Singer James Brown dies at 73

‘There has been no one near as funky’
His “Live at The Apollo” in 1962 is widely considered one of the greatest concert records ever. He often talked of a 1964 concert in which organizers made the mistake of having the Rolling Stones, not him, close the bill, remembering Mick Jagger waiting offstage, nervously chain smoking, as he pulled off his matchless show.

“To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one’s coming even close,” rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told the AP.

Brown routinely lost two or three pounds each time he performed and kept his furious concert schedule in his later years even as he fought prostate cancer, Ross said.

With his tight pants, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince. And the early rap generation overwhelmingly sampled his music and voice as they laid the foundation of hip-hop culture.

“Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I’m saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me,” Brown told The AP in 2003.

Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, Brown was abandoned as a 4 year old to the care of relatives and friends. He grew up on the streets of Augusta, Ga., in an “ill-repute area,” as he once called it, learning how to hustle to survive.

By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3½ years in reform school for breaking into cars. While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.

In January 1956, King Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later “Please, Please, Please” was in the R&B Top Ten.

Brown is survived by his fourth wife, Tomi Rae Hynie, one of his backup singers, and at least four children — two daughters and sons Daryl and James Brown II, Copsidas said.

Memorial plans were incomplete, Copsidas said.

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