So when Lipps, Inc. asked to be taken there, Roc City was the intended destination? Apparently so, according to the undisputed god of all things funky, George Clinton, who recently chatted with City via phone interview.

"When you have a place that's cold, like Buffalo, Rochester, Cleveland, Detroit - those are some cold places," says Clinton. "But when they get down, they be ready for the fire."

Clinton lands his Mothership to set ablaze as part of the Rochester MusicFest this weekend.

Just in case you ain't funky enough, lemme funk you right on up from thegiddyup: George Clinton got his start in the early 1960s with a doo-wop group named The Parliaments, modeled after groups of the time like Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. The group's backing band, which became known as Funkadelic, was basically a mirrored group, as both consisted of mostly the same members recording for two separate record labels. As the group expanded and slapped a little more stank into its sound, lyrical content, and stage show, it evolved into what some call a mythology, P-Funk.

As he gets ready to celebrate his 67th birthday in conjunction with the show in Rochester, Clinton is still up to letting you ride, and shows no signs of slowing down. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

City: Being in the game so long, with more than 40 years since "(I Wanna) Testify," how have you adjusted to some of the biggest changes you've seen in the music business?

George Clinton: I'm just getting started! Some of the best changes are just the ride. Like rock'n'roll in the '60s, when it became the big thing throughout the world, is the same music my mother used to listen to in the '40s. I always thought that funk, Motown, the '60s and '70s music would be big in 2000. And it's beginning to be that way. It's gonna be the next world music, just like blues and rock'n'roll were in the '60s. Funk is getting ready to be the next pop music for everybody. Even hip-hop is funk music.

When people hear the name George Clinton, most of all, they think of funk. Many don't know, however, that you were one of the first artists to play punk in the Detroit underground scenes of the late '60s.

Oh, yeah... Right about the time they were being formed, MC5, Iggy Pop... we all had the same agent, Diversified Management. We were called "the bad boys of Ann Arbor," all of us. Couple of the guys in our band, like Todd Ross; to me, along with Iggy Pop and myself, were some of the original "punkers." We was doing that type of stuff early, like "Free Your Mind." That's a whole straight-up punk album. That's like the Bible of some groups, like the Chili Peppers, the Bad Brains and them, one of their favorite albums.

It's known that music is not just something to play, but more of a culture. Funk and P-Funk has been considered by some a mythology. Speaking of favorite albums and those used for inspiration, whether your own or not and without specifying a genre, what would you say was one of yours?

Ahh, man. That's hard to do. Well, as a producer who's satisfied with his work, I think "All The Woo In The World" with Bernie [Worrell], "Ahh...The Name Is Bootsy" with Bootsy [Collins], umm... "One Nation Under a Groove" with Parliament Funkadelic, and "Mothership Connection" with Parliament. Now myself, "Chlorophome," "Smell My Finger," and the one we got out now. To me, I feel that they are all on par with each other, like they're some of the best records I've done.

Hip-hop has been in the media a lot, most recently in Chicago, where the NAACP had a formal "ceremony" to bury the N-word. What's your take on that?

That's ridiculous. Words to me should never be good or bad. In the first place, that's what we got brains for. Words become bad because we associate them with certain things. All you have to do is change your mind about that. If you want to get rid of a bad word, just say it to death.

As far as hip-hop is concerned, it's the best race relation music there ever was. More people get along with rap music than with any [other kind of] music. I remember when I was growing up, we couldn't even call each other "black." We didn't want to be black; it was a bad word to call each other. Then, once we got "black and proud," that was a hip word to use. But, it wasn't enough, as we hadn't got to a point where we liked ourselves yet. We were still trying to be something we wasn't. But, once the kids got to the '80s, they said, "forget all that shit. I define myself. Nobody can hurt me with no words." So, they went on to say, "my nigga... you my nigga." It became an endearing word. Nobody can use it to hurt you no more.

I think older people want to take it to where it still can be a weapon. The word don't mean nothing, other than what we want to relate it to. I mean, it's something to feel proud about. Now everybody else wanna be a nigga, or black, or a motherfucker. All those words don't mean [anything]. You can say "good morning" and if you say it with an attitude of hate, or evil, it can be considered a bad word. But the way the kids are using it, it actually becomes less of a bad word.

What can we look forward to for new music and other projects from you?

Well, we're recording right now with Wu-Tang [Clan]. Yeah, we're gonna probably end up doing a tour with them some time before the end of the year. We're doing a reality show with P-Funk, [highlighting] our fight against the record companies. The first three or four shows will deal with royalty statement parties. Everybody that sampled our records and got sued and had to pay a whole lot of money for it, I just want them to know that I wasn't the one suing them. I've been trying to get my stuff back from the people that have been suing [those artists]. So, we're going to compare royalty statements, since I can't get the [record companies] to show how much they made off of the songs. So, the parties will show how much was taken from [the artists being sued] and see how much money was supposed to be given to me. Snoop, Scarface, Dr. Dre, Wu-Tang, Puffy - all them that got sued and paid big money for the songs, we gonna find out that way. It's gonna be some funny shit. We're probably gonna do a "Mothership" show, and a "Star Wars" version of the "Mothership." And probably do a movie on the history of the group. With all its politics of that, and it being responsible for a lot of the hit singles that sampling has caused. Because funk is the DNA for hip-hop, techno, and all that. Because there are so many artists that are down with the funk, that would be a good mini-series.

George Clinton and P-Funk play Sunday, July 22, as part of the Rochester MusicFest/WDKX 33rd Anniversary Party at Frontier Field. Other acts on Sunday's bill include T-Pain, Marcia Griffiths, Mario, Sammie Chrisette Michele, Collie Buddz, and Dexter Daps. Concerts start at 1 p.m. Tickets cost $30-$55 for a one-day pass, $50-$90 for a two-day pass. For more information, including a full line-up for Saturday's acts (featuring headliner Patti LaBelle) visit www.rochestermusicfest.com.