Alex Henderson

James Brown
I'm Real  [Deluxe Expanded Edition)

It is no exaggeration to say that James Brown was one of the most innovative and influential musicians of the 20^th Century. The Godfather of Soul, a.k.a. The Hardest Working Man in Show Business or Mr. Dynamite, wrote the book on funk, greatly influencing Sly & the Family Stone, Parliament/Funkadelic, Tower of Power, the Ohio Players, the Bar-Kays, Rick James, Bootsy Collins, Kool & the Gang, Mandrill, Rose Royce, Slave, the Gap Band, Earth, Wind & Fire and countless other funk masters of the 1970s. Everyone from the Rolling Stones to Run-D.M.C. and Public Enemy to jazz greats like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius was also influenced by him in some way, and even though Brown didn’t have as many hits in the 1980s as he had in the 1960s and 1970s, he made an impressive return to the top of the charts with 1985’s “Living in America” (which soared to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart in the United States and was also a #5 hit in the UK). “Living in America” and the rest of Brown’s Gravity album of 1986 were written and mostly produced by Dan Hartman (of “Instant Replay” and “I Can Dream About You” fame) and his partner Charlie Midnight, but when the time came for the Hardest Working Man in Show Business to record a follow-up album, I’m Real, he chose the Brooklyn-based Full Force—which made perfect sense in light of how popular they were at the time.

Consisting of singers Lucien George, Jr., a.k.a. Bowlegged Lou, and Paul Anthony, guitarist Curt “Curt-T-T” Bedeau, bassist Shy Shy, keyboardist Gerry “Baby Gee” Charles and drummer Brian “B-Fine” George, Full Force were important players in R&B, hip-hop and dance-pop in the 1980s. The group burned up the charts with their own recordings as well as hits they produced for Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam (“I Wonder If I Take You Home”), UTFO (“Roxanne, Roxanne”), Samantha Fox (“Naughty Girls Need Love Too”) and others, and they do a lot to shape the electro-funk direction of I’m Real (which was originally released by Scotti Bros. Records in 1988). Except for “It’s Your Money $” (which Brown wrote and produced himself) and the title track (which Brown co-wrote), Full Force wrote, produced and arranged everything on this album. And Brown’s decision to work with them paid off: the title song reached #2 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart in the United States., while “Static” made it to #5 on that chart. In 1988, Brown was determined to change with the times, and a high-tech, hip-hop-minded approach prevails on those singles as well as on “Keep Keepin’,” “Time to Get Busy,” “She Looks All Types a’ Good,” “Godfather Runnin’ the Joint” and “Can’t Git Enuf.” Brown shows his romantic side on the minor-key ballad “You and Me,” but for the most part, this is an album of hard, aggressive electro-funk.

One of the people who helped Full Force give I’m Real its strong hip-hop flavor was engineer Tony Maserati. Interviewed in January  2015, Maserati recalled: “Instead of trying to recreate ‘Living in America,’ Full Force paid homage to James Brown’s influence on hip-hop—which I thought was brilliant. It was genius.”

Maserati has worked with a long list of major R&B, hip-hop and dance-pop artists over the years, ranging from R. Kelly, Beyoncé Knowles and Lady Gaga to Sean Combs, a.k.a. Puff Daddy or P-Diddy, and the late Notorious B.I.G. But back in 1988, he wasn’t nearly as experienced as he is now—and being an engineer for a perfectionist like the Godfather of Soul was not for the faint of heart.

“Working with an artist of James Brown’s stature was stressful,” Maserati asserts. “I was only into my second or third year as a professional engineer—I was very young at the time—and Mr. Brown was one of my idols. Having Mr. Brown come in every day for weeks and spending hours and hours with us was a stressful thing. But the guys in Full Force were consummate professionals, and without them, I would have been lost.”

Maserati continues: “At the time, Full Force had been in it much longer than me. They had a track record of dealing with all the stressful things that can come up in our music business. And their calm made it easier for me to do my job. I know they weren’t their usual calm, but they were certainly calmer than I was. Full Force handled the I’m Real album with complete professionalism and let me do what I thought was best, which was pretty amazing for the age that I was at the time.”

Scott Gootman, who served as an assistant engineer on I’m Real, also has high praise for what Full Force helped Brown accomplish. Interviewed separately from Maserati in January 2015, Gootman remembered: “Full Force had their specific way of working. So when James Brown came in, it took a little while for things to get rolling and for them to kind of sync up with each other. But as Mr. Brown started getting used to the way that Full Force produced, they got some great material out of it. It was really cool to watch. I remember that Full Force just idolized James Brown. They were so excited to be working with him, and it was one of the highlights of their career. James Brown was one of a kind.”

I’m Real was recorded at Sigma Sound Studios—not the Sigma in Philadelphia, but the Sigma in New York City. Both studios were founded by the famous engineer Joe Tarsia, who opened the Sigma in Philly in 1968 before opening the sister studio in NYC in 1977. The Philly studio is legendary: Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the O’Jays, the Stylistics, the Intruders, the Three Degrees and countless other icons of Philly soul recorded there back in the day. But the NYC studio became a huge success as well, and it was Full Force’s studio of choice during the 1980s.

Gootman, who worked at Sigma in the late 1980s, notes: “Full Force had just a constant stream of projects coming through Sigma—Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Cheryl ‘Pepsii’ Riley, La Toya Jackson, Patti LaBelle, Samantha Fox and of course, James Brown. And Full Force had a real system when they worked. Each one of them kind of had a specialty. B-Fine did the drum programming. Gerry did all the keyboard programming. Full Force just had a real cool way of working.” 

