Look up unity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Unity is the state of being undivided or unbroken.

Unity may also refer to:

Education[link]

• Unity College Northampton, United Kingdom
• Unity College (Burnley), United Kingdom
• Unity College (Maine), United States
• Unity School District (Wisconsin), Wisconsin, United States
• Unity University, Ethiopia

Music[link]

• "U.N.I.T.Y.", a song by Queen Latifah
• Unity, a band formed by members of Uniform Choice
• Unity Christian Music Festival
• Unity (311 album)
• Unity (George album)
• Unity (Larry Young album)
• Unity, an album by the band Big Mountain
• "Unity" (song), by Afrika Bambaataa and James Brown
• "Unity", a song by Kelly Rowland on the album Ms. Kelly
• "Unity" , a song by Mordechai Ben David and Shea Mendelowitz

Media and entertainment[link]

• "Unity" (comics), a crossover storyline in the Valiant universe
• Unity (film), an upcoming documentary film
• Unity 1918,a play by Kevin Kerr which won the Canadian Governor General's Award for English language drama in 2002
• "Unity" (Star Trek: Voyager)
• Unity (video game), a cancelled video game for the Nintendo GameCube
• Unity 101, a radio station
• Unity Journalists of Color, Inc.
• Unity, one of the principles of art
• "Unity", an I Pity the Fool episode

Computers[link]

• Unity (user interface), a user interface from Canonical (since Ubuntu 11.04)
• Unity (game engine), a multi-platform game engine and development toolkit
• UNITY (programming language)
• Unity Linux, a Linux distribution
• Unity Application Block, a dependency injection container for Microsoft systems
• Cisco Unity, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager
• Wikiunity, a wiki farm

Geography[link]

United States[link]

• Unity, Maine, a town in Waldo County
• Unity (CDP), Maine, a census-designated place within the town
• Unity, Kennebec County, Maine, unorganized territory
• Unity, New Hampshire
• Unity, Oregon
• Unity, Wisconsin, a village in Clark and Marathon counties
• Unity, Clark County, Wisconsin, a town
• Unity, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, a town
• Unity Township, Pennsylvania
• Unity Village, Missouri
• West Unity, Ohio

Other[link]

• Unity State, South Sudan
• Unity, Saskatchewan, Canada
• Unity Village, Guyana

People[link]

• Unity Mitford (1914-1948), friend of Adolf Hitler

Politics[link]

• Unity (trade union)
• Unity (Latvian political party)
• Unity Party (disambiguation)
• "Edinstvo" Committee
• Yedinstvo (Lithuania)
• UNITY (asylum seekers organisation)
• Unity (Russian political party)

Science and technology[link]

• Unity (mathematics), the number one
• A concept in ring theory in mathematics
• Unity (ISS module), a segment of the International Space Station
• Unity (submarine cable), for trans-Pacific communications

Other[link]

• HMS Unity, the name of several ships of the Royal Navy
• Unity (ship), a ship that disappeared near Tasmania in 1813
• Unity Church, also known as the Unity School of Christianity
• Unity Temple, a Unitarian Universalist church in Illinois
• Unity of invention, a patent law requirement

See also[link]

• Unité, a French ship captured by the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Surprise
• Unity Day (disambiguation)
• Unity Bridge (disambiguation)
• Unify (disambiguation)
• All pages beginning with "Unity"
• All pages with titles containing "Unity"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Queen Latifah
Latifah at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.
Background information
Birth name	Dana Elaine Owens
Born	(1970-03-18) March 18, 1970 (age 42)
Origin	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	R&B, soul, jazz, hip hop, gospel
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, rapper, actress, comedienne
Instruments	Piano, vocals
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Verve A&M/Interscope Records Motown/PolyGram Records Tommy Boy/Warner Bros. Records Disney
Associated acts	Andrae Crouch and his Choir L.A. Mass Choir Lakim Shabazz Apache Chill Rob G DJ Mark the 45 King De La Soul Jungle Brothers A Tribe Called Quest
Website	QueenLatifah.com

Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970),^[1] better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination.

