Why was James Brown so important to the world of music?? i remember when the whole sampling hip-hop craze was setting off...I was a pup on the wheels in '83 with friz-B and we found out about James from Marley Marl and Hurby Luv-Bug Samples...I remember whenI heard the funky Drummer and was flabergasted how dope it was and thought "How can a live drummer do that?"...Now, as a kid, I had danced to James all my life...my parents had James records and 45's like "Papa Don't Take No Mess", "Funky President", "Say It Loud", "The Payback",  "Cold Sweat", "Body Heat", etc, etc, etc....It wasn't til Hip-Hop came around that i begin to understand how much of a genius James was...

I remember when the search began...'83...you could still find original James Brown records at the thrift shops...i remember Friz and I going to Riverside, CA to visit my brother cause he said a thrift shop out there had James records...Diggin at age 12...think we took the bus down there...so, my brother takes us the the thrift shop and we dig and dig and dig...he comes back to pick us up about an hour later and we're like, "Nope didn't find any James!" he's like "what??" "I just saw a bunch the other day!" to show how much we knew about James, My bro goes to the crates and pulls out Fred Wesley and the JB's, Maceo and the Macks, Fred wesley and the Horny Horns, Lyn Colins, Hank Ballard....We didn't know jack....but boy did we get a lesson!!!

    What James brought to music was the epitome of FUNK. He brouht the emphasis on the 1 Beat of the 4x4 beat...He brought the crazy, ill stage show...Plus, half of those cats were high as a button!!! The Collins Brothers(Bootsy), Clyde Stubblefiend, plus of multitude of cats played with James....the Godfather of Soul...the Godfather of Hip-Hop...the Funkiest man to have ever lived...