When it first came out 27 years ago, I’m Real was available as an 11-track CD or an 11-track LP. But FunkytownGrooves’ deluxe 2015 edition of I’m Real expands the album to a two-CD, 21-track set by adding an abundance of bonus material that includes, among other things, single versions and special Full Force remixes of “Static,” “Time to Get Busy” and the title song.

Back in 1988, Brown was easily the most sampled artist in hip-hop. So many of his classic hits of the 1960s and 1970s, from “Papa Don’t Take No Mess” to “Cold Sweat” to “The Payback” to “I Feel Good,” had been sampled by numerous rappers—especially on the East Coast. And he was often sampled without his permission, which was a violation of American intellectual property laws.

During a February 2015 interview, Bowlegged Lou remembered all the conversations he had with the Godfather about the sampling of his work. “I’m Real came out at a time when everybody was sampling James Brown’s music and his voice without his permission,” Lou recalls. “Lots of hip-hop artists were using his voice, beats and music from all his classics and putting them on their own recordings without his permission. But soon after, Mr. Brown’s attorneys and lawyers put a stop to that and reminded everybody just who the boss was. Finally, James Brown was getting paid from everyone who sampled him. It wasn’t until the Godfather of Soul got together with the original hip-hop vocal band known as Full Force that the sampling of his music by others became even more acknowledged.”

Lou adds that Brown was fine with being sampled as long as rappers asked permission, made royalty payments and understood just how influential he was—and he made his feelings known on I’m Real’s hit title song. Lou observes: “The single ‘I’m Real’ opens up with the Godfather Of Soul shouting, ‘All you copycats out there, get off of my tip. ‘Cause I’m James Brown with the Force, and I’m not taking no lip.’ Another lyric in the song went like this: ‘All you people that think you got pull, you better take my voice off of your records ‘till I’m paid in full.’ Though Mr. Brown recorded one song with Afrika Bambaataa in 1984 entitled ‘Unity,’ it never spoke about the unlawful sampling of Mr. Brown’s music—and maybe that’s because it wasn’t as prevalent as it was when Full Force linked up with him in 1988.” 

Lou has many fond memories of working with Brown on I’m Real. One time, the Godfather wanted Full Force’s members to listen to his 1968 classic “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” in order to show them how greatly he had influenced hip-hop. Of course, Lou and his colleagues were quite familiar with the song and were well aware of how influential Brown was. But it was still a pleasure to get a history lesson from the Godfather of Soul himself.

Lou remembers, “Mr. Brown once made Full Force listen to one of his biggest hits—the influential, bold, courageous and groundbreaking #1 R&B song entitled ‘Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud’—in the studio. As Full Force were listening to it, Mr. Brown said, ‘Ya’ll listening? You hear me rapping in that song? All the lyrics I’m saying are being rapped by who? By me, that’s who. I’m the original rapper.”

Lou notes that when I’m Real was being recorded, one of the people who stopped by Sigma was the Rev. Al Sharpton—who Brown was in close contact with during the various legal troubles he had in the late 1980s. “Rev. Sharpton came to studio in the middle of a session,” Lou explains, “and Mr. Brown shut everything down just to talk to the reverend for about an hour. When Rev. Sharpton asked him how he was doing, Mr. Brown replied, ‘Rev, I’m wearing red shades, but I’m seeing blue.’”

The fact that the Godfather of Soul was willing to let the members of Full Force produce I’m Real and handle most of the songwriting underscores the high opinion that he had of them—it wasn’t every day that Brown (who wrote and produced many of his albums himself) let outside producer/songwriters have that much input. “Mr. Brown kept telling Full Force how much he loved and respected them, and he always told them that he loved them like musical sons,” Lou recalls, adding that when “Static” was burning up the charts, he received high praise from major stars both inside and outside of hip-hop.

“When ‘Static’ was heard,” Lou observes, “Full Force got complimentary calls and acknowledgements from Chuck D, Teddy Riley, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Heavy D, Kool G. Rap, Little Richard, Big Daddy Kane, Nelson George, Russell Simmons, Eddie Murphy and L.L. Cool J. Even white actors Brad Pitt and Rob Lowe stopped Full Force in a Hollywood comedy club, giving them props for their work on the I’m Real album.”

The Godfather of Soul was 73 when he died from congestive heart failure on December 25, 2006. After his death, a wide variety of musicians—from R&B, hip-hop, rock, jazz and the blues to reggae—spoke about how influential his music was. And Lou recalls that Questlove, drummer for the Philadelphia-based alternative rap band the Roots, had much to say about the Godfather’s impact on hip-hop and acknowledged the icon’s work with Full Force.

“When Mr. Brown passed away,” Lou remembers, “Questlove told Full Force how much he loved their work on the I’m Real album. Quest’s favorite I’m Real cuts were ‘She Looks All Types a’ Good’ and ‘Static.’

Questlove gave Full Force some respected props and thanked them for what they had done in the hip-hop community.” 

Long after his death, Brown’s work has not become any less influential. And that influence will no doubt continue for many years to come.

“There are other things I can barely remember, but I remember working on I’m Real like it was yesterday,” Maserati emphasizes. “Working with Mr. Brown was a life-changing event for me. James Brown was a classic—I knew that, and Full Force knew that. He was the Godfather of Soul.”

—Alex Henderson, February 2015

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.