James Brown Influenced Hip-Hop and R&B Artists

A docuseries about the Godfather of Soul, James Brown was recently released on A&E and while discussing the project with People, one of his daughters has stated that if it weren’t for her father, hip-hop music and certain R&B stars wouldn’t exist.

In an exclusive interview with the media outlet, Deanna Brown discusses the four-part docuseries “James Brown: Say It Loud” that premiered on Monday, Feb. 19, with the second part airing on Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. EST. No one will ever deny the influence and the musical contribution of the “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” singer to the culture of music in general and hip-hop and R&B specifically. Deanna made it known that for those who may not realize his influence he is responsible for the sounds and even some of the current artists we celebrate today.

“There would be no hip-hop. There would be no rap, because he’s the most-sampled artist,” Deanna stated. “There would be no Michael [Jackson], there would be no Usher, there’d be no Chris Brown — all these people who took from him.”

She has a valid point but she didn’t stop there.

“I mean, where would it be? You could ask a lot of these musicians, they’ll tell you the same thing. It would probably be zero. I think LL [Cool J] says that in the documentary that the trajectory of music would be — he can’t even imagine where it would be without James Brown.”

The talented showman died at the age of 73 on Christmas Day in 2006.

This docuseries is not the first biographical film of Brown. In 2014, “Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown” was released in April and was produced by Mick Jagger, the frontman for the legendary rock group, The Rolling Stones. Later that year, “Black Panther” lead actor, Chadwick Boseman played the role of the “Sex Machine” recording artist in the movie, “Get On Up.”