The new funky hip-hop single is bursting with energy, powered by Five Fingers of Funk’s signature horn section and DJ Chillest Illest on the mic and turntables. With its captivating production, “Kill Sound” is an infectious reminder of why Five Fingers Of Funk’s sound continues to excite fans two decades since they first emerged onto the scene.
On the video & song the video director and Five Fingers of Funk band member Pete Miser says:
If you were in Portland, Oregon in the nineties you know what a fertile time it was for the local Hip-Hop scene. Five Fingers Of Funk was one of the biggest draws at venues like La Luna, the Crystal Ballroom and the Roseland, proving that local Hip-Hop could bring in crowds. Meanwhile, Cool Nutz and Small Ax were putting together the POH Hop (Portland Oregon Hip-Hop) festival, which showcased the many MCs coming out of the woodwork at the time. It was an exciting period and a spirited community. “Kill Sound” was meant to give a taste of that era.
The core of “Kill Sound” is a bass line that Allan played during one of our Tuesday night rehearsals. I had a microphone hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room so I could make rough recordings of the stuff we were coming up with. In 2014 I archived my cassette collection and stumbled on this rehearsal from May 30, 1995. I chopped together the rhythm section to make an instrumental, sent it to Chill, and then forgot about it until we started working on Portland Say It Again.
I knew from the beginning that this album wouldn’t be complete without the presence of some of our extended family from the POH Hop era. Getting Cool Nutz on a song was a no-brainer. Getting Jumbo from the Lifesavas was a dream. Getting them both on the same song felt like All Star Weekend! Add to that, my brother since the eighties, Jamalski on the hook–and, well, I can go ahead and die happy now. Salute to the town and all the young cats coming up today. You stand on the shoulders of giants (as did we back then).
Portland Say It Again marks Five Fingers Of Funk’s first release with the original members since 1998. The 10 song album documents the ironies of being a grown up in the young man’s game of hip hop. Listeners are treated to a return to the funk including the Fingers three-piece horn section and DJ Chillest Illest on the mic and turntables. Also featured are guest appearances from Cool Nutz, Jumbo (of the Lifesavas), Bosko, and Dres from Black Sheep.
Five Fingers Of Funk began as a five-piece backing up MC Pete Miser but quickly exploded into a ten-man behemoth including a three-piece horn section and DJ Chillest Illest on turntables. The band established itself as a major draw at Portland music venues through its energetic shows that inspired writer SP Clarke to report “if you can’t party to this shit, you must be dead.” By playing alongside indie rock mainstays such as the Dandy Warhols and Heat Miser, the Fingers bridged the gap between Portland’s alternative movement and its blossoming underground hip-hop scene ushering in an era in which local hip-hop was showcased in downtown venues for the first time.
These days, rappers performing with live bands barely raise an eyebrow. Thirty years ago, it was all but unheard of, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, a region synonymous with indie rock and grunge. In 1992. as a collective of twenty-somethings, Five Fingers Of Funk came together to experiment with a sound at the intersection of James Brown style Funk and lyrically driven hip-hop.
By the late-nineties, the band had expanded their reach from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine and everywhere in between. The band remained fiercely independent, self-releasing three full-length albums and sharing stages with Funk legends Maceo Parker and Bootsy Collins as well as hip-hop icons Run DMC, De La Soul, and another live hip-hop band coincidentally founded in 1992, The Roots.
Unceremoniously, Five Fingers Of Funk eventually split up over the predictable politics that come with ten young men touring in one van for years. With the perspective of time and individual musical accomplishments, the band has reunited to release Portland Say It Again on its new label home Kill Rock Stars this spring.
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