7 Days of Funk (album)

Calvin "Snoopzilla" Broadus and Damon "Dām-Funk" Riddick met in Los Angeles on February 16, 2011, at the opening of The Dogg House—an exhibition of Snoop-inspired artwork—when the latter performed at a gallery party thrown for Joe Cool, the illustrator behind the cover artwork to several Snoop records including his seminal 1993 debut album, Doggystyle. Impressed by Dām's P-Funk-inspired beats, Snoop grabbed the microphone and freestyled for more than an hour. "It felt like magic," Snoop recalls. After the initial meeting, the two paired when the rapper invited the funk musician to play keyboard and keytar onstage for a performance at Funk n Soul Extravaganza at the SXSW Music Festival on March 19, 2011. They forged a mutual admiration; then unexpectedly, Snoop sent Dām a cryptic SoundCloud message: "I need some of that heat." For Stones Throw Records founder Chris "Peanut Butter Wolf" Manak, "It made perfect sense for them to [collaborate]. They're approximately the same age, and they both [represent] Los Angeles funk the hardest." Snoop also spoke about re-branding himself as Snoopzilla for this project, which pays homage to Funkadelic maestro Bootsy Collins who sometimes uses the monikers Bootzilla as well as Zillatron, saying "When I'm recording as Snoopzilla, I'm basically an offspring of Bootsy [Collins]. We're keeping that spirit alive with that tone, that delivery, that R&B/funk singing, like Rick James and Steve Arrington. And on this EP, I was on some relationship shit: being tired of the one that I'm with and trying to be with the one that I'm with—shit where I'm questioning the one that I love. I'm not even talking about nobody personally. Is it music? Is it my wife? I'm questioning something! I don't even know what the fuck it is. As time goes by, I get a clearer vision on why I'm saying what I said, because some of these songs are really affecting me right now emotionally. They were just songs I did out of the spirit of having fun, but when I write shit, it comes to motherfucking life." ==Recording and production==

7 Days of Funk was recorded in Los Angeles in 2013 by Shon Lawon at The Compound, except "Hit Da Pavement" which was recorded by Dām-Funk at Funkmosphere Lab. In an interview for Pitchfork, Dām-Funk expressed that "the energy was so explosive" with "Hit Da Pavement" and that he was impressed by Snoopzilla's work ethic. "[Snoop] came to the pad at 10 p.m. and we were done at midnight. He killed it. His work ethic is stupid, man. I've never seen anything like it. I was [in] New York, in A1 [Record Shop] just listening to some records, and Snoop calls, like, 'Hey man, you need to check this out, check your email.' Four hours later I'm at the club, and he's like, 'Hey man, check these out, two more done.' He was just smashing them. When you're inspired by something, that's how you do it." "That's what the project was all about – him having the comfort zone of doing what he do, with no 'Hey man, we've got to get this done by this date.' No pressure, no dates, no nothing. We worked when we wanted to work and made what we wanted to make." Snoopzilla explained that he and Dām made the album only thirty-four minutes in length because it would induce the listener to want more. "We just be looking at it like it's only 34 minutes of music. That's all we gave up was 34 minutes. But it's 34 minutes of quality music, good music. Babygirl that [did an] interview with me, she was like, 'That music reminds me of a big hug. I could just play it from top to bottom.' There's a lot of albums you can't play from top to bottom anymore, you gotta go to your favorite song and go back and go forward. This record you could play from top to bottom. And it's 34 minutes, so by the time you get to where you going, it just started all over again, and you back riding again." ==Title and artwork==

According to Snoop, the album title, 7 Days of Funk, refers to the amount of time it took to create the project. "Seven songs. And seven days to find the funk," he said during an interview with Spin. "You only get seven days in a week, but you found that funk, so you can continue. You can funk for another seven days. You can funk until the end of time. But those seven days are what's important. We just going one week at a time, and we trying to make sure we handle you on every day of that week. With the funk." Directed by Stones Throw cover artist Jeff Jank, the album artwork is drawn by Lawrence "Raw Dawg" Hubbard, co-founder and artist behind Los Angeles cult magazine, Real Deal Comix. The vinyl LP edition features a wrap-around drawing showing the front and back of a theater. Snoopzilla and Dām-Funk are hanging out in front of their low rider—a time machine, in fact—with some thuggish throw-down happening at the theater doors. On the back, there is paparazzi, drunks and prostitutes. ==Promotion==

