Sleepy Brown’s top 5 funked-out soul classics

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• Sleepy Brown

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When it comes to the contemporary Atlanta sound, Sleepy Brown is the DNA of cool. The funk flowing through his veins comes courtesy his pops Jimmy Brown of the ’70s funk band Brick. But it’s his own discography, both as a founding member of Organized Noize Productions/Dungeon Family and a solo artist, that laid the foundation for the city’s funkdafied mashup of Southern rap, bass, and trill R&B.

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Nostalgia for early ONP/DF classics has been so thick, and deservedly so, in recent years that it’s easy to forget these cats are still kicking. (Yep, guilty as charged.) But Brown’s still in the kitchen, busy putting the finishing touches on his next solo album, Sex, Drugs, and Soul (13 Black Records), from his current Las Vegas home base. More on that tomorrow. To get the convo rolling, I asked Brown to break us off with a shortlist of his favorite old-school soul songs. No need to wonder where he got his funk from....

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5) Barry White, “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby”
“That was the first time I heard sex on a record like that. You know what I mean? It was too sexy, it was crazy.”

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4) Curtis Mayfield, “Superfly”
“That just made me believe in a black superhero.” laughs

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3) Earth Wind & Fire, “Shining Star”
“That was just funk. The way they produced that song, it used to give me goosebumps. It was just too funky.”

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2) Brick, “Dazz”
“You know my dad is in Brick, and when I was growing up I didn’t even know my dad was into doing music. But when I first went to his concert and found out that the song I heard on the radio was actually my dad, I couldn’t believe it. My mom and dad weren’t together, so growing up, I heard he played in clubs and stuff like that. But his first major hit was “Dazz,” so I didn’t even know until I went to a show with my grandmama and granddaddy.”