Hip Hop Be Bop

Trouble Funk was founded in 1975 in Washington DC. With the perfect fusion of soul, funk and rap, they quickly became one of the biggest groups on the go-go scene, following in the footsteps of Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers.

Originally named simply Trouble, the group changed their name to Trouble Funk  thanks to a stage sign that read ‘Trouble Will Funk You’ with only the words ‘Trouble’ and ‘Funk’ big enough to be read by the crowd.

They debuted in 1980 with the track ‘E Flat Boogie’ on Al & The Kidd Records but quickly followed it up with the now classic ‘Pump Me Up’ which has been sampled by the likes of Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five, Kurtis Blow, Public Enemy, Teddy Riley and even George Michael. It was first issued in 1980 on a 7″ but the group also released it as part of the Hollyrock 12″. This version was so successful, that the group couldn’t keep up with orders themselves so it was signed to Jamtu Records (Jam Records) for wider distribution and released with a few variations in 1981. There was also a promotional only 12″ that included tracks from the first three Jamtu 12″ releases. It may have been issued prior to these to promote the future releases but that is unclear.

The most famous use of ‘Pump Me Up’ was actually by Philadelphia native and 1988 DMC World DJ Champion, Cash Money on the classic DJ scratch track, ‘Scratching To The Funk’ which was released on Sound Makers Records in 1985.

In 2014, ‘Pump Me Up’ was once again released on a 7″ single as a reissue on Aaron Fuchs‘s Funky Delicacies label, a subsidiary of Tuff City Records. The B side contained another of their classic singles, ‘Let’s get Small’.