Melding hip-hop, jazz and electronica, DJ King Britt established himself as one of the more inventive music producers-creators of the past decade.

The Post's Richard Harrington writes about King Britt in 1998:
Philadelphia's King Britt was Digable Planets' touring deejay for several years and more recently made a name for himself with hot remixes for Paula Cole, Donna Lewis and Tori Amos. His best work, however, is contained on "When the Funk Hits the Fan" (Ovum/Ruffhouse/Columbia), credited to King Britt Presents Sylk 130. That's the alter ego Britt has chosen for this soundtrack to a "film without visuals," a period piece tracing the coming of age of a Philadelphia deejay immersed in late-'70s club culture. It was a time when disco, soul, funk and jazz were all in full effect, when hip-hop was finding its place, and when a sense of musical and social community was in full bloom.

"When the Funk Hits the Fan" is a late-night, lights-out headphone album, a mesmerizing pop pastiche that melds narrative interludes and overheard conversations, songs and instrumentals, sample-based hip-hop tracks and poetry. In keeping with the album's time frame, the grooves are silky and seductive, the sound airy, the mood unhurried, the vibes positive. In "A Day in the Life," one of several spoken-word sections, Ursula Rucker dispenses Digable Planets-style slam poetry over a Herbie Hancock-sampled groove, suggesting a spiritual flowering through lines like "I'm sudden dawn/ I awake from urban dreams and sunlight streams flow like song . . ."

Singers Vicki Miles and Alison Crockette shine on several love songs that would have felt fresh on a Lonnie Liston Smith album from the '70s. Miles is a standout on "The Reason" (built on a sample from Boz Scaggs's "Lowdown"), "Gorgeous" and the scat-filled jazz melody "Season's Change," while Crockette serves up coolly convincing vocals on "13" and "New Love." There's also a giddy remake of Indeep's 1982 disco classic, "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life," that eventually embraces both hip-hop and jazz flavors.

For straight old-school hip-hop, there's the turntable scratching of "Gettin' Into It" and the old school "Taggin' & Braggin'." And brass-and-bass-driven tracks like "Jimmy Leans Back," "Incident on the Couch" and "When the Funk Swings" conjure James Brown and P-Funk and other good times. Britt produced and co-wrote the album, utilizing Philadelphia soul mates; in the fiction of the album, they gather at the Cosmic Lounge, leaving a few seats open for kindred spirits. There aren't many better places to hang out for an hour.