Prince Paul, Bernie Worrell and Newkirk Give Birth to Baby Elephant
Jun 8, 2007 3:07 PM
Baby Elephant's Turn My Teeth Up! is Prince Paul’s first project following his collaboration, Handsome Boy Modeling School, with Dan the Automater.
With Baby Elephant, Prince Paul teams up with one of his musical idols—eccentric keyboard mastermind and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Bernie Worrell (P-Funk, Talking Heads). Longtime Prince Paul collaborator, Newkirk, rounds out the hyperskilled Baby Elephant trio.
As a teenager, Prince Paul would skip school just to listen to his P-Funk records. The chance to make music with Worrell proved to be an opportunity of a lifetime. These two legends met while promoting the Worrell documentary Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth, and they hit it off immediately. Together with Worrell, Prince Paul was able to create the funk/soul album that has been dancing in his head all of these years.
"He's an accomplished musician and I'm some B-boy cat," Paul says. But that formula doesn't necessarily equal your typical hip-hop-plus-jazz formula. "I don't want people to think it's like some hip-hop beats over him playing. We're trying to invent something."
On Turn My Teeth Up!, Paul focuses on showcasing Worrell's playing. He provides the musical bedrock on an array of vintage keyboards, synthesizers and pianos, as well as adding his oft-imitated (and sampled) string sections and Moog bass lines. Worrell, a New Jersey native, has created sonics that over the years have become the foundation for the West Coast Hip Hop sound (see Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic”). It seems fitting that an East Coast producer has brought Worrell’s sounds back home.
Turn My Teeth Up! features classic turns by David Byrne, George Clinton, Yellowman, Shock G, Nona Hendryx, DJ Roc Raida, Reggie Watts, Gabby La La and more.
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