

Brown spent long stretches of time on his own, hanging out in the streets and hustling to get by.

Brown's mother eventually left the family after a contentious and abusive marriage and moved to New York. They later moved into a house shared with another aunt. His family first settled at one of his aunts' brothels. They later moved to Augusta, Georgia, when James was four or five. The Brown family lived in extreme poverty in Elko, South Carolina, which was an impoverished town at the time. In his autobiography, Brown stated that he had Chinese and Native American ancestry and that his father was of mixed African-American and Native American descent, while his mother was of mixed African-American and Asian descent. Brown's name was supposed to have been Joseph James Brown, but his first and middle names were mistakenly reversed on his birth certificate.

His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as " Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", " I Got You (I Feel Good)" and " It's a Man's Man's Man's World".ĭuring the late 1960s, Brown moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly " Africanized" approach to music-making, emphasizing stripped-down interlocking rhythms that influenced the development of funk music. With the hit ballads " Please, Please, Please" and " Try Me", Brown built a reputation as a dynamic live performer with the Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra. He came to national public attention in the mid-1950s as the lead singer of the Famous Flames, a rhythm and blues vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd. Brown was one of the first 10 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural induction in New York on January 23, 1986.īrown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. In a career that lasted over 50 years, he influenced the development of several music genres. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honorific nicknames "Godfather of Soul", "Mr. James Joseph Brown (– December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer, and bandleader.
