James Brown's Future Shock can't be stopped

The dog's chewed up my copy of the Bloggin' 101 handbook so I'm currently oblivious to the exact guidelines on recycling topics, but I figure I can possibly get away with another post about the Grand Royal magazine article on James Brown's Future Shock TV show on some ATLanta cable channel since the original post was from when only IRL friends, a few 'net-buddies, and the IDCIYWIW musketeers read this place, and I've now scanned said article and found more comprehensive footage of the show since then. Click the JPG for the full size :





Cynics might suggest that the show was little more than a Soul Train rip-off used solely to plug releases from James Brown's record label, but I look at the Future Shock studio as a Shangri-La of Funk where even the token fat kid can Get Up Offa That Thing and hold his own in the dance contest. If the scan and that montage float your boat then check out the full 30 minute best of Future Shock video some dude called Eugene has stitched together from the Future Shock DVD of what little footage of the show which still exists.

Those first three issues of Grand Royal were so good (the 6 page Mulling Over The Mullet essay from issue # 2 remains one of my favourite pieces of magazine journalism ever), but it was all downhill from there on in with a Fernando Torres-like decline in quality which was concomitant with the Beasties themselves falling off after Ill Communication after they'd started flirting with Buddhism. It appears that great rap groups whose epithets begin with Bea and religion just aren't capable of mingling with one another because the downfall of The Beatnuts began when JuJu converted to Islam and cut back on the "... smashin' your teeth, fuckin' your wife, robbin' you, n*gga, kidnapping your niece, bless your cheek with a permanent crease, I'm a problem you don't need, you'll probably go run for police" talk.

BONUS BEATS :

James and the gang on Soul Train in 1973 with an awesome medley of Get On The Good Foot, Soul Power and Make It Funky :



You know how boxing fans' theoretical dream match would be Ali vs. Tyson at their respective primes? Me, I'm tryna see a James circa this period vs. Prince in 1985 dance-off rumble in the discothèque. How is that double drop scissor-split at 01:40 during the ..Good Foot breakdown even anatomically possible without serious testicular and anal injuries?