The Funky 16 Corners

It’d be more than enough if Stones Throw was strictly in the business of letting assorted hip-hop experimenters do their thing without some brow-furrowing A&R getting on their case. But label GM Eothen “Egon” Alapatt was also a voracious collector and archivist, and this roundly-praised obscure funk collection he curated for the label did brisk enough numbers to spin off his reissue imprint Now-Again Records. The bands on this comp were stylistic peers of late ’60s/early ’70s peak-power Isaac Hayes, James Brown, and Kool & the Gang, just with a fraction of their success — but Egon’s deep-dive liner notes reveal how even the most underheard of these regional bands contained worlds within themselves. A sample-ready legacy of blank-filling music history starts here.