James Brown

Few performers have shaped popular music as directly as James Brown. Born in Barnwell, South Carolina, and raised largely in Augusta, Georgia, he came up through gospel and rhythm and blues, but his restless sense of rhythm pushed him well beyond both. As a singer, songwriter, dancer and record producer, he is credited as the central figure in the birth of funk, and his grooves have been frequently sampled by hip-hop artists. He was among the first ten inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

The Famous Flames, the vocal group founded by Bobby Byrd, gave him his first hits, including Please, Please, Please and Try Me, and his later peak came with the live album Live at the Apollo and singles such as Papa's Got a Brand New Bag. In the late 1960s he stripped his music back to interlocking rhythms, and by the early 1970s, with the J.B.s, funk was fully formed, as heard on Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine. He died of pneumonia in 2006, after a career that produced 17 R&B number ones.