The Legacy of the Godfather Of Soul
He was born on May 3, 1933 in the small town of Macon, Georgia (now about 100,000 people) to a poor and loveless family. His mother abandoned him and his son when he was very little.
He continued with his father. However, as she was an itinerant worker with no intention of caring for children, she had to earn a living, part of it washing shoes, picking cotton, and even committing petty theft. She had little education and as she grew up she got into trouble. At age 20 he was imprisoned for armed robbery and sentenced to between 8 and 16 years in prison. Because of his good behavior, he spent three months in prison and three months in a reformatory.
There he met Bobby Byrd, the leader of the gospel group The Avons, with whom he formed a great friendship that lasted many years.
When Brown left Reform School, he joined Bobby's group, and after a while he became the leader, changed his style (after attending the Fast Domino concert, they decided to go towards R&B) and changed their name: The Famous Flame.
It is here where his musical career begins to develop, which we develop in the following sections. But let's go back to his personal life. In addition to the success that always accompanied him, his unprofessional air was nothing to enviable...he often flirted with drugs and often had problems with the law. He spoke of his first time in prison, in 1988 when he was sentenced to six years for possessing drugs and weapons without a license, but only served three. The decade that followed, the 1990s and the rest of this century, was a time of continued arrests for drug possession, domestic violence, and abuse.
In 1980, he played the role of a bad preacher in the film "Blues" in the film "Brown Brothers." He also appeared as "Detroit" Chapter "Detroit" as "Detroit" ("No Time", 1988) and "Rocky IV". In 1985, he recorded the single "Living in America" for the film, which became a huge hit and earned him a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Song two years later. Also notable is his 1980 song "Rapp Payback" featuring Afrika Bambaataa, joining the masters of a burgeoning new musical style that was gaining worldwide popularity at the time. However, regardless of the symbolic value of this song, four years later, the best result of the new union of the two artists is the masterpiece "Unity".
James Brown is the most iconic artist of all time. His vocals, as well as some of his songs, can be heard in various styles that developed in the 1980s and 1990s, including hip-hop, hip-hop house, house, and acid house. His personal opinion of this "thief" developed over time. He first accepted it respectfully, then asked for his rights and finally, if he couldn't get money for each test performed, at least thank him for it. However, I recognized that it happened. A highly sought-after artist, his old records continued to sell and his concerts were filled with young people who eagerly listened to his songs. So everyone wins.
