Dam Funk

1. Damon Riddick, better known as Dam Funk (pronounced "Dame Funk"), is one of the few artists who dabbles in retro-80s sounds who actually lived through the era as a musician.

2. Growing up in Los Angeles, by the late 80s he had turned his love of music into a budding career, landing gigs as a session musician with pop and hip hop acts.

3. Just over the past few years, Riddick started actually releasing records, causing quite a stir in underground hip hop and electronic scenes with his re-engineered takes on early 80s funk and soul.

4. By the mid to late 90s, he was laying down instrumental parts for G Funk hip hop albums by acts like MC Eiht and Westside Connection. But put off by the rapper's lack of interest in the music (in favor of, as he describes it, getting high in the studio), Riddick left the scene to start his own club night, Funkmosphere, to promote the electro-funk sound he loves.

5. Just over the past few years, Riddick started actually releasing records, causing quite a stir in underground hip hop and electronic scenes with his re-engineered takes on early 80s funk and soul. Focusing on an updated version of the P funk sound - think George Clinton produced by modern techno artists - Dam Funk surely has a bright future as a musician, even as he continues to draw from and reshape the past.

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