Electro-Funk

In the fading light after Funk's '70s heyday, a few artists in the early '80s flirted with marrying the burgeoning synthesizer craze to early rap. While keeping Funk's groove, Electro-Funk, otherwise known as Electro, expressed a new, electronic side of Funk previously unseen. Only a few hits materialized out of this mix, among them Herbie Hancock's "Rockit," Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" and Cybotron's "Alleys of Your Mind." More than anything, the style gave certain artists a jumping-off point for future innovation -- Techno's first faint echoes and the methods of early innovators Roger Troutman and Zapp are still incorporated in modern Hip-hop. Troutman himself, and his trademark vocoder vocals, are featured on Dr. Dre and Tupac's smash hit "California Love."