RIP James Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006)

Other than maybe Miles' Live-Evil , James Brown's Star Time was the most played album of my childhood. There's this video of my Pops barbequing in the winter with a James Brown T-shirt on, we're talkin maybe 1992 or 1993, we were still living in the hood on Butler Ave. Anyways, I'm working the video-camera and Pops is doin his usual performance thing. He's working rib-slabs on the big pit, chuggin some 24-oz can of cheap beer and tryna do the camel-walk (James' signature move). "Mother Popcorn" is boomin from the speakers. James was always playing in the crib, in the car, it was the album of choice in the minibvan when we took trips. It appealled to Pops' jitter-bug tastes, but also appealed to us as kids, because 90% of the current music we listened to was rooted in what James did. I read someone say that James is to rythm and groove what Bob Dylan was to lyrics and what Sacthmo and Ellington were to instrumentation and general music arrangements and thats so true. I used to sit and listen to James and be like, "Wait, I thought Eric Sermon created that groove for EPMD, I didnt know he straight up ripped it off James." One of the very appropriate quotes from that video of Pops, Q'n some ribs in a JB Tshirt, listenin to JB was when the camera panned to my lil bro Christian, maybe 8 or 9 at the time, grunting and screeching right along with James and Pops says, "Yep, I got these James Brown Kids, too!" And we really were some James Brown kids. Around that same time period, there's also some video footage of a family dinner at the crib on Butler. Everyone is there, all the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandma and the whole nine. My sisters and cousins are performing their renditions of Mariah Carey and Mary J Blige and then, next thing you know, my lil bro Adam is sitting in front of a cushion, with drum sticks, preparing for his performance, which was his virtuoso pantomining of the opening drum solo to "Payback", and after the solo breaks and James and The JBs break into that sickening groove, you can see my lil bro grooving right along...this was a a little dude, maybe 7 or 8, who wanted to be Method Man, in front of a cushion with some cheap drum sticks, grooving to James like it's some new hotness from Black Moon. James was that ill and progressive and powerful.

When I say I basically grew up on Miles and James, its kinda weird, because Pops played a ton of different Miles albums, but he only played Star Time...i guess that just speaks to how comprehensive it is as a collection. I mean, "Licking Stick", "Outta Sight", "Mother Popcorn", "Make It Funky"...we're talkin stuff so progressive and ahead of its time and spectacular that its almost shameful. But things get downright creepy when you listen to "I Can't Stand Myself"...that groove that The JBs lay down (and the Godfather arranged) is immoral. Then James says, "Let me hear you walk a little bit, Tim" and ya man starts walkin on the bass like he's Ron Carter...filthy. I played that for my nigga Rek one night on his porch and he threw his beer over the rail in disgust. Plus James is doing that rap-sing thing, like George Clinton would do years later.

And thats not too mention the fact that James friggin INVENTED the so-called power-ballad. And dude was right there at the forefront of the socially driven songs...and I aint even talkin bout obvious joints like "I'm Black and I'm Proud", even though that's a historic anthem...I'm talkin bout much more subtle and equally powerful joints like "I Don't Want Nobobdy To Give Me Nothing."

I been playing non-stop James since I heard of his death. It's struck me similar to when Dilla died (except Dills was so unexpected). I been reading all the "appreciations", Harrington's piece in the Washington Post was especially poignant and insightful. And MTV has a cool joint on their site where you can read how today's artist pay so much homage to this man. Snoop, Cube, Nas, Chuck D -- everyone is basically like, "Without him there would not be any us." Harrington had an interesting perspective when he said that hip-hop would have happened with or without James, but it wouldnt have sounded as good or developed that core groove that it has. And I think I agree more with that, but the fact that artists themselves paint James as an essential cog in hop might be a little more telling. Do yourself a favor and listen to "Get On The Good Foot", "Super Bad", "Funky Drummer", "Soul Power" -- these songs were sampled be MULTIPLE artists REPEATEDLY. I had a moment a few hours ago while listening to "Get Up, Gen Into It, Gen Involved" and James takes it to the bridge and it breaks down with crazy guitar-riff...if that wasn't the most hip-hoppish thing I've ever heard then I dont know what is...the scary thing is James dropped that in the late 60s.

And we wont even touch on how MJ, Prince, Mick Jagger, Bobby Brown, Justin Timberlake and anyone else you can think of were indelibly influenced by James stage performance. Many attribute the whole rock-star live performance thing to Elvis Pressley, but they say Elvis studied James to get his steez down. Fuggedaboutit.

I do know that my childhood wouldnt have been as fun without James and I wouldnt have nearly the grasp of rhythm and groove had I not been overwhelmed with his music at such an early age. In another life (not the one where I'm a chef, but the one where I'm bandleader of jazz/funk/soul/hop octet) I'd be shameless JB-clone. Not so much in stage performance, but the essence of that groove. I really think James might be the greatest music artist ever. I know Gee pushes Prince, but I'm callin BS on that. Nigga aint called the Godfather for nothin.