Mtume and Nelson George

Author and Director Nelson George shares unedited footage of his conversations with James Mtume that were held for George's documentary "Finding The Funk"

From Nelson George - Original Substack post is here (link)

When I shot the music documentary Finding the Funk for VH1 over a decade ago, a lot of great material never made it into the film. It was with deep regret that the wisdom of the late James Mtume was only in the film in bits and pieces. As I’ve been going through unedited clips from the doc, I am very keen to give folks a small slice of a man who revolved from political activist to sideman with Miles Davis to Grammy award winning producer/songwriter to TV show composer to the creator of an enduring hip hop sample (“Juicy Fruit”) to radio broadcaster. All the while Mtume was a mentor to scores of people, including yours truly

The most important insights he offered me came in the period of 1987 and ’88 when I was struggling to organize the ideas I had for a book I was calling ‘The Death of Rhythm & Blues.’ I’d been working on the themes of that book throughout the ‘80s – how corporate control of black music had changed the creative process, how the traditional support systems for that musical culture (clubs, radio, retail) were dying, and much more. I’d call Mtume, Brooklyn to Jersey, tossing concepts around, relating the practical to the theoretical.