Boobie Knight & The Soulciety: "Soul Ain't No New Thing"

Super-rare and super-dank.  Yet another album that in some way involves soul mastermind Harvey Fuqua III, who I’ve talked about extensively in previous posts.  His full contribution to this LP is a bit muddled…he’s listed in the songwriting credits, and in the liner notes is described as having had the idea to form the Soulciety as a band, but it is unclear as to whether or not he served in the capacity of svengali-auteur for the Soulciety in the same way he did for his other brainchildren the New Birth, the Nite-Liters, etc.  Name headliner and band drummer Boobie Knight certainly appears to be adding his own manic zaniness to the music, which has some commonality with other Fuqua artists but in the end is stranger, heavier and more psychedelic.  The all-time cut here is the B-Boy breaking classic “Ego Tripping,” an insanely fast funk workout that showcases the band in all its glory.  Other notable tracks are the title song—a rumination on the concept of “soul” being nothing new to those who invented it—as well as “Lettin’ Happiness In,” “The Changing Game” and “Power To The People,” all of which continue in the same mode as “Ego Tripping,” blending furiously churning funk with political, acid-chant proto-rap and a severe, distorted grunginess.  Doesn’t seem like these guys ever really had a hit, which makes sense…this is straight-up underground, it is to James Brown what Busdriver is to Jay-Z in modern hip-hop.