Early life[link]

Latifah was born, and primarily raised, in East Orange, New Jersey.^[2] She is the daughter of Rita (née Bray), a teacher at Irvington High School (her daughter's alma mater), and Lancelot Owens, Sr., a police officer,^[3][4][5] her parents divorced when Latifah was ten.^[5] Latifah was raised in the Baptist church^[6] and attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey.^[7][8] Her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة laţīfa), meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, she found in an Islamic book of names when she was eight.^[5] Always a tall girl, the 5'10" Latifah was a power forward on her high school basketball team.^[9][10] She performed the number "Home" from the musical The Wiz in a high school play.^[11] She is of African American and Native American ancestry.^[12]

Music career[link]

Beginning (1988–1989)[link]

She started beatboxing for the hip hop group Ladies Fresh and was one of the members of the original version of the Flavor Unit, which, at that time, was a crew of MCs grouped around producer DJ Mark the 45 King, who made a demo recording of Queen Latifah's rap Princess of the Posse. He gave the recording to Fab 5 Freddy, the host of Yo! MTV Raps. The song got the attention of Tommy Boy Music employee Dante Ross, who signed Latifah and in 1988 issued her first single, "Wrath of My Madness."

Rhyming (1989–2002)[link]

Freddy helped Latifah sign with Tommy Boy Records, which released Latifah's first album All Hail the Queen in 1989, when she was nineteen.^[5] That year, she appeared as Referee on the UK label Music of Life album 1989—The Hustlers Convention (live). In 1998, co-produced by Ro Smith, now CEO of Def Ro Inc., she released her fourth hip-hop album Order in the Court, which was released by Motown Records.

Singing (2003–2007)[link]

After Order in the Court, Latifah shifted primarily to singing soul music and jazz standards, which she had used sparingly in her previous hip-hop-oriented records. In 2004, she released the soul/jazz standards The Dana Owens Album. On July 11, 2007, Latifah sang at the famed Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles as the headlining act in a live jazz concert. Before a crowd of more than 12,400, she was backed by a 10-piece live orchestra and three backup vocalists, which was billed as the Queen Latifah Orchestra. Latifah performed new arrangements of standards including "California Dreaming", first made popular by '60s icons The Mamas & the Papas. Later in 2007, Latifah released an album titled Trav'lin' Light. Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Joe Sample, George Duke, Christian McBride, and Stevie Wonder made guest appearances.^[13] It was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album" category.^[14]

In 2009, Latifah, along with the Jubilation Choir, recorded the title track on the album Oh, Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration, covering the song that the Edwin Hawkins Singers made popular in 1969.^[15]

Return to hip hop (2008–present)[link]

In 2008, Latifah was asked if she would make another hip-hop album. She was quoted saying the album was done already and it would be called "All Hail the Queen II". It was rumored that the album would be named "The 'L' Word". When asked about the rumor, she stated it was her attempt to "mess with people's heads" referring to rumors that she is lesbian".^[16] The following year, in 2009, she released her album, Persona. The song "Cue the Rain" was released as the album's lead single. She also has a song with Missy Elliott.^[17] 2011 saw Queen Latifah sing "Who Can I Turn To" in a duet with Tony Bennett for his album "Duets II".^[18] In January 2012, while appearing on 106 & Park with Dolly Parton, to promote Joyful Noise, Latifah stated that she had been working on a new album, set to release sometime in spring 2012.

Film and television[link]

Early career (1991–2001)[link]

From 1993–1998, Latifah had a starring role on Living Single, a Fox sitcom, which gained high ratings among black audiences;^[5] she also wrote and performed its theme music. Her mother Rita played her mother on-screen.^[19] She began her film career in supporting roles in the 1991 and 1992 films House Party 2, Juice and Jungle Fever. She had her own talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, from 1999 to 2001. She also had recurring roles during the second season (1991–1992) of the NBC hit The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She made a guest role as herself on Hangin' with Mr. Cooper in 1993. Latifah appeared in the 1996 box-office hit, Set It Off and subsequently had a supporting role in the Holly Hunter film Living Out Loud (1998).^[5] She played the role of Thelma in the 1999 movie The Bone Collector, alongside Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.

