Bill Meredith, All Music Guide

In a perfect world, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' breakthrough album wouldn't have been 1989's Mother's Milk, but 1987's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, and the history of this groundbreaking rock/rap band (and likely the entire subgenre it created) would've been drastically changed. But the Chili Peppers created most of the imperfections in their world, especially in the late 1980s, and the unusual scenario of four original bandmembers recording together for the first time on that band's third album would tragically prove to be a one-shot deal. Veterans Anthony Kiedis (vocals) and Flea (bass) had welcomed back original guitarist Hillel Slovak for the preceding Freaky Styley album after using Jack Sherman on their self-titled 1984 debut, doing the same at this point for original drummer Jack Irons, who replaced Cliff Martinez. The energy of having these four friends from Los Angeles back together jumps out of the opening anthem "Fight Like a Brave" and the experimental "Funky Crime"; tracks like the autobiographical "Me & My Friends" and closing "Organic Anti-Beat Box Band" would stay in the group's live repertoire for the next decade or more. Kiedis' barking rap delivery drives the cover of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", and Flea's ahead-of-their-time slapping bass lines stand out in "Behind the Sun" and "Walkin' on Down the Road", but Slovak and Irons brought things to the Chili Peppers that no one else ever has. The drummer's pounding funk backbeats left a blueprint for his successor, Chad Smith, and the manic intro to "Skinny Sweaty Man" sounds like Buddy Rich playing James Brown material. Slovak is at the height of his powers on the rap-rock reggae "Love Trilogy" and funky "Special Secret Song Inside" ("Party On Your Pussy"),  which gained some notoriety for its anatomical undertones. But Slovak would die of a heroin overdose the following year, with Irons quitting the band afterward from the depression of the loss. Kiedis and Flea would come to grips with their own drug habits and return with Smith and guitarist John Frusciante on Mother's Milk, breaking into the arena circuit with a hit cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" — and leaving Kiedis and Flea to wonder what might have been.

Their debut LP delighted and shocked the alternative music world, and their George Clinton-produced follow-up took them further into the world of unadulterated funk. Now the Red Hots are ready to slam the rock world on its ear. The Uplift Mofo Party Plan blasts and whips harder then either previous Chili Peppers record, upholds the strict code of funk ("funk is an attitude") and is as audaciously wacky as it is genuinely skillful. Michael Beinhorn (ex-Material) handles the production, and he's gotten the Peppers to show their true colors. The single "Fight Like A Brave" epitomizes their thumpin' and pumpin' style, combining butt-whacking power-punk funk with a hard, hard rock guitar edge that apes the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right (To Party)", but ultimately makes the Beasties look like limp chimps. Brace yourself, these mofos mean bidness. Maturity without conformity: Love it or get out of town. Baddest of the bad: "Fight Like A Brave", "Backwoods", "Behind The Sun" (a sleeper CHR contender), "Funky Crime", the ultra-funky "Walkin' On Down The Road", and the suggestive "Party On Your Pussy" ("Special Secret Song Inside").

Ben Mitchell, Q Magazine, October 2000

Despite the acclaim afforded their last album, 1999's Californication, history seems destined to cast the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a gaggle of oafs, cruising the Hollywood Hills in their jacked-up Dongmobile, caning six-packs while exuding a curious whiff of lavender. Examining the early evidence, this is only partly true. Their second album, '85's Freaky Styley, sees George Clinton at the production wheel, with the skate-rockers indiscriminately embracing "The Funk". Such laconic jams as Jungle Man and Hollywood plough an amiable enough furrow, though the same can't be said of Sex Rap or Catholic School Girls Rule. Regrouping for '87's The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, the band replaced Clinton with former Herbie Hancock collaborator Michael Beinhorn. Kicking off with the rabble-rousing Fight Like A Brave, he coaxed a workmanlike, if now dated, performance from band, with only No Chump Love Sucker and Party On Your Pussy reminiscent of four frat-boys all hunched over the same nudie mag. A year later, guitarist Hilel Slovak died of an drugs overdose and drummer Jack Irons bailed out. Enter replacements John Frusciante and Chad Smith, and with Beinhorn back in the chair, '89's Mother's Milk got underway. Highlights such as Knock Me Down and a slap-driven cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground were ultimately counterpointed by the compulsory onanistic jaunts of Stone Cold Bush and Sexy Mexican Maid. Nevertheless, this was the record that helped to catapult the band into the big leagues. Then singer Anthony Kiedis went and scored heroin under a bridge. Luckily he had a pen handy. The rest, as they say, is history.

© Frank Steven Groen