Song: Seven Minutes Of Funk

Artist: The Whole Darn Family

Album: The Whole Darn Family Has Arrived (1976)

Genre: Funk

Please forgive me. I don’t mean to annoy my readers by beating that same dead horse. But, this group is an example of why we can’t allow our music history to fade away! It’s such a disgrace that I could only find little information, or sometimes no information at all on these forgotten artist & bands that helped to change history. I am so darn pissed yo!! Black folk need to start blogging! For real.

You May Not Know, But You Know.

Well, despite the fact that I can’t find virtually squat on this treasured forgotten group called “The Whole Damn Family (which is a hilarious name for a group),” luckily, I have some sort of recollection from my childhood. Although, I have absolutely no idea where their song “Seven Minutes Of Funk,” fell on the billboard charts, I was old enough to know that almost every single young Black home was playing this beat. This groups was as funky as you could get back in the day!

This song came out when a was about 9 years old. My little feet used to groove to this song to almost every barbecue party I ever been to! Despite the huge popularity, to be honest I didn’t think that most of my elders like this beat. There still existed major generation gaps even back then too. Perhaps the music was so unique and different, my then elders didn’t quite know how to dance to it? Unless you’re a lover of funk music, I’m gonna boldly assume that most of my readers don’t remember this group. However, you do know their music.

The First Cover Release.

How am I sure you know their music? Because If I’m correct, the first rap group to sample their music was Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, with their hit “Superappin’ (1979).” GFTFF’s sample rap version was played all over the place, every corner you walked in the hood, they were playing “Superappin’.” Next sample was done by EMPD in their rap called “It’s My Thing (1987).” I have to be honest, I think this is my most favorite rap out of all the samples done! Lastly, Jay-Z sampled this in his rap “Ain’t No Nigga (1996).” Now, we’ve got 3 different major artists that sampled the band’s music; yet, I can’t seem to find any trace of any of these on the Billboard’s chart! And nothing really written about the band on the net. Now, either google (or perhaps Billboard) has a conspiracy to bury certain Black music history, or the Black community has simply allowed it to be wiped out of our memories. Shame on you guys!! ?