Mainstream success (2002–present)[link]

Queen Latifah performing at the “Kids Inaugural: We Are the Future” concert in 2009

Although she had already received some critical acclaim, she gained mainstream success after being cast as Matron "Mama" Morton in the Oscar-winning film adaptation of the musical Chicago, the recipient of the Best Picture Oscar.^[5] Latifah received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role, but lost to co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones.^[5] Latifah is one of three hip-hop artists to receive an Academy Award nomination in an acting category (Best Supporting Actress, Chicago, 2002). The others are Will Smith (Best Actor, Ali, 2001, and Best Actor, The Pursuit of Happyness, 2006), and Jamie Foxx, (Best Actor, Ray, 2004).

In 2003, she starred with Steve Martin in the film Bringing Down the House, which was a major success at the box office.^[5] She also recorded a song "Do Your Thing" for the soundtrack. Since then, she has had both leading and supporting roles in a multitude of films that received varied critical and box office receptions, including films such as Scary Movie 3, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Taxi, Kung Faux, Beauty Shop, and Hairspray. In early 2006, Latifah appeared in a romantic comedy/drama entitled Last Holiday.^[5] Film critic Richard Roeper stated that "this is the Queen Latifah performance I've been waiting for ever since she broke into movies".^[20] Also in 2006, Latifah voiced Ellie, a friendly mammoth, in the animated film, Ice Age: The Meltdown (her first voice appearance in an animated film), and also appeared in the drama Stranger Than Fiction.

The summer of 2007 brought Latifah triple success in the big-screen version of the Broadway smash hit Hairspray, in which she acted, sang, and danced. The film rated highly with critics. It starred, among others, John Travolta (Grease), Michelle Pfeiffer (Stardust), Allison Janney (Juno), James Marsden (Enchanted), Christopher Walken (Catch Me If You Can) and Zac Efron (High School Musical). Also in 2007, she portrayed an HIV-positive woman in the film Life Support, a role for which she garnered her first Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy^[21] nomination. For her work, Queen Latifah received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on January 4, 2006, located at 6915 Hollywood Blvd.

Latifah produced the 2007 film The Perfect Holiday. In addition to producing the film, Latifah starred alongside Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Gabrielle Union, Charles Q. Murphy, Jill Marie Jones, and Faizon Love.^[22] In 2008, Latifah appeared in the crime comedy Mad Money opposite Academy Award-winner Diane Keaton as well as Katie Holmes and Ted Danson. She appeared on Saturday Night Live on October 4, 2008, as moderator Gwen Ifill impersonator in a comedic sketch depicting the recent vice-presidential debate.^[23] In 2009, Latifah was a presenter at the 81st Academy Awards, presenting the segment honoring film professionals who had died during 2008 and singing "I'll Be Seeing You" during the montage. Latifah spoke at Michael Jackson's memorial service in Los Angeles. She also hosted the 2010 People's Choice Awards. Latifah sang America the Beautiful at Super Bowl XLIV hosted in Miami, Florida on February 7, 2010, with Carrie Underwood. Latifah hosted the 2010 BET Awards on June 27, 2010. She starred with Dolly Parton in Joyful Noise (2012).^[24]

Products and endorsements[link]

Latifah is a celebrity spokesperson for CoverGirl cosmetics, Curvation ladies underwear, Pizza Hut and Jenny Craig.^[25] She represents her own line of cosmetics for women of color called the CoverGirl Queen Collection.^[26] Latifah has also launched a perfume line called "Queen."

Personal life[link]

Raised in East Orange, New Jersey, she has been a resident of Colts Neck, New Jersey.^[27]

Latifah was asked by Maya Angelou, who was unable to attend, to recite a poem written by Angelou at the memorial service for Michael Jackson in July 2009.

In March 2012, it was reported that Latifah planned on adopting her first child from Africa.

Family tragedies[link]

Latifah's older brother, Lancelot Jr., was killed in 1992 in an accident involving a motorcycle that Latifah had recently bought him.^[5] Latifah still wears the key to the motorcycle around her neck,^[5] which can be seen throughout her performance in her sitcom Living Single. She also dedicated Black Reign to him. In her 1999 autobiography, Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman, Latifah discussed how her brother's death had led to a bout of depression and drug abuse, from which she later recovered. In 1993, Latifah was the victim of a carjacking, which also resulted in the shooting of a friend.

