The Genius of James Brown

Ah, tis unfortunate that no one nowadays recalls the immense contributions of James Brown to music and culture for black America and through hip-hop, influencing white America.  Drawing on the influences of hard bop, Louis Jordan, and soul, James Brown revolutionized black music by creating funk with the seminal song, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." His gift for dancing, entertainment, and singing influenced Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. Jackson's dances directly channeled the legendary Brown.
Brown also went through stylistic shifts during his long career. His early records, such as Please, Please, Please followed contemporary trends in soul music that were initiated by Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Motown. After 1964, with 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag,' featuring Maceo Parker's wonderful saxophone solo and a funky backbeat, introduced funk to America. What followed was a gradual shift toward funk in Brown's music, culminating in his 1970s albums and the amazing 'Sex Machine.' This period of Brown's music is the most sampled music in hip-hop. The breakbeats, funky horns, and basslines have been sampled by everyone since early hip-hop history. For example, Public Enemy's best album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, features drum samples from the 'Funky Drummer' for several songs on the album. Brown's music is perfect for hip-hop music since it's totally rhythmic. The repetitious features of his funk are perfect and represent a revolution in African-American music.
Though one of the general features of black music is repetition, polyrhythms, and the use of blues phrases, Brown was innovative for putting emphasis on repetitious rhythms, blending electric and acoustic instruments, and gospel-shouts. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, black people in America had James Brown for our superstar. I suppose the equivalent for white folks would be The Beatles, but Brown's music is more interesting personally.
In addition to influencing the hip-hop generation by providing the samples, James Brown became a legend in Africa. African diasporic music such as Brown's was incredibly popular throughout Africa and influenced Nigerian legend Fela Kuti's music. Kuti's music has a greater social and political consciousness than Brown, but the funk basslines and Kuti's saxophone solos were pure American funk.
I guess the only way to conclude is to reiterate the greatness of Brown.
'The Payback,' 'Sex Machine,' 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag' and Brown's backing band, The JB's, revolutionized black music. 'The Grunt' by the JB's was masterfully sampled by Public Enemy for 'Night of the Living Baseheads' if you would like to hear the use of Brown's music in hip-hop.
Although my knowledge of Brown is limited to his 60's and early 70's output, his later material and pre-funk material are still worth experiencing. Everything about the man was so tight, and despite his processed European hair, he defined blackness and cool for an entire generation of black Americans. To hear the man and not bob your head to the funky aura emanating from him is to hate life.