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(ThyBlackMan.com) When you think about soul and funk legends of the ‘70s and ‘80s, certain names dominate the headlines — but true music lovers know Carl Carlton belongs firmly in that conversation.

The same goes for hearing his group Cameo’s 1986 late-funk classic “Word Up!”: The song’s memorable robotic rhythm and Blackmon’s machine-like vocal delivery elevate it above and beyond the era’s ...

Dave Pehling is website managing editor for CBS Bay Area. He started his journalism career doing freelance writing about music in the late 1990s, eventually working as a web writer, editor and ...

The foundations of funk were laid down in the mid-1960s, when James Brown began to emphasize the first beat of each measure in his stage-tested and frenzy-inducing R&B songs. Before the decade’s end, ...