Legal issues[link]

In 1996, she was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and possession of a loaded handgun.^[28]

Breast reduction surgery[link]

In early 2003, Latifah had breast reduction surgery which downsized her F size breasts to a double D cup size, as a way to reduce back and shoulder pain. She also works out with a trainer and kickboxes.^[29]

Discography[link]

• 1989: All Hail the Queen
• 1991: Nature of a Sista
• 1993: Black Reign
• 1998: Order in the Court
• 2004: The Dana Owens Album
• 2007: Trav'lin' Light
• 2009: Persona

Tours[link]

• Sugar Water Festival Tour (2005), (2006)

Queen Latifah, Jill Scott & Erykah Badu joined together to create and own the rights to the Sugar Water Festival Tour, LLC. All three performers toured together, while inviting music duo Floetry in 2005 and singer Kelis in 2006 as opening acts. Comedian/actress Mo'Nique served as host for the 2006 Sugar Water Tour.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Queen Latifah

• Official website
• Queen Latifah at the Internet Movie Database
• Queen Latifah at TV.com
• Queen Latifah at Emmys.com

James Brown
James Brown performing on June 27, 2005
Background information
Birth name	James Joseph Brown, Jr.[1]
Also known as	"The Godfather of Soul"[2][3][4]
Born	(1933-05-03)May 3, 1933 Barnwell, South Carolina, U.S.
Origin	Augusta, Georgia, United States
Died	December 25, 2006(2006-12-25) (aged 73) Atlanta, Georgia[5][6]
Genres	R&B, funk, soul, rock and roll
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, dancer, bandleader, record producer, actor
Instruments	Vocal, guitar, harmonica, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion
Years active	1956–2006
Labels	Federal, King, Try Me, Smash, People, Polydor, Scotti Bros., Dade
Associated acts	The Famous Flames, The J.B.'s, Bobby Byrd, The Soul Generals, Lyn Collins

James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of funk music and is a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance.

In a career that spanned decades, Brown profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres.^[7] Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music making.^[8] Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the Chitlin' Circuit, and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.^[9][10]

For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist.^[11] The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads.^[12] Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters.^[13][14] In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 from heart failure after becoming ill on December 23 and being hospitalized for hours. James Brown is buried in Beech Island, South Carolina.

Early life[link]

James Brown was born in Barnwell, South Carolina on May 3, 1933 to Susie Brown and Joseph ("Joe") Gardner (who changed his surname to Brown after Mattie Brown who raised him). Although Brown was to be named after his father Joseph, his first and middle names were mistakenly reversed on his birth certificate. He therefore became James Joseph Brown, Jr.^[1] As a young child, Brown was called Junior. When he later lived with his aunt and cousin, he was called Little Junior since his cousin's nickname was also Junior.^[1] He was of African American and Native American (Apache) descent through his father, and had Asian ancestry.^[15][16]

As a young child, Brown and his family lived in extreme poverty^[9] in nearby Elko, South Carolina, which at the time was an impoverished town in Barnwell County. When Brown was two years old, his parents separated after his mother left his father for another man.^[17] After his mother abandoned the family, Brown continued to live with his father and his father's live-in girlfriends until he was six years old.

His father sent him to live with an aunt, who ran a house of prostitution.^[18] Even though Brown lived with relatives, he spent long stretches of time on his own, hanging out on the streets and hustling to get by.^[9] Brown managed to stay in school until he dropped out in the seventh grade.^[19]

During his childhood, Brown earned money shining shoes, sweeping out stores, selling and trading in old stamps, washing cars and dishes and singing in talent contests.^[9] Brown also performed buck dances for change to entertain troops from Camp Gordon at the start of World War II as their convoys traveled over a canal bridge near his aunt's home.^[17][18] Between earning money from these adventures, Brown taught himself to play a harmonica given to him by his father.^[17] He learned to play some guitar from Tampa Red, in addition to learning to play piano and drums from others he met during this time.^[17] Brown was inspired to become an entertainer after watching Louis Jordan, a popular jazz and R&B performer during the 1940s, and Jordan's Tympany Five performing "Caldonia" in a short film.^[20]

