North Carolina Music Hall of Fame honors George Clinton

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Kannapolis native George Clinton is the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame's Eddie Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for his decades of contributions to music as founder of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic.

Dr. Funkenstein will get another day in the sun at the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. 

George Clinton, a native of Kannapolis and pioneer of funk music as founder of Parliament and Funkadelic, will receive the Eddie Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the hall’s Oct. 15 induction ceremony in Mooresville. Clinton, a 2009 inductee to the hall, has influenced music genres for more than a half century.

With a catalog that includes hits like “Atomic Dog,” “Flashlight,” “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker),” “(Not Just) Knee Deep” and “One Nation Under A Groove,” his work with Parliament-Funkadelic introduced new approaches to production, performance, and concept albums, that influenced generations of performers in funk, hip-hop, R&B, pop and rock.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is named for the music industry pioneer Eddie Ray, who, like Clinton, is a 2009 hall of fame inductee. The prize goes to honors individuals whose careers have had long-term impact on American music.

The induction ceremony will held at the Charles Mack Citizen Center. Tickets start at $80 and are available at NorthCarolinaMusicHallofFame.org and will include the welcome reception, appearances and live performances by the inductees. 

In addition to Clinton, the hall is inducting four individuals and a group to the Class of 2026. They are:

MC Sha-Rock (Wilmington)

MC Sha-Rock (birth name Sharon Green), a founding member of the Bronx, New York-based group Funky 4+1, is a hip-hop pioneer. Her lyrical and performance standards during culture’s early years built a platform for succeeding generations of rap’s front women. Sha-Rock was the first woman rapper to appear with a hip-hip group on national television when Funky 4 + 1 performed on “Saturday Night Live” on Feb. 14, 1981.

Wilmington, N.C., native Sharon Green, who goes by the stage name MC Sha-Rock, is a pioneering rapper with the hip-hop group Funky 4+1.

The group’s hits include the singles “Rappin’ and Rocking the House” and “That's the Joint.” 

Gregory "Sugar Bear" Elliott (Red Springs)

Elliott is a pioneer of Go-Go music as a founding member of Washington, D.C.-based Experience Unlimited. E.U. recorded three Billboard-charting singles, including “Da Butt,” which reached No. 1 on the Black Singles chart in 1988. That song – fronted by Elliott’s vocals – earned the group a Grammy nomination as well as a Soul Train Award for Best New Artist and ranked No. 61 on VH1’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the ‘80s. 

Red Springs, N.C., native Gregory "Sugar Bear" Elliott of Experience Unlimited.

E.U.’s international performances, along with Go-Go stalwarts like 2016 inductee Chuck Brown, spread Go-Go culture beyond its regional roots in the D.C. region to global recognition.

Billy Strayhorn (Hillsborough)

Strayhorn, a jazz composer and arranger, was best known for three decades of collaboration with Duke Ellington. His compositions include genre standards “Take the ‘A’ Train” and “Lush Life,” which are recognized in the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress for historical and cultural significance. 

Arrogance (Chapel Hill)

The Chapel Hill-based rock band co-founded by Robert Kirkland and producer and musician Don Dixon was formed at UNC-Chapel Hill and is cited as an early tentpole of independent music through their self-released debut album Give Us a Break. The group influenced later national indie acts and are regarded as North Carolina’s original indie rock trailblazers.

Barry Poss (Durham)

Poss, the founder of Sugar Hill Records, was essential to development of modern bluegrass and Americana music. With Poss leading the label, Sugar Hill (not to be confused with the New Jersey-based hip-hop label) released recordings by Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Jerry Douglas, Doyle Lawson, Nickel Creek, Sam Bush, and The Osborne Brothers. 

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