You ever find yourself wondering that some people will just live forever? That some people have that impossible power to live an immortal life? You sometimes find yourself thinking “damn im probably sure Richard Pryor will outlive me” and when they pass it’s like reality just gave you a cold slap in the face. Well reality gave us one more of those cold slaps. When on all days of the year Christmas thats right Christmas James Brown was taken away from us. And there was no way I could describe more of how I was feeling more that day except with the words of Nasty Nas “Hip-Hop just died this morning”. If there ever has been a death in Hip-Hop that has meant something more to the community and should mean something to you is the death of “The Godfather of Soul”. This man was the embodiment of Hip Hop. Sometimes it seems to be a big trend in the Hip-Hop community (at least nowadays) to not pay respect to the ones that come before. But it’s not only respect that this man deserves its homage.

Besides of course the music everything he did was Hip-Hop. The way the man danced was incredible. It was said that he used to lose 2-3 pounds after every performance. The way he moved his feet inspired all to learn . His style of dance influenced numerous techniques that were dominant at the beginning of hip hop and he’s one of the main reasons B Boys in the Bronx went to the floor in the first place. And with out his wild style of dancing there would be no Michael, no Usher and pretty much sure no Justin.

Even as a Dj the man influenced me. I remember the first time I heard a snippet of “There Was A Time” while I was practicing beat juggling on what I think was a Roc Raida break record and I couldn’t keep the needle of that sample. I went home (I was at the scratch academy in Manhatan) and must have heard the song about all night long. Even to this day everyonce in a while I break out into a “dig the dance I used to do they call em Mashed poh-tay-tas ahhhhhh” or cut up the signature ad-libs on the tables.

Even though you’ll never see me on a mic if your a up and coming mc who better to look on for inspiration then the “godfather”. On “The Payback” James was advocating street justice and a no snitch policy way before some of you favorite rappers were even in diapers. On “King Heroin” he spoke about the dangers of the “snow” while some of your favorite “trappers” were still playing in the sand trap. On “The Boss” he was rocking with a kind of swagger that would influence Snoop Dogg and other rappers who wanted to follow the kingpin mentality. And on the other side of the coin he was supporting a black pride movement that would make Mcs like Common and Mos Def proud(“we’d rather die on our feet then keep living on our knees” is a line that rings bells no matter what race you are) . Plus the way the man threw shows and concerts it would put most of the rappers out there to shame(not that some of them need him to anyway). With him you always got your money’s worth.

But that was the beauty of Mr. Brown. Everywhere you turned there was something he hadplayed an influence on. The early boom-bap sounds of Hip Hop mostly came from an influence of “Funky Drummer” and “Funky President”. Even when rap went over to the left coast in the mid 90’s he was still playing a major influence. How you ask? Well for the producers who weren’t directly sampling his tracks they were still taping into a part of the artist. Most of the band members of George Clinton’s Parliament and Funkadelic who were heavily sampled by West Coast producers, used to work for the man himself including legendary bass guitar player Bootsy Collins. And what made it more amazing is that while most older artist had a deep rooted hatred for Hip Hop sampling Brown along side Clinton embraced the use of their previous works and cleared most of their samples which allowed the making of numerous Rap classics.

Finally looking back at the man you come to realize that most of his work covered every single element of Hip Hop except of course graffiti. When artist Gerald Levert and Ray Charles past away it was a sad moment for most of us. But I don’t think there is ever going to be one that hurts the community more then when “the hardest working man in show business” passed. R.I.P. James Brown, even though you left us in the physical form your memory will outlive us all in eternity.

James Brown-There Was A Time: