THE MAKING OF...
“God Make Me Funny”
Written for a radio ad, it became one of the most-sampled grooves ever, thanks to Herbie Hancock’s funky fusionists
by The Headhunters
DEWAYNE “Blackbyrd” McKnight is preaching the Headhunters gospel. “Funk is a state of mind, funk is a way of life, and funk is also a feel,” says the band’s former guitarist. “‘God Make Me Funky’ is all the elements of what funk is, but it doesn’t stop there. It takes you into a realm of what is possible. Since its inception, the word funk didn’t identify in any way with jazz. Ours was one of the bands that changed that.”
In 1973, Herbie Hancock released the avant-jazz album Sextant, his final recording with the experimental Mwandishi sextet. It was time for a change. He set about forming a new group to pursue a more commercially minded fusion of jazz, funk and rock. “The Sextant group was not bringing in the money,” says Headhunters percussionist Bill Summers. “David Rubinson was Herbie’s manager at the time and I think David was prompting Herbie to go more commercial. He had about nine people in the band before us. This was a cheaper proposition!”
Retaining saxophonist Bennie Maupin from Mwandishi, the initial Headhunters lineup featured Summers on percussion, Harvey Mason on drums and Paul Jackson on bass. The pioneering first album, Head Hunters, sold over one million copies. Soon afterwards, Mike Clark, Jackson’s close friend and musical partner from the Oakland jazz scene, replaced Mason, while McKnight was recruited following an auspicious meeting in a taxi with Maupin.
Flooding 1975 with jazz-funk: Herbie Hancock (left) with Headhunters Bill Summers, Mike Clark (sitting), Paul Jackson and Bennie Maupin
EVERETT COLLECTION HISTORICAL/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; MICHAEL WEINTROB; PARAS GRIFFIN/GETTY IMAGES
After backing Hancock on three more albums, in 1975 Headhunters made their own record, Survival Of The Fittest. Its 10-minute opening track, the searing “God Make Me Funky”, is a space-funk classic which in embryonic form pre-dated the band. “Paul Jackson and I wrote the words on a napkin in a BBQ joint in Oakland,” laughs Mike Clark, whose opening drum break on the track was later sampled countless times by artists, among them NWA, Nas, DMX, Usher and Prince.