On October 15, 2013, Stones Throw published on YouTube the behind-the-scenes of 7 Days of Funk's jam session at Funkmosphere Lab in which an early version of "Hit Da Pavement" and "Wingz" were previewed. On October 21, 2013, the Southern California duo performed "Faden Away" on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, along with another song from the album entitled "Do My Thang". For promotional purposes, 7 Days of Funk was made available to stream on December 1, 2013, via NPR Music until the album's release. Stones Throw released "Hit Da Pavement" and "Faden Away" together on a cassingle on December 10, 2013, with both vocal and instrumental versions. The cassette was given away exclusively with the first week's orders of the LP and 45 box set. The 45 box set was released on February 5, 2014, with a total of eight records with sixteen tracks: each song on the album released on 7-inch single, backed with its instrumental version. The box includes the bonus record "Wingz"—not available on any other format—with A-side "Systematic". Purchase of the box set comes with a digital download of the original 8-track album and a 7 Days of Funk sticker. On December 9, 2013, Rdio published on YouTube a 1980s VHS-quality promotional video created by Golden Wolf—an animation production company—featuring Dām-Funk and Snoopzilla as Muppets-inspired marionettes performing their song "Do My Thang". 7 Days of Funk—including the exclusive bonus track "Wingz"—was streaming exclusively on Rdio on December 9 until December 24. On December 9, 2013, the duo performed "Faden Away" on Conan, and The Queen Latifah Show on the following day. The album was officially released on LP, CD and digital download formats on December 10, 2013. On the same day, the music video for "Hit Da Pavement" premiered on 7 Days of Funk's VEVO. By evening, Dām-Funk and Snoopzilla celebrated the release of 7 Days of Funk at the Exchange Night Club in Los Angeles, performing live with Peanut Butter Wolf (host), Egyptian Lover, Bootsy Collins, Steve Arrington and special guests. On January 15, 2014, the music video was released for "I'll Be There 4U". On February 26, 2014, the music video was released for "Do My Thang". Singles The lead single, "Faden Away", premiered on October 8, 2013, on Stones Throw Records' SoundCloud page and was made available at the Stones Throw Store and iTunes Music Store on October 15, 2013. On November 5, 2013, the music video was released for the track. 7 Days of Funk named "Faden Away" as their favorite song on the album. ==Critical reception==

7 Days of Funk received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 19 reviews. Ron Hart of Blurt Magazine expressed that despite the name of the project being 7 Days of Funk, "there's enough groove in this [record] to last a lifetime." Pitchfork writer Nate Patrin wrote that "It's a strong mode to be in, but 7 Days of Funk doesn't change or challenge things—it's a brief LP, even accounting for bonus tracks, and with everybody firmly in a comfortable lane there's not much surprise." Chase Woodruff, writer for Slant Magazine, wrote that "No amount of pitch correction and filtering can change the fact that Calvin Broadus, no matter what he calls himself, can't sing, and 7 Days of Funk is as lyrically empty an album as you'll hear this year; any message it may have is exclusively vibe-based. But it's a welcome sign of life from an MC who many assumed to be over the hill, and where it fails, it fails on its own terms—and that's a kind of success in itself." ==Track listing==

{{Track listing {{Track listing {{Track listing {{Track listing ;Notes • All tracks are produced by Dām-Funk. • "Hit Da Pavement" features additional vocals from Bootsy Collins. ==Personnel==

Credits for 7 Days of Funk adapted from AllMusic and from the album liner notes. • 7 Days of Funk – primary artist • Delmar "Daz Dillinger" Arnaud – composer • Steve Arrington – composer, featured artist • Kevin Barkey – management (Snoopzilla) • Calvin "Snoopzilla" Broadus – composer, executive producer, vocals • Ricardo "Kurupt" Brown – composer, featured artist • Ted Chung – management (Snoopzilla) • Cole M.G.N. – mixing • Bootsy Collins – vocals [additional] • Tha Dogg Pound – featured artist • Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering • Wes Harden – management (Dâm-Funk) • Lawrence Hubbard – cover illustration • Jeff Jank – art direction • Shon Lawon – engineer, mixing, vocals [background] • Damon "Dâm-Funk" Riddick – engineer, instrumentation, producer • Patrice Rushen – composer • Brent Smith – booking • Frank Vasquez – A&R, engineer • Freddie Washington – composer • Val Young – vocals [background] ==Chart positions==