Jamjellie

@jamjellie1689649665 · 13 May 2020

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The life of James Brown

#weetjenog Brown was said to have been born in Barnwell (South Carolina) in 1933, but some sources mention 1928 as his year of birth and Pulaski (Tennessee) as his birthplace. Because his parents couldn't take care of him, he grew up in his aunt's brothel in the 1930s in Augusta, Georgia. At the age of 16, he was convicted of armed robbery. After three years in prison, Bobby Byrd's intercession was released on condition that he would no longer show himself in Augusta and that he would seek a job. After a short sports career in boxing and baseball, he sought his salvation in music.

He was married four times, sequentially to Deidre Jenkins, Velma Warren (1954 - 1969) and Adrienne Rodriguez. This last marriage was held for 12 years, until his wife died in 1996. In that year, James Brown married Tomi Rae Hynie one last time.

Throughout his career, he has influenced many musicians. In the 1960s he was imitated by other artists. In the mid-70s several musicians left his band and went on the funk direction, like George Clinton. In the late 70s to the late 80s, Brown was a source of inspiration for rap, breakdance and hip-hop, while DJs like Grandmaster Flash frequently used samples of Brown's work. In the 1980s, he was the most sampled artist in the world.

Brown is often called The Godfather of Soul, Soul Brother Number One and Mr. Dynamite. In 1983, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, in 1986 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2006 at the UK Music Hall of Fame.

In addition to his musical career, Brown also worked on a business career, building an empire of radio stations, hotels, clubs and restaurants. When his success declined, he was forced to sell almost his entire business empire.

In the late 1980s, Brown again had to spend several years in prison, after threatening people with a gun and avoiding his arrest. After his release in 1991, he toured the world as a living legend.

Brown diagnosed prostate cancer in December 2004. He died at the age of 73 on Christmas Day 2006 at 07:45 CET, after being hospitalized one day earlier with pneumonia. Cause of death was congestive heart failure caused by the pneumonia. Hundreds of thousands of people said goodbye in New York, the remains of the singer drove aboard a horse-drawn carriage through, among others, the black district of Harlem. After that, James Brown was listed in the legendary Apollo Theatre. The coffin remained open for seven hours on the stage of the concert hall, allowing fans, family and colleagues to give him the final greeting. Several stars such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Isaac Hayes and Smokey Robinson. The funeral took place in the James Brown Arena in Augusta.

In March 2007, it was announced that James Brown's body was moved to a crypt near the home of one of his daughters in Columbia, South Carolina.

Due to an internal family struggle, the remains were subsequently moved several times and, according to widow Tomi Rae Hynie, his legs were amputated for DNA tests.

However, it was announced on 13 February 2020 that an investigation has been initiated into Brown's cause of death, because Brown's former spokesman Jacque Hollander claims to be able to prove that he was murdered at the time.