Just as I do everyday, I was scouring the web this past January and found a remix project pitting Funky DL against Amy Winehouse. The UK rapper-producer apparently found time to chop the hell out of the British songstress’s tracks to create Back to Frank, a solid free album full of smooth rhymes and beats. And, personally, it would have been fine if Funky stopped there. But he didn’t as he went on to craft Back to Rap, which features Funky sampling Winehouse’s Back to Black LP. The project features a slew of guests and more of that old school, suave sound we have come to expect from the Funky one.

Hit the skip to download Back to Rap.

Download: Funky DL – Back to Rap

Download: Funky DL – Back To Frank

Is it really unconventional for a black man to want to do Rock N’ Roll when we created the genre? Elvis Presley ain’t got no soul, Chuck Berry is Rock N’ Roll © Mos Def. Was it a subtle way of the industry advising Mos to stick to rapping and stay in your lane? It definitely seems so. I just think its fucked up to see artists as talented as Mos Def or Common in ’02 and others be put in a box creatively when they want to take the music in a new direction. No wonder things get stagnant or lack growth hip-hop wise. There’s always a natural opposition to anything that doesn’t fit norm in hip-hop. In most cases, it usually goes from being hated, to somewhat accepted, to having a tastemaker co-sign it before it get celebrated. An artist like Kanye West clearly had more leverage to make the 808′s & Heart Breaks LP because of the track record with his earlier albums in terms of overall sales. If he hadn’t sold all those units would Def Jam even release an album that completely deviated from his previous catalog? I think not. Ideally, you win within the corrupt system then you can be creative is the reality. So basically an artist can compromise artistically for a few albums as long as the label makes a profit then they can be creative? It’s bullshit. Gnarls Barkley is the only duo that seems to buck that trend from what I can tell.

There’s an unfair double standard set to limit how funky a black artist can be if you’re on a major label. White artists like Jamie Lidell, Amy Winehouse, Mayer Hawthorne etc., who are all very dope artists, can create what is classified as black music (soul/motown) what have you. However, when Mos Def wants to create a hip-hop/rock fusion record he gets blackballed because the label says they can’t market it? When Common released Electric Circus in 2002, I knew it wouldn’t be well received because the vibe was so different and progressive from what was out in at the time. Lyrically it was stellar. Sonically, it wasn’t a project you could cater to urban radio outside of “Come Close”. But is that more a reflection of how predictable urban radio is or a problem with Electric Circus? My take is the former. The race angle is definitely apparent when you look at the number of white singers from the UK that have been blowing up of late. Are there no black female vocalists/singers making good music or is there a bias to only market a certain look ? It’s bullshit. At this point, I think Mos Def should release the full album that’s floating out there with Black Jack Johnson. It’s a great piece of work. He’s signed to the same label as Gnarls Barkley (Downtown records), so it appears he will continue to make the music he wants without major label influence. Something he couldn’t really accomplish being on Geffen/Interscope.