Funkadelic's "(Not Just) Knee Deep" (1979) was George Clinton's sprawling, fifteen-minute funk odyssey that became a cornerstone of West Coast hip-hop. The track is P-Funk at its most expansive — layers of synthesizer, bass, guitar, and vocals building a groove that evolves and shifts over its extended runtime, offering multiple sections for producers to mine.

Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance" was one of the first major hip-hop tracks to sample "Knee Deep," and from there it became omnipresent in West Coast production. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Warren G all drew from it, using its laid-back, bass-heavy groove as the foundation of the G-funk sound that defined early-90s West Coast rap. Clinton's fifteen-minute jam became the rhythmic DNA of an entire regional style.