The first Funk tune I remember hearing was Sex Machine by the Godfather of Soul James Brown. I was at a school disco when the DJ dropped that plater that mattered, I remember thinking that it was naughty and, therefore, exciting because James said 'Sex'.

My reaction to the record was not too dissimilar to that of the young black teenagers who heard it for the first time in 1970. Back then lyrics referring to sex were thinly disguised, however, very few artists were as bold as Mr Brown, putting it out there. Team that with the Collins brothers on Bass and Guitar and you got the recipe for the funk.

The word funk was initially a slang for the smell of sex; Funk music is the soundtrack of sex. Funk music is loose and sweaty hauling ass on the one; it comes in many flavors spanning the entire tempo range (which makes it tough to mix). Funk spook deeply about the black experience, from the uptown clubs to the ghetto streets, and this raw, unforgiving sound still sounds fresh today.

I started to collect Funk Records in the Late-eighties, around the same time Hip Hop artists began to sample Funk Tunes. When Eric B and Rakim released 'Paid Full' i went on the hunt For Parlement Funkadelic when Salt and Pepper released 'Desire' I was on a Mision to find 'Amen Brother.'

I'm still discovering Funk gems, in fact for these mixes I managed to track down most of the breaks from the first three Tribe Called Quest Albums.