London’s ‘rare groove’ club scene of the mid-80s was extremely keen on the work of the larger James Brown family, to the point where illegal vinyl bootlegs of tracks like Maceo Parker’s ‘Cross The Tracks’ were selling thousands. Hence this 1986 compilation from Polydor collecting some prime funk rarities from 69 - 71 which demonstrate the power of the JBs at their best. And among some of the finest funk music ever recorded, you can hear over the course of its nine minutes the world’s most famous drum beat, ‘The Funky Drummer’ actually morph into existence before your very ears. 

No album did more to re-introduce James Brown to the hip-hop generation than this 1986 Polydor compilation that collects some of the heaviest, funkiest tracks by Brown from the late ’60s through early ’70s. Remixed tracks like “Funky Drummer” and “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” became sampled onto hundreds of future tracks but unedited originals of “It’s a New Day” and “Hot Pants” were a potent reminder of how much Brown and his bands’ rhythm revolutions reshaped pop music.