As an adult, Brown legally changed his name to remove the "Jr." designation.^[21] In his spare time, Brown spent time practicing his various skills in Augusta-area stalls and committing petty crimes. At the age of sixteen, he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center upstate in Toccoa in 1949.^[8]

In 1952, while Brown was still in reform school, he met future R&B legend Bobby Byrd, who was there playing baseball against the reform school team. Byrd saw Brown perform there and admired his singing and performing talent.^[17] As a result of this friendship, Byrd's family helped Brown secure an early release after serving three years of his sentence. The authorities agreed to release Brown on the condition that he would get a job and not return to Augusta or Richmond County. After stints as a boxer^[22] and baseball pitcher in semi-professional baseball (a career move ended by a leg injury), Brown turned his energy toward music.^[23]

Career[link]

1955: The Formation of The Famous Flames[link]

In 1955, Brown and Bobby Byrd's sister Sarah performed in a group called The Gospel Starlighters. Eventually, Brown joined Bobby Byrd's vocal group, the Avons, and Byrd turned the group's sound towards secular rhythm and blues. After the group's name was changed to The Flames, Brown and Byrd's group toured the Southern chitlin' circuit. The group eventually signed a deal with the Cincinnati, Ohio-based label Federal Records, a sister label of King Records. Brown's early recordings were fairly straightforward gospel-inspired R&B compositions, heavily influenced by the work of contemporary musicians such as Ray Charles, Little Willie John, Clyde McPhatter and Little Richard.

Little Richard's relations with Brown were particularly significant in Brown's development as a musician and showman. Brown once called Richard his idol,^[24] and credited Richard's saxophone-studded mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, with being the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat.^[25] Etta James recalled her first meeting with James Brown, in Macon, Georgia, where Brown had befriended Little Richard. She said Brown "used to carry around an old tattered napkin with him, because Little Richard had written the words, 'please, please, please' on it and James was determined to make a song out of it...".^[26] The resulting track "Please, Please, Please" ended up becoming The Flames first R&B hit in 1956,^[27] selling over a million copies. However, nine subsequent singles released by The Flames failed to live up to the success of their debut, and the group was in danger of being dropped by Federal Records. When Little Richard left pop music in October 1957 to become a preacher, Brown filled out Little Richard's remaining tour dates in his place. Further, several former members of Little Richard's backup band joined Brown's group after Richard's exit from the pop music scene. Brown's group returned to the charts, hitting #1 R&B in February 1959 with "Try Me".^[28] This hit record was the best-selling R&B single of the year, becoming the first of 17 chart-topping R&B singles by Brown over the next two decades.^[29] By the time "Try Me" was released on record, the group's billing was changed to James Brown and The Famous Flames. "The Famous Flames" was a vocal group, not a backing band.In the original group, the members were Brown, Byrd, Brown's old cellmate Johnny Terry, Sylvester Keels, Nash Knox, and NaFloyd Scott.

In 1959, Brown and The Famous Flames moved from the Federal Records subsidiary to King Records, the parent label. Brown began to have recurring conflicts with King Records president Syd Nathan over repertoire and other matters. In one notable instance, Brown recorded the 1960 Top Ten R&B hit "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes" on Dade Records, owned by Henry Stone, under the pseudonym "Nat Kendrick & The Swans" because Nathan refused to allow him to record it for King.^[30]

Early and mid-1960s[link]

Brown scored on the charts in the early 1960s with recordings such as his 1962 cover of "Night Train". While Brown's early singles were major hits across the southern United States and then regular R&B Top Ten hits, he and the Famous Flames were not successful nationally until his self-financed live show was captured on the 1963 LP Live at the Apollo. Brown financed the recording of the album himself, and it was released on King Records over the objections of label owner Syd Nathan, who saw no commercial potential in a live album containing no new songs. Defying Nathan's expectations, the album stayed on the pop charts for fourteen months, peaking at #2.^[31] In addition, Brown recorded a hit version of the ballad "Prisoner of Love", (his first Top 20 pop hit), in 1963 and founded (under King auspices) the fledgling Try Me Records, Brown's first attempt at running a record label.

