Powered By Black History: James Brown

Today, as always, we pay homage to Soul Brotha #1/The Godfather of Soul/Mr. Dynamite otherwise known as James Brown!

He rose from the deepest of hard times to achieve historic stardom. He started in the Deep South trying to escape poverty. He was imprisoned for a supposed attempted auto theft and eventually ended up performing in jail. As fate would have it, he was discovered and assisted by Bobby Byrd and was released. Soon, he got on his feet and ended up leading the Fabulous Flames. The rest, is history.

Mr. Brown helped to launch the career of Bootsy Collins and greatly inspired Michael Jackson, MC Hammer and Prince. Without James Brown, Soul, Funk and therefore Hip-Hop, would not have reached their worldwide pinnacles. Again, words are not an adequate description of his legacy, so listen to some of these anthems!