This playlist is a secret weapon for a BJJ club looking to elevate it's game—Evoke the hustle of some of the hardest working musicians to have walked this Earth and challenge your teammates and training partners to keep up. There's no slacking with the grit of James Brown or relentlessness of his band the J.B.'s relentless rhythms creating a no-quit vibe. Prince's slick grooves and the layered horn blasts and vocals of Earth, Wind & Fire demand you keep up.
There's no slacking here—no "chilling". It's music for tenacity and hard work so you can smash through plateaus and leave the mats better than you stepped onto them.
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Genesis
The One—that downbeat groove—is the backbone of this playlist and what put Funk on the map. It revolutionized music, stripping soul to a raw, rhythmic pulse. It dominates tracks like “People Get Up” and “Doing It To Death,” driving the groove in most of the cuts below—think “Let It Whip” and “More Bounce.”
Don't listen for the One, feel it.
Full Track Listing
- Say Yeah Yeah - Yvonne Fair
- Hot Thing - Prince
- Best Beat In Town - Switch
- Genius of Love - Tom Tom Club
- Backstrokin' - Fatback Band
- Let It Whip - Dazz Band
- Dazz - Brick
- She's A Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) [Single Version] - Carl Carlton
- Get the Funk out Ma Face - The Brothers Johnson
- Too Hot to Stop, Pt.1 - The Bar-Kays
- More Bounce to the Ounce - Zapp & Roger
- I Want To Take You Higher - Sly & The Family Stone
- Cola Bottle Baby - Edwin Birdsong
- Doing It To Death, Pts. 1 & 2 - The J.B.'s
- Keep Giving Me Love - D Train
- Let's Groove - Earth, Wind & Fire
- Midas Touch - Midnight Star
- People Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul (Remix) - James Brown
- Slide - Slave
Oh, You Think You Drill Hard?
So I've only been a small handful of BJJ seminars, but Jon Thomas ran the longest.
Like, 4+ hours long.
I didn't even know you could deep dive and drill BJJ for that long.
Especially on a Tuesday night..
But I have a minor obsession with people that can just work and work and work. I like to study them to provide perspective to the things I try to work on, and during the later hours of the seminar I started thinking about James Brown.
Before I knew any better, I thought he was the Hardest Working Man In Showbusiness because he got so sweaty on stage—which can and has been and is still gimmicked nowadays—but listening to Andrew Hickey's podcast set me straight:
James Brown rehearsed up to 12 hours a day—and not just where you'd imagine.
Backstage. Hotels. Tour buses.
Immediately after a show.
He demanded perfection—he had hand signals when a member of the band made a mistake during a performance (audiences thought it was part of the show) and would later fine the musician for the error.
All in service of the One. He built Funk around it and drilled everyone in his band until it became second nature.
You hear it in People Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul.
But you hear the fruits of the effort in the musicianship and performance in Doing It To Death by the J.B.'s—Brown's band throughout the 70s and into the early 80s, which has the energy and vibe of a live performance, but recorded in studio.
It sold over a million copies in 1973.
That's what you get with the grind under the right leadership—results.
And that was James Brown.
The playlist has other artists who aspired for the same outputs—some even were probably fine doing the 12 hour a day practice thing. Maybe more.
I'm just a purple belt, but I've often thought back to that seminar with fondness because it made me realize I should do more that kind of practice. It also makes me think about what the One is in BJJ.
Probably some positioning concept I can't articulate.
Two More James Brown Facts
- He worked as a Little Richard impersonator in the 50s—He'd be dispatched to shows Richard couldn't make because of scheduling conflicts, reasoning that people would be unfamiliar with his appearance (in a world of black and white TVs and newspapers). This didn't always work, but Brown is remembered as turning the crowds around by the end through the intensity of his stage performance, which included backflips.
- The playlist features the remixed version of People Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul, showcases Brown’s signature style: precise horn sections, syncopated guitar and raw, commanding vocals. The track was originally released as part of the Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off soundtrack.
The Playlist
Let's bring it back to the playlists.
Everything we upload here only features a single artist per playlist—occasionally someone's name will appear as a featured artist on a track.
If you're looking for more Funk I've got you covered:
- Funk Sampler no.1