Track Addicts — RockStarFunk

Enough with the arty-farty-smartypants music, here’s some stuff that goes for the groin! A bunch of funk-addicts from Holland united under the name Track Addicts to drop a highly original hybrid of greasy funk and hiphop on the unsuspecting masses.

That is to say, if they were unsuspecting they haven’t been paying attention. For over 15 years this band’s main man has been funking shit up in various bands. Gotcha! had been the fattest funk-unit to be ‘pulled from the clay’, if you excuse the dutchism, ever in the Lowlands. It caught the attention of Dr. Funkenstein himself and after the band imploded Rockattack Ten moved to the US to hang out with Clinton’s P-Funk All-Stars . After some years Ten is now back in his hometown the ‘Double A’ a.k.a. Haarlem and formed Track Addicts, with whom he first dropped the album Handgrenades And Butter. It had had some outstanding tracks but others didn’t fully live up to the potential of the band.

On the sophomore album RockStarFunk the group has grown and I think none of the 45 minutes are wasted on halfassedness. Gotcha! made a great comeback, but I believe Track Addicts take the crown. Not in the least because Ten is easily on of the best rappers but also Swazi’s production/writing is more on its own. Firmly based in the (P-)Funk tradition, but definitely with a more modern twist. I often said producer Timbaland was the true P-Funk innovator, but these Dutchies can easily take that claim too. George Clinton released a charming, but somewhat hit ‘n’ miss affair last year, that strongly leaned on his own-established tradition. Track Addicts drop a solid album with nothing but hits. So there.

The album opens strong with The Big Fish, which stars 24-7 Spyz guitarist Jimi Hazel, a collaboration of which we also should see fruits on the upcoming Spyz-album. On Hemisphere we find P-Funk All Star Belita Woods and another All Star is found in Dance With You in the form of Michael ‘Clip’ Payne. So it’s not like the ties are cut. Just like former Gotcha!-rapper Rollarocka, a.k.a. Shy pops up in Life’s What You Make It and So Near Yet So Far. In his former band Postmen he proved to be a great singer and on these cuts here he sings. Which is great in times where even a hiphop-fan like myself is getting fed up with the all too dominant rap in every other record in the charts. The producers seem to think it’s the way to credify the poprecord. ‘Yeah, but isn’t Ten a rapper?’ I hear you think. Truedat, but he’s more than just a rapper, he’s a funkateer, first and foremost, who happens to rap (and sometimes sing).

Although obviously influenced, the crew manages to create a very personal sound. The arrangements are an organic mix, even though large chunks are made in the computer. This is the next level of P-Funk and if there’s one thing to complain about RockStarFunk it would be that Love’s Like Drugs should’ve lasted longer.