Funk - perhaps the most ethnically cool thing eva at Schema : more than ethnic

Funk - perhaps the most ethnically cool thing eva

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"A colored is a very frightened-to-death Afro-American. A Negro is one that makes it in the system, and he wants to be white. A nigger, he's loud and boisterous, wants to be seen. Nobody likes a nigger. A black man has pride. He wants to build, he wants to make his race mean something. Wants to have a culture and art forms. And he's not prejudiced. I am a black American man. Now you go ahead and print it." - James Brown, 1982

We take it for granted that the funk and soul of the black American is the foundation of pop music as we know it. To me, FUNK is perhaps the most ethnically cool thing known to modern society. And funk is synonymous with one man, JAMES BROWN. Eddie Murphy's Jimmy Thunder character in Dreamgirls is based on JB (just like Eddie played JB in the hot tub on SNL back in the day) but the movie of course focuses on the Diana Ross and Mototwn founder Berry Gordy inspired characters that Beyonce and Jamie Foxx play. Foxx's Ray was another look at the journey that black music took to make it to the white mainstream pop-land but there's a bit of nostalgia involved in those 2 stories where James Brown's legacy is just as strong today as it ever was. As legendary music journalist, Robert Christgau attests that "funk beats are the language of American popular music..."

Check out the solid cover story tribute by Rolling Stone to the Godfather and what he means to music and culture.

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag video
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag/I Feel Good live medley performance
Rocky IV: Living in America (and the look on Drago's face!)
Say it Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud) - Playboy after Dark show
Out of Sight - the T.A.M.I. show

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