In 1962, singer Tammi Terrell came to Brown's attention, and the seventeen-year-old found herself in Brown's popular Revue, becoming one of his first female headliners. In 1963 Terrell recorded for Try Me Records, releasing the ballad, "I Cried", which gave her some chart success. Terrell and Brown also had a personal relationship, which was hampered by Brown's physical abuse towards her. After a horrific incident backstage after a show, Terrell asked singer Gene Chandler (the "Duke of Earl"), who witnessed the incident first hand, to take her to the bus station so she could go home. He later called her mother to come pick her up. This ended Terrell's two-year relationship with Brown.^{[citation needed]}

Brown followed the success of Live at the Apollo with a string of singles that, along with the work of Allen Toussaint in New Orleans, essentially defined the foundation of Funk music. Driven by the success of Live at the Apollo and the failure of King Records to expand record promotion beyond the "black" market, James Brown and fellow Famous Flame Bobby Byrd formed a production company, Fair Deal, to promote sales of Brown's record releases to white audiences. In this arrangement, Smash Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, was used as a vehicle to distribute Brown's music. Smash released his 1964 hit "Out of Sight", which reached #24 on the pop charts and pointed the way to his later funk hits.^[32] Its release also triggered a legal battle between Smash and King that resulted in a one year ban on the release of Brown's vocal recordings.^[33]

Two of Brown's signature tunes, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"^[34] (which won the 1966 Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording (an award last given in 1968)) and "I Got You (I Feel Good)", both from 1965, were his first Top 10 pop hits as well as major #1 R&B hits, with each remaining the top-selling singles in black venues for over a month. Brown's national profile was boosted further that year by appearances in the movie Ski Party and the concert film The T.A.M.I. Show, in which he and The Famous Flames (Bobby Byrd, Bobby Bennett and "Baby Lloyd" Stallworth) upstaged The Rolling Stones. In his concert repertoire and on record, Brown mingled his innovative rhythmic essays with Broadway show tunes and ballads, such as his hit "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (1966).^[34]

Late 1960s[link]

In November 1967, James Brown purchased radio station WGYW in Knoxville, Tennessee for a reported $75,000, according to the January 20, 1968 Record World magazine. The call letters were changed to WJBE reflecting his initials. WJBE began on January 15, 1968 and broadcast a Rhythm & Blues format. The station slogan was "WJBE 1430 Raw Soul". At the time it was mentioned "Brown has also branched out into real estate and music publishing in recent months".

Brown continued to refine the new funk idiom. His 1967 #1 R&B hit, "Cold Sweat", sometimes cited as the first true funk song, was the first of his recordings to contain a drum break and the first that featured a harmony that was reduced to a single chord.^[35][36] The instrumental arrangements on tracks such as "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" (both recorded in 1968) and "Funky Drummer" (recorded in 1969) featured a more developed version of Brown's mid-1960s style, with the horn section, guitars, bass and drums meshed together in intricate rhythmic patterns based on multiple interlocking riffs.

Changes in Brown's style that started with "Cold Sweat" also established the musical foundation for Brown's later hits, such as "I Got the Feelin'" (1968) and "Mother Popcorn" (1969). By this time Brown's vocals frequently took the form of a kind of rhythmic declamation, not quite sung but not quite spoken, that only intermittently featured traces of pitch or melody. This would become a major influence on the techniques of rapping, which would come to maturity along with hip hop music in the coming decades.

Brown's style of funk was based on interlocking syncopated parts: funky bass lines, drum patterns, and iconic guitar riffs.^[37] The main guitar ostinatos for "Aint" it Funky" (c. late 1960s), and "Give it Up or Turn it Lose" (1969), are examples of Brown's refinement of New Orleans funk— irresistibly danceable riffs, stripped down to their rhythmic essence. On "Aint" it Funky" (c. late 1960s), and "Give it Up or Turn it Lose" (1969), the tonal structure is bare bones. The pattern of attack-points is the emphasis, not the pattern of pitches. It's as if the guitar is an African drum, or idiophone. Alexander Stewart states that this popular feel was passed along from "New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the 1970s."^[38]

Guitar part for "Aint" it Funky" by James Brown.

