Track Listing

1. introduction
2. Got A Thing On My Mind
3. What Have You Done For Me Lately?
4. The Dap Dip
5. Give Me A Chance
6. Got To Be The Way It Is
7. Make It Good To Me
8. Ain't It Hard
9. Pick It Up, Lay It In The Cut
10. Casella Walk

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5447 in Music
• Released on: 2002-05-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

From URB Magazine
Well, the cat's out of the bag. No longer do up-and-coming soul bands strive to sound like the antiseptic Brand New Heavies or, worse yet, insipid Jamiroquai. The Poets of Rhythm proved that rough could still sound good as far back as 1993. Phillipe Lehman and Gabe Roth founded Desco Records in the mid-1990s because they knew that a certain subset of America's funk-buying public would die for a bass that was plucked and not slapped. For drums that danced around rhythms instead of avoiding them.

But oh, what a monster they spawned! It seems that every white boy with a 4-track cassette recorder heard Brainfreeze, ordered Volumes 1-10 of The Sound of Funk comps and figured he could form a band to record with the chutzpah of Mickey and the Soul Generation and the Ebony Rhythm Band. But grasshopper forgot that those late-'60s funk legends had musical prowess. Grasshopper forgot that they all looked up to James Brown, who recorded ballads alongside the hardest funk instrumentals. Thank God Roth and Neal Sugarman (of boogaloo funksters the Sugarman Three) didn't forget. Thank God they formed Daptone Records and recorded — gasp — an album. Not a series of unrelated songs, but a string of winners, plucked out by a bona fide soul revue backing up dynamite Desco alumnus Sharon Jones. This album is as much about them as it is about Ms. Jones' and her ferocious vocals. Take one listen to their cover of Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done for Me Lately?" and you'll know why.

Egon

Customer Reviews

So funky it hurts...
I bought this disc because of the reputation that Sharon Jones has for an incredible live show and for keeping funk alive, and I wasn't disappointed. This band is so great on this CD that I can't wait to catch them live. I also can't wait for the next party I go to where I can crank this. The Dap Kings remind me of the J.B.'s with their percussive rhythm guitar and groovin rhythm section. Sharon Jones really knows how to lay it down too; their version of Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done For Me Lately" is so funky it has to be heard to be believed. This is one of those CD's that I bought on a whim but has prompted me to buy everything this group has ever put out. This is the BEST CD I bought in 2005, and believe me, I bought a lot of them. This is one of the hardest hitting funk albums I've ever heard and one of my favorites of all time, right up there with Funkadelic, JB, and Curtis Mayfield. If you are a fan of funk music, get this CD and help Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings keep funk alive. You won't regret it.

finally, funk
I'd been looking for a sound like this ever since I got my first Poets of Rhythm and Greyboy All-stars Cd's. Sharon Jones is powerful as are the bass lines, the songs sound familiar, and yet the band has a unique sound, that sets it apart from other funk music I've heard

Great funk. Her third best album
I like the intro, pick it up, make it good, got to be (check out the hot instrumental version on the Dap-Kings singles collection). Also really like Casella Walk, but -- on Sharon Jones' CD it's a 3 minute instrumental in a 10 minute track. The first seven minutes are blank. Really. Best to get it on the Dap-Kings singles CD, which is the same tune but in a 3 minute track. I'd say Naturally and 100 Nights are tied for her best. Get all three if you can, plus her Scion Sampler vol. 19 stuff and her songs on the Great Debater soundtrack.