Someone over at MSN decided to rank the best funk supergroups ever and I'm not mad about it, because funk supergroups are one of those things where everyone involved is already ridiculous at their instrument and the result is either magic or a car crash. No in between.

The list covers the whole spectrum too. Rock and metal guys crossing over into funk, and then the jazz-funk virtuosos who can play literally anything and choose to play the pocket instead. Which, respect.

And the stuff that fills these groups out!! You've got the classic studio-crew-turned-band lineups, the ones built out of side musicians who were stealing the show from the actual stars every night. Then you've got the later-era mashups, where bands got assembled like fantasy football teams and somehow... it worked? That never happens. Supergroups flop way more than they hit, that's just the math of ego.

Funk is the hardest genre to fake in a supergroup format, and I'll die on this. Anyone can jam blues rock for an album. But funk requires people locking in and holding back, playing less than they can, and famous people are historically terrible at playing less. So when a funk supergroup actually grooves instead of just noodling at each other, that's a small miracle.

The rock and metal crossover entries are the ones that surprised people when they dropped. Guitarists who spent decades shredding suddenly discovering the one-chord jam and, weirdly, sounding more alive for it. And the jazz-funk picks are just unfair. Those rhythm sections could land a plane in a thunderstorm. the level of tighten-your-shoelaces precision on display is kind of obscene, honestly.

My one complaint, and it's a small one: any funk supergroup ranking invites a fight, because half the best funk bands were technically supergroups and nobody agrees on where the line is. If everyone in the band was in the house band for a legend first, does that count? I say yes. Others say no. This is why you don't do rankings at family dinner.

Anyway, go read the full list and prepare to have opinions. I read it twice and already sent it to Dante with "thoughts?" because he has strong takes about anything with the word supergroup in it. He hasn't replied yet. He will.