Guitar part for "Give it Up or Turn it Lose" by James Brown (1969).

"Bring it Up" has an Afro-Cuban guajeo-like structure. If fact, on a 1976 version, Cuban bongos are used. All three of these guitar riff are based on an onbeat/offbeat structure. Stewart states: "This model, it should be noted, is different from a time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle."^[39]

Guitar part for "Bring it Up" by James Brown (1967).

Brown's recordings influenced musicians across the industry, most notably Sly and his Family Stone, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s and soul shouters like King Curtis, Edwin Starr, Temptations David Ruffin, and Dennis Edwards. A then-prepubescent Michael Jackson took Brown's shouts and dancing into the pop mainstream as the lead singer of Motown's The Jackson 5. Those same tracks were later resurrected by countless hip-hop musicians from the 1970s onward. As a result, James Brown remains to this day the world's most sampled recording artist,^[40] with "Funky Drummer" itself becoming the most sampled individual piece of music.^[41]

Brown's band during this period employed musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition. He was noted for his ability as a bandleader and songwriter to blend the simplicity and drive of R&B with the rhythmic complexity and precision of jazz. Trumpeter Lewis Hamlin and saxophonist/keyboardist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (the successor to previous bandleader Nat Jones) led the band. Guitarist Jimmy Nolen provided percussive, deceptively simple riffs for each song, and Maceo Parker's prominent saxophone solos provided a focal point for many performances. Other members of Brown's band included stalwart singer and sideman Bobby Byrd, drummers John "Jabo" Starks, Clyde Stubblefield and Melvin Parker (Maceo's brother), saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney, trombonist Fred Wesley, guitarist Alphonso "Country" Kellum and bassist Bernard Odum.

During this period, Brown's music empire also expanded along with his influence on the music scene. As Brown's music empire grew, his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. Brown bought radio stations during the late 1960s, including radio station WRDW in Augusta, Georgia where he shined shoes as a boy.^[34] Brown also branched out to make several recordings with musicians outside his own band. He recorded Gettin' Down To It (1969) and Soul on Top (1970), two albums consisting mostly of romantic ballads and jazz standards, with the Dee Felice Trio and the Louie Bellson Orchestra respectively. He recorded a number of tracks with the Dapps, a white Cincinnati bar band, including the hit "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)". He also released three albums of Christmas music with his own band.

1970s and the J.B.'s[link]

Brown after a concert in Tampa on Jan. 29, 1972

By 1970, most members of James Brown's classic 1960s band had quit his act for other opportunities, and The Famous Flames singing group had disbanded, with original member Bobby Byrd the only one remaining with Brown. Brown and Byrd employed a new band that included future funk greats, such as bassist Bootsy Collins, Collins' guitarist brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins and trombonist and musical director Fred Wesley. This new backing band was dubbed "The J.B.'s", and the band made its debut on Brown's 1970 single "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine". Although The J.B.'s went through several lineup changes, with the first change occurring in 1971, the band remained Brown's most familiar backing band.

In 1971, Brown began recording for Polydor Records which also took over distribution of Brown's King Records catalog. Many of his sidemen and supporting players, such as Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Vicki Anderson and Hank Ballard, released records on the People label, an imprint founded by Brown that was purchased by Polydor as part of Brown's new contract. The recordings on the People label, almost all of which were produced by Brown himself, exemplified his "house style". Songs such as "I Know You Got Soul" by Bobby Byrd, "Think (About It)" by Lyn Collins and "Doing It to Death" by Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s are considered as much a part of Brown's recorded legacy as the recordings released under his own name.

In 1972, James Brown, when asked, openly proclaimed his support of Richard Nixon against the Democrat, George McGovern,^[42] and a nationwide boycott called by Black Democratic leaders damaged his status as the most successful Black entrepreneur in the country. Still, his popularity buoyed up his financial fortunes after a brief downturn, and he went on with his career, undaunted.

