Got the news Christmas eve from Davey D on the Westside of the country; we'd just left there. Thus at 3AM in the East, it's too early and too late to call anybody like my man KYLE JASON who, together with me, did our damnedest to catch his tour three years back. I had heard things like Mr. Brown was pushing it real hard, defying gravity and time itself. I myself saw a seventy year old man wear an Atlanta stage out, as well as the crowd. It was good to see some black folks in the audience for a change, checking out our classic creator of funky soul himself. Now this news. It makes one really understand that time is God itself. Thus we shall praise God and cherish the time. James Brown is somewhat woven into my professional and entertainment regimen. In my travels on the tour bus from Sacramento to Spokane, I'd just picked up yet another JB CD; this one from Universal Millennium MASTERS 'JAMES BROWN and FRIENDS' for my drive time groove pleasure, in the hotel the BLUES BROTHERS were on AMC where JB did that scorching preacher scene in the church backed by the JAMES CLEVELAND CHOIR. While everybody seemed to relish in the now of comedian KATT WILLIAMS on the long bus ride, I locked my DVD player and headphones to Mr. Brown's classic SOULTRAIN and PARIS performances. When talking music, JB was/is just part of the day, thank God for recordings. As a 70's B-boy I recall panic on the floors of hip hop while GIVE IT UP TURN IT LOOSE roasted off the 1969 SEX MACHINE LIVE LP transfixing the forming rap nation ten years later, as if it were a discovered oil well. While the rest of the disco and rock country had not a clue.

As barely a social hum registered at the recent passings of ATLANTIC RECORDS founder AHMET ERTEGAN and ATLANTIC RECORDS star R&B artist RUTH BROWN, I as a music student felt those losses. Good peer and buddy GERALD LEVERTS passing was a shock and largely just black folk's pain at the loss, like a family member ... nationally only a few sentences because an Anglo-nation couldn't possibly understand. Now MR. JAMES BROWN is entirely another magnitude, a seismic passing - the level of a KING, the Cincinnati record label he recorded on or a very funky president, the title of his 1975 political hit. Recently I covered some ground being interviewed for a movie documentary his latest wife TAMI RAYE was producing. I myself felt extremely honored to have been asked to be interviewed for that and his prior SOUL SURVIVOR special and DVD. I promised myself to reach and do all I can when the legends callout. I missed out on MR. RAY CHARLES, wanting to catch any show during 2002, then I heard he got sick. The founders of rock and roll are still doing gigs - LITTLE RICHARD, CHUCK BERRY, BO DIDDLEY, and we almost lost FATS DOMINO to Katrina. JERRY LEE LEWIS just released a new album, and IKE and TINA TURNER continue to defy time. Still MR. JB is it for me. I have yet to meet MR. MUHAMMAD ALI, and only met RICHARD PRYOR one brief two minute period at the 2000 BET AWARDS in LAS VEGAS. I met MR. JAMES BROWN. Backstage in the concocted green room looking at the screens - just me and another gentleman were checking it out. I was behind this man dressed in a bluish suit, but I could tell it was James Brown. Reading everything about the man beforehand I knew to address him as MR. BROWN. I tapped him on the shoulder and said "Hello, er, MR. BROWN" and introduced myself. He asked my name again and when I answered it must've registered, because he let out a "Whoa", and smiled with a hug. I didn't have a damn camera and asked him to hold on. When I came back a minute later he was gone, on stage doing his thing with singer GINUWINE. Off stage he left through another way.... and that was the one time for me. Man, no lie, whenever I see a frozen pond, I take myself to 1967 when us kids did the James Brown I Feel Good dance on any patch of ice. Global warming has somehow produced fewer patches of ice, just as soul loses a bit of itself every ten years. The sheer magnitude of SAY IT LOUD I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD was an implanted, soundtracked theme into understanding that our minds, bodies, and souls were black and beautiful. ALI, PRYOR and JB were our snap, crackle and pop from the transcendent, previously silenced black male in 60's-70's Amerikkka. It ain't never left me. Never will. This is why spreading the word is our jobs as modern day griots. I've had phone conversations with HUEY NEWTON before he passed, KWAME TURE respected my works of words, and Minister Farrakhan and the Nation Of Islam have introduced PE to parts of the darker earth where few like us had gone before. Yes time is God indeed, and all of our words and deeds are in passing, but the passing down and forward is so important. My children know MR. JAMES BROWN's music, as well as LEVI STUBBS of the FOUR TOPS and REVEREND AL GREEN (whereas it was a trip at the SCREAM TOUR 5 in Madison Square Garden NYC hearing 16,000, mostly young black girl, teenagers finishing off singing LETS STAY TOGETHER during YOUNG JOCs DJ set as if it was a clear channel hit).

In the fifty years of MR. BROWN's recorded music, since his 1956 hit PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE; we PUBLIC ENEMY head into our 20th year of existence with full dedicated honor to the fabric MR. James Brown provided for hip hop's co-founders AFRIKA BAMBAATAA, KOOL DJ HERC, and GRANDMASTER FLASH to weave. Expect the utmost respect for the architect. Again I expect the executive asses of the record industry ashes to say little, and do less. The radio stations are eerie in their silence , proving there ain't no such thing as black radio, just robot fuel from white corporations who continue to argue that race ain't an issue. And in the end there will be folks who will dedicate and play 50 years of soul, that realize that black is important to say it loud and proud because amerikka continues to discredit it and strip it away But this should make us realize how lucky many of us are to have witnessed, experienced, and infused the work and pride ethics of the godfather of soul into our daily lives. For that alone we are all better for it. Probably the hardest working man in heaven right now ...but may his funky soul R.I.P ... Mr. Dynamite ......JAAAAMES BROWWWWN

mistachuck@rapstation.com