You ever been on the dance floor at your third cousin’s Bar Mitzvah and been like, “where the funk at?” It is a problem all too common on kibbutzes throughout the world in 2015, and those 20-year-old hype dancers bumping modern pop radio need to rethink how to get bashful teens in touch with their inner soul stars.

That is where our boy Boulevards comes in. Musician Jamil Rashad sounds like a modern disciple of Rick James, reared on much of the popular funk that dominated the ’80s, but with a an ear to the ground of contemporary dance, funk, and soul music as well. For his edition of our Car Tunes and Cartoons mix series, the rising funk god from North Carolina has compiled a compulsory mix of classic great artists that informed and shaped his style. From S.O.S. band to The Egyptian Lover, the above playlist is plump with groove-and-boogie. In short, this will make any Bar Mitzvah, from the equator to Saskatchewan, turn up and get down.

Boulevards just released his extremely catchy new single, “Sanity”, which you can check out below. Going to keep on an eye on this dude, at least, in the few moments of clarity I have in between bumpin’ along to all these jams.

–

IMAGE: Lauren Gesswein