In 1973, Brown provided the score for the blaxploitation film Black Caesar. In 1974, he toured Africa and performed in Zaire as part of the buildup to The Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Admirers of Brown's music, including Miles Davis and other jazz musicians, began to cite Brown as a major influence on their own styles. However, Brown, like others who were influenced by his music, also "borrowed" from other musicians. His 1976 single "Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)" (R&B #31) used the main riff from "Fame" by David Bowie, not the other way around as was often believed. The riff was provided to "Fame" co-writers John Lennon and Bowie by guitarist Carlos Alomar, who had briefly been a member of Brown's band in the late 1960s.^[43]

Brown's Polydor recordings during the 1970s exemplified his innovations from the previous 20 years. Compositions such as "The Payback" (1973), "Papa Don't Take No Mess", "Stoned to the Bone", and "Funky President (People It's Bad)" (1974), and "Get Up Offa That Thing" (1976) were among his most noted recordings during this time.

Late 1970s and 1980s[link]

James Brown 1973, Hamburg

By the mid-1970s, Brown's star-status was on the wane, and key musicians in his band such as Fred Wesley and Bootsy left to join Parliament-Funkadelic, the collective conducted by George Clinton. The onslaught of the slickly commercial style of disco caught Brown off guard, as it superseded his raw style of funk music on the dance floor. His 1976 albums Get Up Offa That Thing and Bodyheat were Brown's first flirtations with disco rhythms and its slicker production techniques. While the albums Mutha's Nature (1977) and Jam 1980s (1978) did not generate chart hits, Brown's 1979 LP The Original Disco Man was a notable late addition to his oeuvre. This album featured the song "It's Too Funky in Here", which was his last top R&B hit of the decade. Like the rest of the songs on The Original Disco Man, "It's Too Funky in Here" was not produced by Brown himself, but produced instead by Brad Shapiro.

Brown's contract with Polydor expired in 1981, and his recording and touring schedule was somewhat reduced. Despite these events, Brown experienced something of a resurgence during the 1980s, effectively crossing over to a broader, more mainstream audience. He appeared in the feature films The Blues Brothers, Doctor Detroit and Rocky IV, as well as guest starring in the Miami Vice episode "Missing Hours" (1988). He also recorded Gravity, a modestly popular crossover album released on his new host label Scotti Bros., and the 1986 top 10 hit single "Living in America" (written by Dan Hartman), which was featured prominently in the Rocky IV film and soundtrack. Brown performed the song in the film at Apollo Creed's final fight, shot in the Ziegfeld Room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and was credited as "The Godfather of Soul." In 1987, Brown won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Living in America." Acknowledging his influence on modern hip-hop and R&B music, Brown collaborated with hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa on the single "Unity."

In 1988, Brown worked with the production team Full Force on the hip-hop influenced album I'm Real, which spawned a #5 R&B hit single, "Static". Meanwhile, the drum break from the second version of the original 1969 hit "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose" (the recording included on the compilation album In the Jungle Groove) became so popular at hip hop dance parties (especially for breakdance) during the late 1970s and early 1980s that hip hop founding father Kurtis Blow called the song "the national anthem of hip hop".^[44]

1990s to the 2000s[link]

James Brown in Belgrade in 1993

After a stint in prison during the late 1980s, Brown released the album Love Overdue, with the new single "Move On". Brown also released the 1991 four-CD box set Star Time, which included music spanning his four-decade career at that time. Nearly all of his earlier LPs were re-released on CD, often with additional tracks and commentary by experts on Brown's music. In 1991, Brown appeared in MC Hammer's video "Too Legit to Quit" (or "2 Legit 2 Quit"), someone Hammer idolized. In 1993, James Brown released the album Universal James, which spawned the singles "Can't Get Any Harder", "How Long" and "Georgia-Lina". In 1995, the live album Live at the Apollo 1995 was released, featuring the new studio track "Respect Me", which was released as a single that same year. Brown followed up this single with the megamix "Hooked on Brown" that was released as a single in 1996. Brown's later LP releases during this time included the 1998 studio album I'm Back that featured the single "Funk on ah Roll", and the 2002 album The Next Step that featured the single "Killing is Out, School is In", both produced and co-written by Derrick Monk. Brown participated in the PBS American Masters television documentary James Brown: Soul Survivor, which was directed by Jeremy Marre.

James Brown during the NBA All Star Game jam session in 2001.