Funky Cat -meow- is a funky proto rap track that was released on the Black Knight album from 1971 by James Knight And The Butlers: a heavy funk band from Miami, Florida founded around James Knight. He began performing as a child,
singing and playing drums and later guitar, but his biggest fame came as
the lead singer for the short-lived 70s band, James Knight
and the Butlers. Black Knight was the only album the band released. After this musical adverture they on to other things.
Funky Cat
The Black Knight album opens with Funky Cat, a raw Southern funk Latin-inflected track with a pumping organ, Knight's feverish guitar and cat noises.
Funky Cat sets the tone for the rest of the album as Knight raps
his way through the performance as the backing musicians settle into a
strange instrumental groove.
Roots of Rap is dedicated to rap music prior to 1980! It is a blog about the history of rap music and the origins of hiphop culture. It's about rap before there was rap. It's about proto rap until it became mainstrain in 1979 when Sugarhill Gang’s song Rapper’s Delight, introduced a completely new audience to this genre.
