Why is the album’s title significant?

The title was a direct response to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, released earlier in 1971. Where Gaye’s album asked a question, Sly’s title provided a blunt statement — there’s a riot going on. It reflected the turbulent political climate, the decline of the civil rights movement, and the rise of the Black Power movement at the turn of the 1970s.

Report L004301. Filed.