ATLANTA (Reuters) - Singer James Brown, the self-proclaimed “Godfather of Soul,” who billed himself as the hardest working man in show business, died on Monday at age 73, his manager said.
Brown died at 1:45 a.m. (0645 GMT) at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta after being admitted there on Saturday for treatment of severe pneumonia, his manager, Frank Copsidas, said. Charles Bobbit, Brown’s longtime friend and personal manager, was at his side, he said.
The singer, also known as “Mr. Dynamite,” is credited with bringing the word “funk” into mainstream musical vernacular and influencing a new generation of black music.
Rap and hip hop artists revered him for the grooves he was able to produce as a band leader and used his beats extensively as the backdrop to their own songs.
I was pointing out the passing of a performance legend. Yes, he was a wife beating, cop assaulting cock bag in his personal life. Let’s try to remember the good things about him?
