 Mr. Brown was not only the godfather of soul, his style was the backbone of rock, funk, disco and was unarguably the penultimate influence for hip-hop music; his rhythms and funky beats served as the foundation of break beats for rap as well as breakdance, and to this day Brown stands as the most sampled artist in rap music history.
James Brown's career
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"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," he once told the Associated Press in 2003.
“He was an innovator, he was an emancipator, he was an originator," said Little Richard. "Rap music, all that stuff came from James Brown.”
Born in Barnwell, South Carolina, in 1933, his life started virtually on the rough streets of Augusta, Georgia when at the age of four, he was abandoned to the care of relatives and friends. While serving 3 1/2 years in Alto Reform School in his early teens, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd and Brown started a group called the Famous Flames who by January 1956 was signed by King Records of Cincinnati. A few months later they dropped the Top 10 hit "Please, Please, Please."
He went on to tour and perform seemingly nonstop into the new millennium and deserved his nickname of "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business." His classics include tracks such as "Out of Sight," "(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Say It Out Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud," just to name a paltry few. His inexhaustible energy and electric, sexually charged stage antics served as a template for world class, groundbreaking performers, including Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson and Prince.
He won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for 1987's rousing "Living In America." He was one of the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and other uber legends. Along with Presley and Bob Dylan, Mr. Brown is indisputable as one of the seminal influences in all of modern music history.cc
Brown's life of the stage was just as raw and gritty as his music. Throughout his life there were instances of substance and domestic abuse. Most famously, he was arrested in 1988 after leading police on a high-speed car chase while he was high on PCP. He received a six-year prison sentence, spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him pardon.
A legend among legends, James Brown passed away early Monday, December 25 (Christmas morning) of congestive heart failure. He also suffered from diabetes and prostate cancer that was in remission. He was 73 years old.
Despite his age, Mr. Brown worked up until the very end. The powerhouse was scheduled to perform a New Year's Eve show at B.B. King's Blues Club in New York. He was also scheduled for a December 27 at Connecticut's Palace Theater, which was to be the start of a national tour.
Admitted into the hospital due to severe pneumonia, Brown was determined to make his New Year's Eve gig.
“Last night, he said 'I’m going to be there," said his agent Frank Copsidas. "I’m the hardest working man in show business.”’
However, according to personal manager/longtime friend Charles Bobbit, soon the icon realized it wasn't to BB King's he'd be going to.
"I'm going away tonight," he said, then according to Bobbit, he took three long, quiet breaths, and closed his eyes.
"I am hurt," shared Snoop Dogg whose G-funk style is a direct result of Brown's work. "That's my godfather, my soul inspiration, the hardest-working man in show business of all time. He'll be missed, but his music and his legacy will live on through me, in every way you can imagine. Soul brother #1. ... We miss you, James Brown."
"Mr. Brown was the God of Rhythm and Music," said former bandmate Bootsy Collins. "Me along with countless other musicians were his Sons. No one else will ever come close. For he is declared this day by all Funkateer's across the globe: 'The Funkiest Mutha in the Universe.'"
"When talking music, JB was/is just part of the day, thank God for recordings," said Chuck D in a long statement on his website. "As a 70's B-boy I recall panic on the floors of hip-hop while ['Give it Up or Turnit a Loose'] roasted off the [1970] Sex Machine Live LP, transfixing the forming rap nation ten years later, as if it were a discovered oil well. While the rest of the disco and rock country had not a clue."
Social and civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton met Brown in 1973 after being introduced by Brown's son Teddy who later died in a car accident. Since then Sharpton formed a strong bond and worked closely with Brown who was very much involved in various social causes.
“What James Brown was to music in terms of soul and hip-hop, rap, all of that, is what Bach was to classical music, said Sharpton. "This is a guy who literally changed the music industry. He put everybody on a different beat, a different style of music. He pioneered it.”
“He was dramatic to the end — dying on Christmas Day," said Jesse Jackson. "He’ll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way.”
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