Album of the Day

Inspired by an idea War’s Papa Dee Allen had for a stage play, THE WORLD IS A GHETTO took on deeper meaning as the band’s gigs in SoCal’s wealthier enclaves revealed problems existed there, too. While social awareness underpins such songs as the Gold-certified title track, it’s the septet’s outstanding musicianship that really grabs the attention, whether on signature single “The Cisco Kid” or epic suite “City, Country, City.” The set has been hailed by outlets including Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, which called the collection “a landmark album of ’70s funk, one that deserves to be remembered alongside the best work of the Meters, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Sly and the Family Stone.” Allen was born on this day in 1931, and we’ll remember him with Billboard’s best-selling album of 1973, THE WORLD IS A GHETTO.