My definition of hip hop is taking elements from many other spheres of music to make hip hop. Whether it be breakbeat, whether it be the groove and grunt of James Brown or the pickle-pop sounds of Kraftwerk or Yellow Magic Orchestra, hip hop is also part of what they call hip-house now, or trip hop, or even parts of drum n' bass.
Afrika Bambaataa
Every James Brown cut makes a party get crazy. He's the god of all music. I always play different wild remixes of his songs because people start bugging out when they realise what I'm playing.
I'm touched by the Beatles. I want some of the music I do to reflect that. Here I am. I love Sly Stone and James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and I want my music to reflect some of that. Here I am. I'm touched by Jon Hendricks. I want some of my music to reflect that. And when I write, you're going to hear it.
Al Jarreau
I love Sly Stone and James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and I want my music to reflect some of that.
James Brown became my father. He would talk to me the way a father talked to a son. He became the father I never had.
Al Sharpton
If it weren't for the mentorship and guidance from people like my mother, James Brown and others, I wouldn't have been able to make something of my life.
When Prince and James Brown were doing live sessions... recording a band is not easy. It's all delicate, important stuff you want to make sure you're doing the right way.
Amine
I like to listen to African music; I like to listen to Brazilian music that's not just Choro. I love to listen to Radiohead, I like to listen to James Brown - any music.
Anat Cohen
When the pastor's up there, they do this thing called looping. They are literally riffing and spitting in the key of the organ. When looping, you're in key, you're in a rhythm, you're in a pocket, and that's where James Brown was pulling from, and so that's where I'm pulling from. The only difference is I'm coming at it under hip-hop.
Anderson Paak
The first record I heard as a kid? My dad is a great soul and blues fan, so he showed me James Brown. That was my first stuff, and I loved it.
Bakermat
Anyone who can do the splits and come back up on the backbeat, as James Brown and Prince can, has my eternal respect. Prince, who is a genius of the highest order, can come back up while singing and playing the guitar.
Bill Nighy
When I first played New York, it was with James Brown at the Apollo, and I was playing in a band under the name The Valentinos. I remember Sam Cooke saying, 'I want you to go in there with James Brown. I couldn't be as hard on you as James Brown would be.' But we came out marching like soldiers.
Bobby Womack
I've been to two stadium gigs in my life. One was James Brown and the other was Pink Floyd. They both sounded the same. I couldn't tell the difference between James Brown and Pink Floyd. I've never liked stadiums.
Boz Burrell
James Brown was one of the first artists who found four bars that he liked and played them the entire way through, and then he just added to it vocally.
Brian Austin Green
What I like about Elvis is the same thing I like about James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince. These guys, back in the day, there was no smoke and mirrors. It was just raw talent. They would step out onstage and command an audience. Talk about awesome.
Bruno Mars
My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you'll see you had to be sharp onstage.
I usually listen to various kind of singers. Curtis Mayfield was my favorite. James Brown, Tina Turner, queen of soul, I started to get that musical essence from that time before I even do my first song.
Burning Spear
James Brown is important because he decorates the clock correctly and he's good with lower mathematics. Don't get me wrong - he's good.
Captain Beefheart
I can't even imagine something being more fun than playing James Brown onstage.
Chadwick Boseman
They should probably have a James Brown aerobic tape. You would lose a lot of weight.
I come from an era of black pride, black power, my father riding around listening to James Brown singing, 'Say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud,' and people walking around with African medallions and Malcolm X hats.
Peforming as James Brown, I didn't really have to go deep in my soul the way I do as Charles Bradley.
With James Brown, I just learn the lyrics and then get out there and get funky with it and let my spirit free. But doing Charles Bradley, it's a lot of true, intimate words coming out of me that show me the picture inside myself.
James Brown came from that hard, rough life that I came from. He took the blues and added rhythm to it. And he always had the most funkiest band; I liked the way he took his words and mixed it in with the band.
James Brown really taught me a lot - his lyrics and his performance and whatever he does when he's onstage. I'll always call him a legend, and I'll always respect what he did.
Everybody tell me everywhere I go that I'm the closest thing to James Brown they ever seen.
It's not that I imitate him. I use a lot of what I feel. Even now, they refuse for me to stop doing James Brown. If it's something I can feel from the heart and from the soul, I do it.
I always loved James Brown, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke.
But that kind of falls in line; when you think about it, James Brown was a funk minimalist. All of those parts create a sum that's larger than than the individual parts.
I drew a lot of inspiration from the Ginuwines, the Ushers, the Michael Jacksons, the James Browns, Sam Cooke.
I'm old enough to remember seeing James Brown live.
I saw 'Get On Up' about a dozen times. I went every day. Every single day, I was standing outside when the movie theatre opened and bought my ticket. The theatre was usually empty. I live in a town that wasn't eager or very interested in a James Brown biopic, but I couldn't stop watching Boseman.
I just watched a James Brown video of him singing 'I Feel Good,' and then I kind of just copied off his moves. But I couldn't do them properly, so they turned into my own moves.
It's like James Brown used to say... I don't know, but whatever I play it's got to be funky.
You say 'African music' and you think 'tribal drumming.' But there's a lot of African music that's like James Brown, and a lot, too, that sounds very Hispanic.
Charles and I are from Augusta, Ga. - so we come from James Brown territory, soul music and Motown. And Charles has always had a lot of Southern rock in there as well.
You want a hero in the music world? James Brown. He brought a feeling to music without really using words. He's just famous for his sound.
My parents were really into music. They would play the Funkadelics, Parliament, OutKast; they would just play that all around the house. They'd also play Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye, James Brown.
James Brown died owing me $50,000. But I loved James Brown.
James Brown hated me until the day he died.
A guy like James Brown has walked the walk, talked the talk. I can't disrespect James Brown in any kind of way. In my household, the adults tell you where to get off at.
When I was a little bitty kid, I was listening to the stuff my parents were listening to. My mom was a huge Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige fan. My dad had a cover band that I sang with, and he loved Parliament, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, the blues, James Brown.
I grew up in Deptford in south London, and at that time I used to wear toppers, loon pants and tonic suits from shops like Take 6 and Topman. I was a bit of a soul boy, but I had a very eclectic taste in music - I was into James Brown and Bowie; and I was the only kid in the neighbourhood who would also be listening to Chopin.
I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown.
You go through the Civil Rights struggle, everybody knew the songs - 'We shall overcome.' Everybody would sing it. Music helped us. James Brown, 'Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud.' They helped black people figure out how to navigate what was a very treacherous place in America for them.
I was inspired by James Brown, Michael Jackson and Prince.
One of my first festivals was Oxygen 2006. It had this amazing lineup with the Arctic Monkeys on their first or second album, the Strokes, Kings of Leon, the Magic Numbers and then the Who and James Brown. I waited in the pit for a good eight hours to see James Brown.
My mom was a big fan of Al Green... James Brown we weren't allowed to listen to, so of course I knew James Brown.
The hardest thing about being James Brown is I have to live. I don't have no down time.
I think the best thing about being James Brown is looking at my little son. Hopefully I can make my son a role model to a lot of people.
