Legendary funk singer George Clinton was born on July 22, 1941 in rural North Carolina; as a child his family moved to Plainfield, N.J., a mostly African-American suburb of Philadelphia. While still in junior high, Clinton formed a five-man doo-wop band with several classmates, called the Parliaments. After graduating from high school, Clinton and his friends founded a barber shop, where they straightened hair in the front and rehearsed in the back. Consisting of Clinton, Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins, Ray Davis, Calvin Simon, and pal Eddie Hazel on guitar, the band found themselves going nowhere in New Jersey, and by the mid-'60s relocated to Detroit landing a deal with Revilot, a Motown rival. Their 1967 single "(I Wanna) Testify" reached the Top 20, but the band found themselves embroiled in a legal dispute with another band called the Parliaments, and were unable to release a follow-up.

As the legal disputes held up recording, Clinton and his friends began experimenting with their music, adding a full back-up band to their chorus and becoming enamored with the growing psychedelic and black power movements. In 1970 the Parliaments changed their name to Parliament, while their backup band became known as Funkadelic. Adding keyboard virtuoso Bernie Worell, Funkadelic became a dark, funky psychedelic band influenced by Jimi Hendrix and the MC5, with an emphasis on instrumentation over vocals. After the first three albums, the dancibility of the band began to increase, but by 1975 things changed: two extremely talented musicians, saxaphonist Maceo Parker and bassist Boosty Collins, joined the ensemble, stealing thunder from the excellent guitar and keyboards that were emphasized in Funkadelic. Parliament replaced Funkadelic as Clinton's chief band, with Funkadelic becoming more experimental.

Like Funkadelic, Parliament also began recording in 1970, with the bizarre Osmium, but quickly went on hiatus so Clinton could concentrate on Funkadelic, which had become his main band. Parliament was resurrected in 1974 as a more radio-friendly answer to Funkadelic, with an emphasis on horns and bass rather than guitars, gospel-style vocals, and a cartoonish, science-fiction image. Clinton became known as "Dr. Funkenstein," and other band members took equally outlandish names. Album titles were even more strange. Throughout the late '70s the bands coexisted, Funkadelic on Warner Bros. and Parliament on Casablanca, with the entire P-Funk mob splitting their time between recording and touring with both acts as well as various side projects. Parliament scored a No. 1 hit in 1977 with "Flash Light," and with increased exposure the group began to mount even more outrageous live shows, most notably landing a huge alien "mother ship" on stage.

Despite the fact that both groups had several hit singles and albums during the late '70s, Parliament and Funkadelic became troubled as key members came and went and several musicians, including Clinton himself, struggled with drug problems. The lavish costumes and sets that were signatures of the P-Funk mob ate into the profits of the collective, which soon found itself in debt. By 1981 Parliament and Funkadelic collapsed into one band, the P-Funk All Stars, which performed more sporadically as key members, including Clinton, concentrated on solo and session work. Clinton's first proper solo album, 1982's Computer Games, featured many of the P-Funk musicians, but had a more commercial, synthesizer-based sound than the Parliament/Funkadelic material of the '70s. Two singles from the album reached the top of the charts, "Loopzilla" reaching the Top 20 and the entirely ad-libbed "Atomic Dog" reaching No. 1 on the R&B charts in early 1983. In the mid-'80s, Clinton's solo material began to completely break with the P-Funk sound, flirting with rap, nuclear-era politics, and electronic sounds; P-Funk lay dormant. In the late '80s Clinton linked up with Prince, who paid off Dr. Funkenstein's debts, and began recording for the Paisley Park label. Clinton became more influenced by contemporary black music, from the dance-pop of Prince to urban hip-hop. He also began a production career, working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others.

Unfortunately, by the end of the '80s, Clinton's prodigious output with Parliament and Funkadelic began to be forgotten by mainstream rock, and Clinton and P-Funk fell into obscurity with white audiences. At the same time black musicians were re-discovering Clinton's tremendous legacy: Parliament/Funkadelic records became one of the most frequent sources of samples for rap and hip-hop albums. Along with James Brown, Clinton is now recognized as one of the godfathers of modern urban music, with Parliament horn riffs and clips from "Atomic Dog" found in hundreds, if not thousands, of modern dance songs and rap loops. As interest in the P-Funk mob began to grow in the early '90s, Clinton and his P-Funk All Stars staged a comeback in 1994 with an appearance at Lollapalooza. Clinton, P-Funk, and friends continue recording and touring both individually and as P-Funk All Stars, and Clinton (and other P-Funk members) continues producing albums for the next generation of bands.

In the fall of 1998, at age 58, Clinton released Dope Dogs, an imaginative concept album about dogs.