Multi-instrumentalist Stro Elliot of seminal hip-hop band the Roots has today (17) shared the brand new remix “Machine No Make Sex.” This bold remake of the immortal “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine” is a pre-holiday preview of the forthcoming album Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot, which will be released on February 4, 2022.
Funk pioneer James Brown is being celebrated by UMe, Universal Music Group’s global catalog company, in this new remix project with Elliot. It consists of classic James Brown songs and will be available digitally on digital service providers, physically as a black vinyl LP, and a clear vinyl color version will be available as an e-commerce exclusive on the Urban Legends website. You can pre-order the full album from January 7, 2022.
Elliot, who has produced and collaborator with multiple Grammy-winning artists, spent his childhood playing, studying, and listening to many of the great artists in jazz, funk, and soul. He formed a bond with the seminal work of James Brown from an early age.
“The ‘Godfather of Soul’ was The Godfather of so much more,” says Elliot. “There are genres and subgenres that wouldn’t exist today without him. Whatever genre one might place me in included. This is a dissection and celebration of that.”
For Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot, he handpicked ten classic hits by the Godfather and infused them with inspiration from several different genres. “She Made Me Popcorn,” his remix of Brown’s 1969 R&B No.1 “Mother Popcorn,” features prominent hip-hop-style sampling of his vocals. “Machine No Make Sex” transforms “Sex Machine” with Afrobeat rhythms and horns.
“Get Up Off,” Elliot’s remix of Brown’s 1976 staple “Get Up Offa That Thing” and “The Goodest Foot,” his reimagining of “Get On the Good Foot” both lean deep into a steady hip-hop groove. Meanwhile “Coal Sweat,” his new version of “Cold Sweat,” recasts the 1967 smash into a psychedelic electronic daze.
All ten remixes on the album present a unique take on the original songs, simultaneously honoring their legacy and the vista of genres that stemmed from the “Hardest Working Man In Show Business.”
Pre-order Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot from January 7, 2022. The album is released on February 4, 2022.
The full tracklist is:
A-Side
A1. Turn It Up Give It Shrooms (Give It Up or Turn It a Loose)
A2. SortaBad (Super Bad)
A3. The Big Purple Donut (The Payback)
A4. Coal Sweat (Cold Sweat)
A5. Get Up Off (Get Up Offa That Thing)
B-Side
B1. The Goodest Foot (Get On the Good Foot)
B2. Dragon Pants (Hot Pants)
B3. She Made Me Popcorn (Mother Popcorn)
B4. Machine No Make Sex (Get Up [I Feel Like Being a] Sex Machine)
B5. Black And Loud (Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud)