Photo: Macon Telegraph (2017)
MACON - Chris Wind the EMA tells the story of a funky secret mission triggered by a conversation with funk music legend, George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic.
It’s near the end of 2010, maybe early 2011. I just graduated from Florida A&M University a few months earlier and I’m sitting across from George Clinton in his Tallahassee studio. We’re parked at the countertop island-thing that would bear Kendrick Lamar’s “K-Dot” signature two years later during a visit that would result in a Grammy win for both he and George for “Wesley’s Theory” on To Pimp A Butterfly (a visit I’m still a little pissed about since I was ironically living in Los Angeles at the time, recording a mixtape in Compton with a TDE engineer. We’ll get to that later.)
George is making his gradual return to the top after he and the rest of us have been knee deep (pun VERY intended) in sorting through case files and whatnot fighting the good fight to get the rights back to some of the biggest hits he and his bands are known for. I’m asking him about Dr. Dre, Snoop, and other dudes in hip-hop who’ve sampled his stuff over the years, and he’s telling me how they’d actually been good to him, most of the fuckery being caused by the labels and people like that.
I'm suggesting George let me play ambassador to start connecting with modern day funk-influenced acts like The Dungeon Family since they were a clear bridge between funk and the rapidly growing Southern music takeover. He's putting me in contact with Mike P who plays guitar on a number of records by Dungeon alumni such as OutKast, and who happens to also be a former engineer at George’s studio that attended FAMU.
Then, my cousins and fellow band members J. Wind and E. Wind of our hip-hop group, Wind Clan, are packing up and heading back to our hometown, Macon, GA, to be closer to the Atlanta scene… and incidentally, also because we’re losing the apartment we’re in.
Some time passes and the funk mission is moving slowly. J is working late at a gas station, playing “Atomic Dog”, when Macon’s funkiest rapper we’d yet to hear about, Doski Wo, walks in and is instantly noticing this young dude bumping funk tunes, something pretty rare to encounter in Macon. J links Doski and myself, and Doski is telling me about things he is currently working on with Dungeon Family. It's a freakin’ GODSEND since things have been dragging along. Soon, I'm driving him and our homegirl, Muse Dixon, down to Tallahassee to meet George and check out the studio.
Later, Doski is introducing me to, among others, Whit the Mac Villa (of The Madvocates), a Macon native who, along with Doski, happens to be a member of Dungeon Family Generation X, a project being organized by 1st Generation Dungeon Family member, Backbone. This leads to me featuring other Dungeon alum Big Rube and EJ the Witchdoctor on a couple songs.
A couple city hops later, and I'm living in Los Angeles (told you I'd get back to it). Overton Loyd, P-Funk Creative Director and visual artist behind the famous covers and comics on Parliament albums, catches wind of me being in L.A. and is telling me about a program he completed out there which led to breakthroughs in his career including introducing George Clinton to painting. Those paintings now appear as prints on a revolutionary line of high-end boots and apparel.
Anyways, I'm returning to Macon shortly after completing the first of four programs offered, having had a breakthrough in seeing what's possible for Macon's music scene. Summer 2013, I'm throwing a 1st of its kind music event bringing together popular local talent like African Americana and DJ B3 who I'm later bringing down to open with me for Big Boi and Sleepy Brown on tour.
With some guidance and coaching from Overton over the next six years, I'm building my network, gathering resources, and unleashing The Madvocates in 2019.
It is very hard to discuss all that is shifting today without acknowledging the hand some of funk's fiercest champions have had in my life and that of my Macon music peers. I enjoyed watching fink creep its way back into the mainstream with successful releases by Kendrick and Childish Gambino, and even City Girls sampling "Flashlight". I’ve learned a lot from George and O about how to shift paradigms in music and art, and I’m hoping to continue doing so in Macon for many years to come.
Chris Wind the EMA is a Macon, GA, artist/producer of the hip-hop group The Madvocates. IG: @chriswindmusic
Photo: George, Overton, Chris and friends at Full Sail University
WATCH: George Clinton and P-Funk LIVE from Macon's Cherry Blossom Festival 2017