The Original P is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 band formed in 1998 by four founding members of Parliament-Funkadelic

Parliament-Funkadelic

Parliament-Funkadelic is a funk, soul and rock music collective headed by George Clinton. Their style has been dubbed P-Funk. Collectively the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums...

, Fuzzy Haskins

Fuzzy Haskins

Clarence Eugene "Fuzzy" Haskins is a former singer with 1950s and 1960s doo-wop group, The Parliaments. He is a founding member of the groundbreaking and influential 1970s funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, also known as Parliament-Funkadelic. He left Parliament-Funkadelic in 1977 to pursue a...

, Calvin Simon

Calvin Simon

Calvin Eugene Simon is a former member of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic....

, Ray Davis

Ray Davis (musician)

Raymond "Ray" Davis was the original bass singer and one of the founding members of The Parliaments, Parliament, and Funkadelic. His regular nickname while he was with those groups was "Sting Ray Davis". Aside from George Clinton, he was the only original member of the Parliaments not to leave the...

 and Grady Thomas

Grady Thomas

Grady Thomas is a former member of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic...

. All four have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...

.

Band members include: Ben Powers Jr., drums; William Mims, guitar; Kevin Shider, brother of Parliament-Funkadelic member Garry Shider

Garry Shider

Garry Marshall Shider was an American musician and guitarist. He was musical director of the P-Funk All-Stars for much of their history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.-Early life:Shider was born in Plainfield, New...

, guitar; Gene Thomas, son of Original P member Grady Thomas, guitar; Derrick Davis, son of Original P member Ray Davis, bass; John "Fly" Wiley, keyboards; Sharla L. Patrick, keyboards; Sonja Holmes, vocals; Patrice "Emerald" Llewellen, vocals; and Rose Offord, vocals; Scott "Skyntyte" Free, guitar/vocals.

Discography

• What Dat Shakin (Westbound Records
  Westbound Records
  Westbound Records is a Detroit-based record label founded by Armen Boladian in 1970. It had a distribution deal with Janus Records from 1970 to 1975, but then it switched distribution to 20th Century Records during 1975 and 1976, but again switched distribution to Atlantic Records from 1976 to...
  
  , 1998)
• Hyped Up Westbound Soljaz (Westbound Records, 2001)

Further reading

• Kent Kimes (May 21, 1999), Original P Keeps Funky Beat Going, The Augusta Chronicle.
• Jon Pareles
  Jon Pareles
  Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
  
   (April 9, 1999) Pop and Jazz Guide, The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  .
• Steven Uhles (September 14, 2001), Parliament in Session, The Augusta Chronicle.