Your new album - the Funk Man (the stimulus package) - is free. That’s cool for your fans, but why’d you decide to do that?
Capitalism has turned everything out. That’s why we need to pick up the pieces, and that’s why I want my fans to listen to my shit and survive on this. I’m not surprised that the economy broke down, in my lifetime the shit deteriorated too much. We’ve been sitting on our ass and rappers too, they left that stain of ostentatious jewelry, colored diamonds, some say they got a house on their ear. That stuff makes fans jaded. Why should they drop all kinds of skrill to put a house on some rapper’s ear? That kind of shit was whack to begin with and even worse because the content permeates the culture.

You broke out in ’91, which was a very productive year for hip hop with fresh albums from De La Soul, The Black Sheep, Tribe Called Quest to name a few. Why do you think quality of hip hop releases was so high in ‘91?
Probably because it was still early and people hadn’t got a taste of success yet. Damn near the whole world was working on it because that’s what you did, that’s what you loved. It wasn’t a sure thing that you’d get any personal benefit. With Ice Cube and NWA putting out releases during that time, they were unique and new and had something to say, but Corporate America extracted the shock value from them realizing that they could make money on shock value alone.

Now it looks fucked, it looks like real hip hop is over, especially now in the recession, you have to earn fan’s respect because they’re so jaded. And, we’ve got to do better than what we’ve been doing with everybody using the Vocoder and turning on the robot voice.

Do you really think that hip hop could be over?
Hip Hop’s been dead even before MC Hammer came out, and before NAS wrote the song. I mean Hammer wasn’t even in the Hip Hop Category; he wasn’t trying to be a flo-er, he was an entertainer with a positive message. And that’s because the values of hip hop aren’t being observed.

What are the values of hip hop?
Number one, don’t bite. When we were starting out nobody would think about biting someone else’s style. If you were in a battle one day you wouldn’t come back the next stealing someone else’s style or flow. The same was true with graffiti, people strived to be unique. If you think about the staples of hip hop, Slick Rick, Fat Boys, Run DMC, they all had a truly unique style. I mean we’re all built off of something. Big Daddy Kane talked about how he was built off of Soul Music he listened to as a kid and I’m influenced primarily by Parliament Funkadelic. Now everyone wants to rap like Tupac - same sound, same tattoos, same everything. My brother has almost the same tattoos as Tupac and he’s been to jail. He went to jail for stupid shit.

How do you try to live hip hop’s values?
I don’t bite on other people’s things. For example, I don’t try to do things the way Grand Puba does it, and I do it my way. One thing that sets me apart is my unique viewpoint, from the streets of the Bay Area. Hos trying to scam you, people with dope, I wiggled my way through all of these things, and throw in my funky attitude.

You’ve been ahead of the curve with technology, not only using it to create and distribute your music, but you’ve also focused on futuristic themes in your music. Can you comment on that?
I’ve always been into technology, into gadgets. Back in fifth and six grades we had gateway classes where we got to use computers. I’ve always been an early adopter when it came to technology and music. I was making music on a computer, while that shit was still clunky, when it was hard to do. Now since Ableton Live came out it’s a lot easier. People may think I’m a nerd, like this ain’t like the MPC, but an MPC is a computer too, it’s just a really simple computer. That’s futuristic stuff is what Deltron 3030 was about.

You’ve been studying music theory for awhile, what have you been studying recently?
I’ve been studying Frank Zappa and I think that we’re hella similar in many ways. Because all he did was make music, even classical compositions. He was also an early adopter of technology; he was the first one to start sampling. I picked up the book on him called “No Commercial Potential” and learned that he fought the government and the censorship initiative in the 80s. Zappa was raw on the political level and the US actually didn’t like him. He was an intelligent scientist, a student of music.

There’s only one book to read on Funk, it’s called “Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One” by Ricky Vincent. He’s a professor and he wrote it for his senior thesis. Hip hop could just become a legend like jazz is today. Hopefully we can preserve what it means, talk about the conditions that created it, because Funk is basically gone.

Del, what can your fans expect from the show tonight?
I got A Plus from the Souls of Mischief and my DJ Zach Hendrix with me, and we’ll keep it funky. Your can expect to hear a few songs from my new album, and remember the funk is available for free, on the house to download.

Del's Stimulus Plan

The Stimulus is here:
http://delthefunkyhomosapien.bandcamp.com/

Pictures from a funky show at the High Noon Saloon this weekend (May 9, 2009):












As always, please feel free to e-mail us with your comments and photo enquiries. See you at the next show - Ankur