BeatTips MusicStudy: Bobby Boyd Congress – “Dig Deep In Your Soul”

Early Funk From Obscure, Little-Known Outfit

One of the things that makes digging for “new” music so exhilarating and rewarding is the fact that you never know exactly what you’re going to discover. Even if you’re searching within a specific genre of music, the sheer number of recordings that may exist is staggering. And when it comes to funk music—particularly early funk, ca. 1965-1974—, the recorded output of music runs deep. A fact that’s further made even more impressive when you consider the number obscure and lesser-known early funk bands who made only a few recordings during that time.

Bobby Boyd Congress certainly fits the category of “obscure” and “lesser-known” funk bands. Indeed, to my knowledge, the only recording of the band is a 1970 self-titled album that the band actually recorded in France. (Wow, you notice how France has always maintained a deep reference for quality American music, especially musics in the black American music tradition?) Still, I’m convinced that Bobby Boyd Congress, a group from New York, made more recordings in or around New York City at the same time. Therefore, I believe (gotta believe!) that somebody somewhere has something else of this superb funk outfit; and as long as I’m “diggin’,” I won’t give up trying to find it.

Finally, I’m compelled to mention that several months ago, a music professor (someone whom I hold in great regard) asked me about the relationship between the drum patterns of modern beatmaking and that of those of the early funk music typified here by Bobby Boyd Congress. Specifically, he believed that the relationship was less apparent in beatmaking in the early 1990s. I strongly disagreed. As I pointed out to him (and in my book The BeatTips Manual, I show the link in greater historical detail), it was precisely the drum patterns of funk songs like Bobby Boyd Congress’s “Dig Deep In Your Soul” that pioneering beatmakers like DJ Premier and Pete Rock drew their inspiration from.

The music and video below is presented here for the purpose of scholarship.

Bobby Boyd Congress – “Dig Deep In Your Soul”