artists self-portrait
(Before he died in 2019, I was a friend and the “little brother” of renowned Funkadelic artist Pedro Bell. I only mention that because some of the info here is from our conversations.)
The reliance on spectacle was the one thing both The Joker and Pedro shared. Their flamboyance attracted the attention of a lethargic society, profoundly impacting lives in their own ways. However, while one’s tactics were loud and public, the others were silent, keeping to the shadows. Pedro understood that “the strong move quiet, the weak start riots”, which was vital to any young Black man living in 1970s America.
Wet Epic Debauchery is a pseudo-religious mythological story Pedro added to his art for the liner notes for Funkadelic’s Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On album (1974)
Before he began working with punk and new wave bands, Pedro was the album-cover artist for Funkadelic, a band that served as the foundation for the P-Funk empire of multiple bands and musicians, led by P-Funk Maestro George Clinton. Funkadelic combined funk and psychedelic music to create their own recipe. Their music was subversive more than anything that existed at the time, using metaphors and Ebonics to create a coded language that would be understood solely by the residents of ghetto communities throughout the U.S. A year after contacting George Clinton, Pedro began doing art for the band’s promotional items, press kits, and show posters. With the release of Funkadelic’s fifth album (Cosmic Slop), Pedro began what would be a long partnership with Clinton and the P-Funk Mob.
Fall, 1998 issue of Juxtapoz Magazine
What grabbed me about Pedro’s artwork was not only his art but also his cryptic narratives that filled nearly every corner of every album cover, leaving barely any space unfilled. His writing mirrored his notorious trippy art in that both were an amalgamation of politics, religion, spirituality, government policies, horror, science fiction, and… eroticism. It wasn’t just his colorful, surrealistic artwork that helped Funkadelic sell more albums; it was the nude and erotic imagery found throughout the band’s albums that had people talking about the bizarre nature of his work and, most importantly, the camouflaged subversive essays within the art and liner notes. Those albums were a treasure trove of information, and Pedro wasn’t making up any of it. He was a well-read man (as was George Clinton).
In his own way, the P-Funk propagandist was a radical. Like his ancestors during slavery, he created his own coded language that only Black people living in the hood could decipher. It was both humorous and informative. This combination of subversive information, unorthodox artwork, a unique language, and outrageous humor ensured that people wouldn’t soon forget what they’d read.
Toward the end of this year's summer (2025), I remembered the eulogy I had written for my friend and realized that what he had done through his artwork was what I was trying to achieve with Neuerotica. That’s when I knew his design style and propaganda method were the only way Neuerotica would work the way I needed it to. It was the only way it would be effective.
By the time of Neuerotica’s pre-opening, I had created something that (I believe) Pedro would have been impressed with.
This album was my favorite Funkadelic album, and (in my opinion) the best work Pedro ever did. He utilized practically every inch of the album with his artwork, “scartoons”, and prose. He was forced to censor the cover by Warner Bros., who had him create a second cover to go over the one above.
One Nation Under a Groove was the album that launched both Pedro Bell and Funkadelic into the mainstream, but also sparked a lasting enmity between them and Warner Bros. Records.
While the idea of merging the creative with political propaganda isn’t new, erotic imagery was essential to Pedro’s chaotic artistry, as it brought his cryptic, radical, subversive prose (hidden within his artwork and the liner notes of each record album) into focus. Fans weren’t just laughing at his humorous manner of disseminating information; they understood it and were discussing it as well.
I was confident I could replicate his concept (after all, I had all the tools he lacked while he was still alive). However, Neuerotica had to be louder, more obnoxious, unrelenting, and unforgiving… but humorous. I needed the kind of humor possessed by The Joker’s ferocious delivery and his propensity to lean into the irreverent and the absurd. If I wanted the world to acknowledge our young and their radical ideas (creative or otherwise), Neuerotica’s humor had to hit below the skin.
background image by ThatGuy519
