From aTrue Skater's point of view, the 1979 album cover Roundtree must be one of the best covers I have ever seen. Simple, yet very energetic featuring on the cover one of the pioneers of funky rhythm skating, legendary Bill Butler. But in 1982 Roundtree released the epic track 'Hit on You',with a killer bass intro that takes instant control over your whole damn soul!

Lou Rawls was known as 'the funkiest man alive' and funky he was indeed. After the relatively long 'rap' kind of an intro, the track just takes off and Lou's voice sounds phenomenal as it always did.

Gary Tom's 'sexy lady' is a straight boogie floorstomper you just gotta love!
Sophisticated soulful singer Bill Withers gets his groove on when he's talking about kissing his love just a little while before miss LaSalle lays down a rocking beat. A nice finishing touch with the beautiful voice of multi-genre-disciplined Jean Carn.

A fine list indeed if I may say so, Look `m up, track `m down, buy or borrow from who ever, 'cause you sure wanna get down to these boogie bangers! Or better yet, come and visit a straight-to-the-soul B-Funk Party, we are ready any time!
 

 A wonderful shiny season is ending and Quadsk8 is ready to explore some new roads. Diversity is the main key to challenge creativity, so the tracklist of september couldn't be more diverse in rhythm and groove.

A relaxed start off with the great late 'Prince Crown of Reggae' Dennis Brown in dub style. I guess everyone has his own favorites and Dennis with his great voice is certainly one of mine when it comes to oldschool riddim reggae.

The international anthem and an almost blueprint for deep house music is unmistakenly the 'move your body' track by pioneer Marshall Jefferson. It paved the way for an exraordinary style of house music which a have recently been a part of during my stay in New York.

A rarity amongst rarities is certainly Father's Children produced by Wayne Henderson. Their 1979 LP (their only one) is very well sought after and isn't reissued on cd yet. A rare groove track indeed.

Finishing up this month's list with a slow groove by the Chi-lites gettin' heavy on the bass line; I love this one when I'm working on putting some definition in my slow moves and still-stances on roller skates. The groove is really deep and takes you all the way down, You gotta love it. But then again, if you don't feel it, this ain't for you, fair enough. But if you do feel it, enjoy it to the max!

Loving you is Ecstasy to me

The Ohio Players are famous for a lot of things, one of them being the killer base lines in their whole repertoire. But I have never heard a brother gettin' down so bad in the first minute of a song, and that's exactly what Junie Morrison (later enforcing the P-Funk mob) does on the track 'Ecstasy'.

'Mainline' is a true dance floor killer which came out in 1979. Legendary Leroy Burgess was sure involved in this song but he already left the group by the time the track was released. Leroy as a true pioneer worked on the DNA of House music and this track was most likely one of the blueprints of what was to come from then on.

Sly Stone don't need no explanation at all. I think it's impossible to capture in words what the importance of this man was and the influence his music has had since the first moment this legend picked up an instrument.

Check out the other beauties on this list and feel good!

Due to the passing away of the funky pop pioneer Michael Jackson on June 25th, I decided to skip the July track list out of respect and grief.

I also try to avoid somewhat of an overkill of the very well known MJ tracks, that can be heard almost everywhere the last couple of weeks. DJ's are presenting there own interpretation of the best MJ tracks by offering a variety of mixes, mixtapes and remixes etc. There are even shows and musicals going on, which I personally have serious second thoughts about...(who really likes to hear Jackson-tracks being sung by other people than the Jacksons themselves, I ask you?)

It's impossible to explain the extraordinary influence of the Jacksons throughout the years for the roller skating community since the seventies. Jammin' not only on the populair tunes, but especially on the more rare groove tracks, like 'Moving Violation', 'Life of the Party' , 'Body Language (it's a love dance)' and 'Working Day and Night' to name a view, takes your own roller skate feel and vibe to a totally different level when you really get into it.

The best we can do, is to keep up the good work, get it on the good foot, keep on with the force and don't stop til you get enough. And enough is something we will never get. If you don't understand then it's ok, it's a Skate Thang!

 Put the music where your mouth is.

As I'm currently residing at New York City Manhattan and jammin' hard in Central Park at the weekends, business is still going on. The month of June is starting off real good with sunshine everywhere from New York to Rotterdam. That's right folks, The B-Funk sure doesn't forget to check home base every now and then.

Being amongst THE skaters of all skaters down here in Central Park New York inspired me to the following tracklist for this month. Check out some heavy early British funk by the Olympic Runners and slide down to some dutch house groovin' and pick up some nasty classic grooves along the way remixed by legendary DJ Larry Levan.