James Brown is renowned as a seminal figure in the development of music, helping create first soul music, then the dynamic big band rhythms of funk, then hip hop and rap. He is the most sampled musician of all time.



James Brown is renowned as a seminal figure in the development of music, helping create first soul music, then the dynamic big band rhythms of funk, then hip hop and rap. He is the most sampled musician of all time.

Brown’s stormy private life has, of recent years, been splashed across the tabloids, but less well known is the profound and lasting impact Brown’s life had on society. In the 60s and 70s, leading the Civil Rights movement in music, he helped transform black society and won the accolade: ‘the most important black man in America’