Get Down, The Influence Of James Brown – Episode II: Funky President

On September 14th, 2020 James Brown’s official YouTube Channel unveiled a Funky President, episode two of the new three-part series, following the first episode, Funky Drummer, released on July 10th. Narrated by Questlove and featuring Lord Finesse and Co-founder of Wax Poetics Magazine, Andre Torres, the three-part series was created by UMe along with Dreambear and explores the sonic DNA of James Brown whose music is continually sampled and whose trademark vocal phrasing is deeply woven into the fabric of Hip-Hop.

This second episode explores the fascinating and unpredictable politics of James Brown while following the influence of his second most sampled track of all time, Funky President (People It’s Bad). Touching on the civil rights movement and Brown’s seminal Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud, Funky President shows how James Brown, as well as his musical peers and successors, has been able to encourage social change and raise political concern from a black American perspective.