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George Clinton, principal architect of P-Funk,  joined Roland Martin on NewsOne Now to discuss his music career and new memoir “Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin, Kinda Hard on You?” 

Of the book from Amazon.com:

In this seminal music memoir, Father of Funk George Clinton talks four decades of hit songs, drug abuse, the evolution of pop, rock, and soul music, his legal pitfalls, and much much more.

George Clinton began his musical career in New Jersey, where his obsession with doo-wop and R&B led to a barbershop quartet—literally, as Clinton and his friends also styled hair in the local shop—the way kids often got their musical start in the ’50s. But how many kids like that ended up playing to tens of thousands of rabid fans alongside a diaper-clad guitarist? How many of them commissioned a spaceship and landed it onstage during concerts? How many put their stamp on four decades of pop music, from the mind-expanding sixties to the hip-hop-dominated nineties and beyond?

When asked why he wanted to chronicle his story in his memoir, Clinton, “Father of the Funk” said, “Because of my court fights with the copyright issue over my songs, over all those songs.”

“What’s going on right now is a total conspiracy amongst the all of the record companies and the music society, ’cause so many of those records, samples were done with no law around it. They took care of each other under the table.”

They took the money from the rappers, they charged them, told them they was paying me. They were splitting it amongst themselves.”

Clinton explained he has taken numerous entities in the music industry to court as a result and said, “You’re going to hear a lot more ’cause NWA just put their movie out and so many of our songs are in that movie.”

“The companies themselves think I’m too broke to fight back now, they want to pay me for two (songs), not even [for] Atomic Dog,” said Clinton. He shared Flashlight2013.com as a location where viewers can obtain more information about copyright issues through the legal documentation contained on the site.

Clinton said he is not going to stop his fight to get what he is due from the record companies. He told Martin, “I’m not going to stop until I get hot enough to where I matter.”

“‘Cause if you not relevant, you can get on out of here ’cause all you doing is whining — I’m going to be talking, I ain’t going to be whining.”

Watch Roland Martin and the architect of the p-Funk, George Clinton discuss his new memoir,“Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin, Kinda Hard on You?” and his copyright dispute with entities in the music industry in the video clip above.

Be on the look out for new music from Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic and a collaboration with Clinton, Kendrick Lamar and Louie Vega that is bound to bring the funk.

Be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 9 a.m. EST on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.

See Also: Watch Portions Of The NewsOne Now Music Special

George Clinton’s Memoir Details “Total Conspiracy ” In The Music Industry  was originally published on newsone.com