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| Release: | Righteous Funk |
|  | | MyHHHdb | |
| Media: | [Audio CD] | | Released: | 1994 [ Listen to HHH from this era on Spotify ] |
| Recordlabel: | Star Song Records |
| Info: | 1. My Melody
2. Do Your Part
3. K.I.S.S.
4. Come 2 Gether
5. Wrapped Up
6. Me 4 U
7. To Da Dome
8. Wind Me Up
9. Stay
10. Hollywood
11. Right Way
12. Wind Me Up Reprise |
| Rating: | Our users rated this release: 9.5 out of 10
(Number of votes: 2) Sign up or login to submit your vote |
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| | Review: | Disciples of Christ (D.O.C.) "We've really been able to
express who we are in these last couple years, particularly
on this Righteous Funk album. Of course, as Christians, we
are the righteousness of Christ. Secondly, that's
funk."
That's Ben Reges (born Alton Hood) representing Disciples
of Christ (D.O.C.) on behalf of himself and his partners
Prophet (Michael Brown) and Absalom (Kelvin Harvey) for
their third Star Song set of slammin' jams, Righteous Funk,
as the man said. "That's where we've come from," says
Alton of the Disciples' funk heritage, "We come from the
'70s era of funk: Parliament, Earth, Wind & Fire, Heatwave.
So, it was really great that we were able to express and
come forth with that and introduce the Christian market to
something they might not have ever known about."
Though Righteous Funk is the truest D.O.C. has yet been to
the funky sounds absorbed in their younger days, Christian
music listeners were introduced to the trio in 1990 with a
cut on a Star Song rap sampler. That led to 1991's full
length debut, So How Ya Livin'?, and the even more potent
funk bomb dropped in '93, Pullin' No Punches. Before any
of this, the three brothers on a mission had to be
introduced to the Lord. As with much concerning D.O.C., that
was a bold move, too.
Relates Alton, "We started back in 1987. Kelvin Harvey and
I were attending Oberlin College at that time. Basically we
were into the world. We both had scholarships to play
football. We didn't have Christ in our lives, so we began
to party and live the high life, hanging out with girls,
that whole party life. We had this void in our lives. So
what happened was that I was introduced by some friends to
the occult. It got pretty serious."
In fact, so serious that the drugs and alcohol their fellow
occultists were using on them in initiation rites became
addictions. At the time they were to reach 'the next
level,' he proclaims, "Praise God, through a supernatural
manifestation of the Holy Spirit, God's power came down
right there in the room, saved me, delivered me right there
on the spot and just cleaned me up."
It didn't take long for Hood, Harvey and friend
Brown/Prophet to do what they did at the parties,
'beatboxing and rapping' for a higher calling. In
D.O.C.'s history, however, some things have changed. For
instance, over their three albums, Brown has come to the
forge as a dynamic tenor singer. All three harmonize with
the precision of the best of the male vocal groups all over
mainstream and R&B radio.
Since D.O.C. is a much about rapping as they are about
singing, they have something to clear up: "We're not a rap
group. We're a vocal hip hop R&B band. What we want to do
is let people know Disciples of Christ's ministry is a
full-fledged ministry. Now this is the time of the g-funk
era, so you have a bit of the singing with the rap. Whatever
is happening and whatever we feel can best get the message
across," says Hood of D.O.C.'s musical ministry.
Even for musicians, rappers, and singers, ministry isn't
all about the art in which they are working. "We believe
that our life is a ministry," he affirms. "We are men of
God first and musicians second."
With that in mind, the trio has relocated this summer to the
Tulsa area of Oklahoma from their original northern Ohio
base. This is not only to be closer to their management, but
as a way of getting closer to the God they serve.
As they are "stepping out in faith, like Abraham," Alton
believes God will open the doors for all the group to attend
Dr. Kenneth Hagin's Rhema Bible Training Center. This is so
they might "sit under the Word of God, that the calling of
God upon our lives will be confirmed and that our roots will
go down deep into the will of God for our lives."
Before leaving for parts south, however, it was the group's
good fortune to work with '70s funkateer Bootsy Collins,
who is known for his collaboration with James Brown and
George Clinton, and who went on to head up Bootsy's Rubber
Band from the mid-'70s to mid-'80s. On Righteous Funk
numbers such as "Hollywood" and "Wind Me Up," Collins
was able to bring in renowned instrumental associates like
Maceo Parker, Bernie Worrell and Fred Wesley. Though
dressing elaborately as ever, Collins is someone about whom
Alton is proud to say, "He attends a full-gospel, Holy
Spirit-anointed church. Oh, yes."
Godly as they become, it's Disciples of Christ's humility
that puts Hood, Brown and Harvey in the position of saying
of their music's evangelistic and edifying aims: "We would
have even more young people that would come into knowledge
of what God is doing through D.O.C.'s ministry," and
hence, what God can do in these young people.
Can't get much funkier than that now, can you? | | source: unknown, added: Feb 23, 2005 |  |
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