There's a Riot Goin' On
There's a Riot Goin' On (sometimes referred to as Riot) is the fifth studio album by American funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone. It was recorded from 1970 to 1971 at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California and released later that year on November 1 by Epic Records. The recording was dominated by band frontman Sly Stone during a period of elevated drug use and intra-group tension.

For the album, Sly and the Family Stone departed from the optimistic psychedelic soul of their previous music and explored a darker, more challenging sound, employing edgy funk rhythms, primitive drum machines, extensive overdubbing, and a dense mix. Conceptually and lyrically, "There's a Riot Goin' On" embraced apathy, pessimism, and disillusionment with both Stone's fame and 1960s counterculture amid a turbulent political climate in the United States at the turn of the 1970s, influenced by the decline of the civil rights movement and the rise of the Black Power movement. The album's title was originally planned to be "Africa Talks to You", but it changed in response to Marvin Gaye's album "What's Going On" (1971), released six months before "Riot".

A commercial success, "There's a Riot Goin' On" topped the "Billboard" Pop Album and Soul Album charts, while its lead single "Family Affair" reached number-one on the Pop Singles chart. The album was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of at least one million copies in the US. Originally released to mixed reviews, the album has since been praised as one of the greatest and most influential recordings of all time, having impacted the funk, jazz-funk, and hip hop genres in particular. It ranks frequently and highly in many publications' best-album lists, including "Rolling Stone"s "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it placed 99th in 2003 and 82nd in 2020.
Q482994
studio album
Concept
Q164444
funk
Concept
Q131272
soul
Concept
Q1133807
Sly and the Family Stone
ORG
Q1095593
Record Plant Studios
MEDIA
Q828729
Sausalito, California
LOC
Q216364
Epic Records
MEDIA
Q713829
Sly Stone
PER
Q2743435
psychedelic soul
Concept
Q831698
drum machine
Concept
Q1760913
overdubbing
Concept
Q17085328
mix
Concept
Q309406
apathy
Concept
Q484954
pessimism
Concept
Q2995893
1960s counterculture
EVE
Q48537
civil rights movement
Concept
Q21260516
Black Power movement
Concept
Q189758
Marvin Gaye
PER
Q901648
What's Going On
MEDIA
Q188819
"Billboard" Pop Album
MEDIA
Q2001897
Soul Album
ORG
Q3298960
Family Affair
MEDIA
Q180072
Pop Singles
ORG
Q2503026
platinum
EVE
Q200863
Recording Industry Association of America
ORG
Q38656
jazz-funk
Concept
Q11401
hip hop
Concept
Q33511
Rolling Stone
MEDIA
Q240550
500 Greatest Albums of All Time
ORG
Q258003
There's a Riot Goin' On
MEDIA
Q258003
There's a Riot Goin' On
MEDIA
Q258003
There's a Riot Goin' On
MEDIA
1970-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1970
DATE
1971-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1971
DATE
1960-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1960
DATE
1970-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1970
DATE
2003-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2003
DATE
2020-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2020
DATE
+1^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1
NUMBER
+1971^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1971
NUMBER
+500^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
500
NUMBER
+99^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
99
NUMBER
+82^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
82
NUMBER
genre
performer
record label
producer
genre
genre
notable work
located in the administrative territorial entity
performer
part of
is a list of