How James Brown Invented Funk

Season 1 Episode 1 | 8m 2s | Video has closed captioning.

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, created the DNA for funk. Musicians LA Buckner and Nahre Sol explore how he created funk music, as well as how Brown's music influenced hip hop. They break down the sound of the genre, and create their own funky original song in the process.

Aired: 01/16/19

Expired: 02/01/24

Rating: NR

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- Hey LA, are you there?

- Hey Nahre, I'm here.

What's up?

- Hey, I wanted to ask you a question.

First, listen to this.

(upbeat funky music) Sounds like a James Brown song, doesn't it?

- Yeah.

- But it's not.

What is it about this that we're both hearing that makes us think of James Brown?

What's going on, musically, that makes James Brown sound like James Brown?

("Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" plays) - Screams, spins, and splits all make for a great show, but what was the minister of the new new super heavy funk doing?

To answer that question, we have to go back to 1964, when funk was born.

- So, a lot of people say that funk started with Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, in 1965.

Others say it started in 1967, with Cold Sweat, but James Brown says, in his autobiography that his sound really started to change in 1964, with his album, Out of Sight.

♪ upbeat funky music ♪ "Out of sight was another beginning, musically "and professionally.

You can hear the band and me "start to move in a whole other direction rhythmically... "The horns, the guitar, the vocals, everything "was starting to be used to establish all kinds "of rhythms at once...

I was trying to get "every aspect of the production to contribute "to the rhythmic patterns."

♪ Know you're out of sight ♪ (upbeat horn music) - Brown got away from melodies.

His music was very rhythmically focused, even the timbre, his delivery style was percussive.

And I think that's what makes funk such a grooving, such a popular sound, because even the musicians, they're not really always singing.

It's more group chanting, but it's not driven by a series of chords.

It's driven by rhythmic interactions.

- And not only was he using every instrument to add to the songs rhythmic pattern, but he was creating a whole new pattern.

So most music of that era gave heavy emphasis to the back beat, on the two and the four of the measure.

It sounded like this, One, two, three, four (gradual drum progression) What James Brown did was he put the emphasis on the one, on the downbeat of the measure.

And that sounds like, one, two, three, four, one, two (faster drum progression) ♪ One, two, three, make it funky ♪ - Emphasizing the one created space in the groove, so that the band could add syncopation to the other beats.

Syncopation is just placing rhythms or accents in places where we don't expect it.

So, if these are the strong beats (snapping fingers) One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four... Syncopation is just putting accents in between the strong beats.

So it will sound like one and two, and three, and four, and ... (beatboxing) (upbeat horn music) ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ - So here's some of the observations that I picked up while listening to James Brown songs.

The first thing is that his voice is very unique.

The quality of how he sings is almost shouting and singing, it's somewhere in between.

His melodies and phrases are more like stabs, rather than long, lyrical melodies.

- This is James Brown, and we're doing sound for you, y'all.

Make it funky!

Haha!

I do what I can to mimic him, and to give it a little heavier rasp, you know?

So, I'll growl a little bit, you know what I'm saying?

I just wanna do my thing!

You know!

Moving, cruising like a love machine.

Is that all right?

Yes sir!

(laughs) James would take very simplistic approaches.

He would take a lyric, and give it rhythm.

And then he would wrap it with his soul, and dip it in funk.

Haha!

That was preaching, you know?

When they would preach they would "Ha!"

It's called "hoofing".

- It's all from the black church.

His influence is more the preacher than the singers, per se.

His phrasing and "move move" at the end, and the preachers are performing in a style that generates responses from the congregation.

James Brown does the very same thing on stage.

He is catering to the needs of his audience, and they understood and they identified with his performance.

And that's why he remained so popular.

At the same time, it was also the reason why he did not cripe, really, the pop charts.

It was too much, it was just too black.

(laughs) - Do you remember the song that I played for LA?

The one that sounded like James Brown?

♪ funky music ♪ Well, it's pretty close.

It's actually Bobby Byrd, James Brown's songwriting partner, sidekick, and hype man.

Listen to James Brown calling out for Byrd on his hit song Sex Machine.

♪ "Sex Machine" by James Brown ♪ At the hook of the song, that's actually, Bobby Byrd calling for us to get on up.

♪ Get up, get on up, get up, get on up ♪ ♪ Stay on the scene, get on up ♪ ♪ Like a sex machine, get on up ♪ - The use of this gospel-inspired call and response and vocal punctuations have inspired generations of hip hop artists.

You can even hear Brown's influence in today's ad libs.

♪ In the kitchen, wrist twistin', like a stir fry ♪ ♪ Whip it ♪ ♪ In the kitchen, wrist twistin', like a stir fry ♪ ♪ Whip it ♪ - LA and I are going to write a song influenced by James Brown.

Given the fact that I'm not that well-versed in funk, I'm not sure what we'll come up with.

But, we'll give it a try.

- Okay, so Nahre, I've had this beat in my head for a long time and if James Brown was still here with us today, this is what I would give to him.

You ready?

- Yeah.

- Okay, here we go, One, two, three.

(energetic drumming) - Nice!

- Cool cool.

Do you think you can add something, with some James Brown flavor to it?

- Something that has, maybe with a Blues scale.

(jazzy piano music) Okay, let's try this.

- I like that.