Picture of James Brown

At some point, you have to ask why? Why does hip-hop love the Godfather so much? Type ‘James Brown’ into a sample-source website and you’re going to get back pages and pages of hits. So many that you’ll initially think you made a mistake. But no, it isn’t a mistake. James Brown samples are just that prevalent. James is listed as The-Breaks.com’s #1 most-sampled artist ever. And his total sample count (903) is more than triple that of the nearest contender. It’s said that J.B. makes millions per year on sample-related royalties alone. Hell, James’ publishing lawyer has his own website. How’s that for popular? And, we haven’t even mentioned the hundreds and hundreds of samples of songs by James Brown satellite acts like Lyn Collins’ “Think” (Overall Rank – #4), Bobby Byrd’s version of “Hot Pants” (Overall Rank – #16) and all of the rest of the output by the J.B.’s. So why? Why did James Brown’s music have such a pull on hip-hop DJs and producers?