Bootsy Collins

• The One Giveth, the Count Taketh Away [Warner Bros., 1982] B+
• What's Bootsy Doin'? [Columbia, 1988] A-
• Back in the Day: The Best of Bootsy [Sire/Warner Archives, 1994] A
• Tha Funk Capital of the World [Mascot, 2011] ***

See Also:

• Bootsy
• Booty's New Rubber Band
• Bootsy's Rubber Band
• merge all

Consumer Guide Reviews:

The One Giveth, the Count Taketh Away [Warner Bros., 1982]
Not the one to give, but who's counting? B+

What's Bootsy Doin'? [Columbia, 1988]
I always suspected he was hemmed in by his P-Funk kiddie show, and after six years of figuring shit out he proves it. The old mob is on hand, but the most Clintonish turn this vaudeville takes, "Shock-It-to-Me"'s superimposition of electrocuties and Alabama gals, was produced by Bill Laswell, and elsewhere Bootzilla working alone constructs a sweet persona a grownup can love. Still a loyal brother of the P, he may not want to hear that "(I Wannabee) Kissin' You" and "Yo Moma Loves You" are prime Steve Arrington, but I intend a compliment. And though it's a little wishful to claim we're all winners because our sperm got to the egg first, it's sure nice of him to see it that way. A-

Back in the Day: The Best of Bootsy [Sire/Warner Archives, 1994]
"I've got a cartoon mind," he brags, and in the Toony Tune world of P-Funk spinoffs, rivals, and flat-out fakes, this was a virtue to make the most of. It helped that he worked for George, a doowop veteran whose instinct for the hook is everywhere in this music. Because for all Bootsy's deep bass and uncut funk--a legend perpetuated here by a raw live "Psychoticbumpschool"--what makes the Rubber Band so much more consistent than the Gap Band, whose new best-of stops dead every time it trots out a ballad, is the funny, kooky, kind slow ones. A

Tha Funk Capital of the World [Mascot, 2011]
Five historic P-Funk tracks fronted by Cornel West, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Al Sharpton, and a panoply of old A-game rappers followed by 11 well-meaning Bootsy tracks distinguished by cameos from Buckethead and, wouldn't you know it, George Clinton ("After These Messages," "Hip Hop @ Funk U") ***