MORE FUNK ‘16

$3.00 “80’s throwback cover” for the first 150 tickets

FeaturingDJ ROY FREEDOMDJ COWBOYDJ ROCK-IT-TDJ DEAN VACCAROVJ’s SPOT and SMITTYHosted by ALAN FREED and SCOTTY P

MINNEAPOLIS (MF) — It’s the Spring of 1984. The heat is reaching unheard of levels in the city as the simmering MPLS funk scene is about to explode with the anticipation of Prince’s Purple Rain movie and album. Paving the way to this pivotal flashpoint were Vanity 6’s groundbreaking debut and only album, two genre-bending albums by The Time, and Prince’s six years of steady rule-breaking output that only recently had broken through to a mainstream audience via Little Red Corvette and 1999. Then there is the emerging Flyte Tyme duo of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, former Time players now doing their own thing at 43rd and Nicollet with their fresh, new and lush yet funky sound. Add the NYC breakdance craze sweeping the nation to the mix and it’s a uniquely musically and culturally intoxicating time to be alive. The funky Minneapolis kids are all hip to the magic being spun in their midst, and it’s First Avenue that feels that street buzz, launching a weekly Tuesday breakdance culture night called “Break It Up.”

This is the genesis of MF. MORE FUNK. More than a club night. A social scene both fed by – and feeding – the unprecedented snowballing of the Minneapolis music scene.

Break It Up and the breakdance trend that birthed it both broke up by the end of 1984, but the seed for MF had been planted. In late 1985, DJs Roy Freedom and PD Spinlove launched the cheeky-branded MF, reflecting both the larger mushrooming funk scene and the local scene that was largely fueling it.

Thursday night quickly became a major event for funk and rap in the Twin Cities. Less than two full years after the Purple Rain tsunami, the Erotic City scene was still exploding; every big record label wanted a Minneapolis act, if not many. New faces from who-knows-where were arriving fresh off the bus seemingly every day. Minneapolis had never seen anything like it. People from outside Minnesota actually thought Purple Rain was a realistic portrayal of Minneapolis.

It wasn’t unusual for Prince to swing through MF; not to play but to hang and observe. Jimmy Jam was a regular; Flyte Tyme was fresh and exploding, and it was normal to see Jimmy bring whomever he and Terry were working with at that time down to MF, where they could relax and have a good time without the harassment and pressure they’d normally face in New York or LA. And there were any number of local characters that kept the night poppin’. You felt like you HAD to be there. And since Minneapolis was the hot place to be, there were always new faces. Eye candy. Music. Fun.

It all added up to a truly exciting time, especially if you were in your late teens or ’20s – Minnesota’s legal drinking age until late 1986 was 18+; it was then raised to 21, but if you were 19 by September you were grandfathered in. And if you were into funk and rap – the latter which was still emerging to the mainstream – and the Minneapolis Sound, Thursday was your night, at First Avenue.

THIS is what MORE FUNK ’16 is all about. The first MF in nearly 25 years. A retro night that’s not simply a retro night, not a random old skool night, and not an all-Prince night…but a night that’s laser-focused on the FUNK that will recreate on nearly every level the electricity and vibe that thrilled not for 40,000 years but every Thursday for seven years. Happening at the very venue that hosted it…a venue virtually unchanged from the MF era (even one of the bartenders from the mid-’80s still slings drinks regularly at the club!). A funky good time thrown by the original DJ, original guest DJs, original VJs, and regulars who were there. All with a strong, yet not exclusive, emphasis on the greater MPLS SOUND of the ’80s. An event that invites not only the MF vets, but anyone who lets their funk flag fly, anyone who missed out on the party, like newcomers to Funkytown and fans of the funk of all ages. And, like the early MF years, this event is 18+!

SIX HOURS OF FUNK. MF. MORE FUNK. MORE FUNK ’16.

SOS Band, Midnight Star, Janet Jackson, Cameo, Dominatrix, Prince, Alexander O’Neal, Ta Mara & the Seen, Jesse Johnson’s Revue, Da Krash, Morris Day, Whodini, Cherrelle, Change, Herbie Hancock, Sheila E, Information Society, Klymaxx, Human League, Chaka Khan, Indeep