Dr. Rickey Vincent is a scholar, educator, radio host and author. He obtained his Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley in 2008, and lectures on black music history, black power and social movements, the cultural politics of Hip Hop, and issues of African American culture and globalization.
He is the author of Funk: The Music, the People and the Rhythm of The One (St. Martin’s Press 1996), a definitive study of the culture and politics of funk music; and Party Music: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers’ Band, and How Black Power Transformed Soul Music (Lawrence Hill Books 2013).
Party Music tells the story of The Lumpen, the short lived R&B band comprised of rank-and-file members of the Black Panther Party in 1970. The interaction of soul music aesthetics and black power politics is central to Party Music, and is embedded in Dr. Vincent’s research and practice.
He hosts The History of Funk on KPFA radio.
