James Brown
American musician (1933-2006) · United States · Musicians · Died at 73
James Brown is read about 3,996 times a day, in 88 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 19 October 2026
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Something wrong?He built funk from the ground up - stripped rhythm and blues down to interlocking drums and bass, then rode that groove harder than anyone before or since. The blueprint every hip-hop producer samples, the stage move every performer steals, the reason "Soul Brother No. 1" still means something fifty years later.
A life in dates
I'm BackAlbum1996Soul JubileeAlbum1992Grammy Lifetime Achievement AwardAwardUniversal JamesAlbum, 19921991Love Over-DueAlbum1986“Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.”In their wordsBrown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York.“Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.”In their wordsBrown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York.“When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.”In their wordsBrown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York.Rock and Roll Hall of FameAwardGravityAlbum1983Bring It On!Album1980
PeopleAlbum1979
The Original Disco ManAlbum1977
Mutha's NatureAlbum1976
BodyheatAlbum1968“Don't terrorize. Organize. Don't burn. Give kids a chance to learn … The real answer to race problems in this country is education. Not burning and killing. Be ready.”In their wordsStatement on national TV during the 1968 riots in Washington, DC after the Martin Luther King assassination.1933Born3 May 1933Also in Deutsch
Photos 11
In their own words 10
, I'm the most sampled and stolen. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, too … I got a song about that … But I'm never gonna release it. Don't want a war with the rappers.
I would warn against anyone marrying a person with more than a ten-year age difference. It almost never works.
This is an issue couples have to be straight on and agree on before they walk down that aisle; otherwise there is no way their marriage will survive.
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SpotifyOn YouTube
1.3M subscribersAlbums 24
IBI'm Back
PEPeople
TMThe Original Disco Man
TCTake a Look at Those Cakes
JSJam 1980's
MNMutha's Nature
BOBodyheatAwards
Family
James BrownPartners
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Brown started as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia, then rose in the mid-1950s fronting the Famous Flames with the hit "Please, Please, Please". By the 1960s he'd become a dynamic live force - Live at the Apollo, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", "I Got You (I Feel Good)" - building a reputation that earned him the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 as one of its first ten inductees. In the late 1960s he abandoned blues forms entirely and began emphasizing stripped-down interlocking rhythms, fully establishing funk by the early 1970s with the J.B.s on tracks like "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and "The Payback". He also stepped into social commentary with 1968's "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud". Seventeen No. 1 singles on the Billboard R&B charts, more Hot 100 entries without a No. 1 than anyone else, and by Joel Whitburn's count the top R&B artist from 1942 to 2010. He kept performing and recording until pneumonia killed him on Christmas Day 2006.
Musicians from the United States 6
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