James Brown's daughter insists the late King of Pop, Usher, and Chris Brown owed their success to her late father who had carved a path for them in the music industry.
- Feb 21, 2024
AceShowbiz - James Brown's daughter has claimed there would be "no hip-hop, Michael Jackson or Usher" without her late father. Deanna, 55, states the soul and funk legend - who died aged 73 in 2006 - was hugely influential on the late King of Pop and the "My Boo" hitmaker, as well as several genres, including hip-hop, and music wouldn't be the same without him.
"There would be no hip-hop. There would be no rap, because he's the most-sampled artist. 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 said to PEOPLE to promote A+E's four-part docuseries, "James Brown: Say It Loud".
Deanna continued, "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."
His other daughter, Yamma, 50, discussed her father being the creator of funk and influencing many genres. She said, "Somebody sitting at home maybe watching it and think, 'His story is not that dissimilar than mine and look what he went on to do.' And if you can inspire somebody to be the greatest at what they can be, that's amazing."
On what her father would have made of the series, she added, "I just wish he was still here to see some of this. He would not believe it."
The "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" hitmaker's five-decade career saw him start out as a gospel singer before pioneering and experimenting with funk, soul, blues, jazz, RnB and rock and roll. His sweat-inducing live shows saw him dance intensely, including dropping to his knees while clutching the microphone stand in his hands, and often went on for hours.
Brown - who has nine children - famously sang in a rowdy, shouty style. In a 1988 interview with SPIN magazine in 1988, he shed some light on the invention of funk. Brown explained, "Funk is the root of the blues. It's soul, jazz, and gospel. Funk is coming down on the one. If it's on the one, then it's funky. But it's hard for me to get people to understand that."
He continued, "It took me four or five years to get Bootsy Collins to understand what 'on the one' was. Most people didn't know what it was. They know now. 'Take me to the bridge,' I heard someone use that expression maybe 45 years ago, referring to the middle part of a song, and I changed it to mean a release."
