these mothers! We were all on the road together. We were all in the studio together. I just started calling them out and they brought something a little different to the table. Right to this day, I still recognize 'em and call it out. They showed up and showed out.
That's what I really love about the music. You don't have to stop growing. Having all these different musicians and artists around is such a blessing, and if you don't get into it, you'll always stay lopsided. That's kind of the way I think about it. On the other hand, I've always embraced even the music that I couldn't play, I've always embraced it because all music and it's healing for somebody, and that's why this album, I wanted to really key in on that and emphasize that without even saying it. Just let the music speak for itself. That was the idea behind the whole album. It wasn't like I sit down and plan out how it was going to be and how many songs. It just started coming and sometimes you just can't stop. It's like, okay, time to stop recording and let's put the record together. My wife usually has to do that to me because, once I get going, it's hard to stop. The flow, you just don't want to stop it.
CRIMEAPPLE, JAGUAR ON PALISADE 3
CRIMEAPPLE dropped the first installment of JAGUAR ON PALISADE back in 2020, scarcely two years after his memorable feature on Westside Gunn's Supreme Blientele. The prolific New Jersey rapper of Colombian heritage subsequently released some two dozen projects, including albums co-headlined by producers such as Apollo Brown, DJ Muggs, and Preservation. Yet even amid such profile-elevating collabs, the JOP series remain exemplars of his jet-setting yet streetwise lifestyle raps. His second release of 2025, this third volume proves no exception, stuffed full of braggadocio and whole-chest proclamations. He does everything big on "SABADO GIGANTE," moving from debit to debonair among other metaphorically massive moves. That baller wit resurfaces for "STILL," remarking on check cashing spots, taking care of custys, and refusing bad deals with a perpetual wink from a twinkling eye. Repeat beat teammate MichaelAngelo sets the tone for "MUJERES," a lavish display of lothario flow, while longtime instrumental provider Buck Dudley laces late entry "4 U BITCH" with a pristinely soulful sample for this tongue-in-cheek love affair.
Steel Sessions Present, 1000WORDS FOREVER
1000WORDS, the Bronx-based "Polaroid Pope" helping to photographically document the contemporary Northeast hip-hop underground, put on a pro-wrestling themed event in Brooklyn a few months back. Several rappers who performed there also appear on this hour-long compilation, including Knowledge The Pirate and Feed The Family members BoriRock and Shaykh Hanif. As was the case that smoked-out night, New England and New York repeatedly collide on this project, sometimes on the same Buda & Grandz production. On the single "718781," NYC native Al-Doe goes toe to toe with Lynn, MA's own Estee Nack, the two delivering intricate verbals combos that reverberate through their respective hoods. Similarly, Dun Dealy lyrically tussles with East Harlemite UFO Fev and grimy Mobb Deep affiliate Big Twin for the "CRIMSON COLOR WORK," another standout moment. Notably, not all verses here are by Northeast emcees, with Chicago's Vic Spencer and Slum The Resident out of Los Angeles spitting wild bars opposite the world's raspiest rapper Bub Styles on the cinematic "CLASS ACTS."
Three new tracks to snack on...
Dampé & Cadence Weapon, "Hard To Say"
Blu & August Fanon, "Happy"
GRiMM Doza & SwuM, "Hardaway"