Funkadelic was great when they came along. You should check out the self-titled debut album or Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow...oh and Maggot Brain for sure...Eddie Hazel was great guitarist, he was heavily influenced by Hendrix and you can hear it in the epic Maggot Brain.

Bootsy Collins who played bass in Funkadelic for some time made a couple of cool solo albums worth checking out too man. He really got me into playing my friends bass for awhile during the summer.

You might want to look into Sly and the Family Stone too, although I don't know too much about them.

Thats about all I can think of off the top of my head...