All language subtitles for James.Brown.Say.It.Loud.S01E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH[EZTVx.to]

-Abandoned at birth, prison,
dropping out of school.

There's a level of genius
there that is amazing.

-He always used to say
"I was born dead,

so I had to make
a life for myself."

-"Live at the Apollo" is one
of the most important albums

in the history
of recorded music.

-They saw all that money.

They said, if you don't pay us
tonight, we're going to walk.

-He was a risk taker.

He gave you sex and protest
at the same time.

-Say it loud --
I'm black and I'm proud.

-That's one of the most
bravest things

that James Brown has ever done.

It's the original
Black Lives Matter.

-The Black Panthers
pressured James Brown.

If you soul brother number one,
then you need to do something

standing for
what we're talking about.

-Mr. Brown's endorsement
of Richard Nixon,

it was a misstep.

-He said, well, you know what?

Saying these kind of things,
you'd be called a Tom.

♪

The way I look back, I say, God.
How did I get this far?

But I say thank God,
and I also thank the people.

♪

-James Brown is very invested
in black self-determination.

That, for him, was his ethic.

It was his way of being
in the world.

-♪ Too funky in here

♪ Yeah, uh-huh

-You have to judge
where somebody's at by

where they came from
and the difficulties

that they had to endure
to get there.

-♪ Too, funky, funky, yeah
-♪ Say it again

-We give it to James Brown
for laying the concrete,

and then everybody else did
their thing on it afterwards.

-♪ My name is Brown

[ Vocalizing ]

♪ Let's go

-Brown was doing
a show in Las Vegas,

and Sylvester Stallone
was at the front desk.

And he said to Brown,
"You got to be in my movie."

-♪ Disco soul,
the hippest thing ♪

-He dabbled off
into other things

because we all tried things,

but it was doing that that
caused him a lot of problems.

-♪ Somebody's gonna get
a knockdown ♪

-The violence, the abuse
that he caused my mom,

I remember it so vividly.

♪

-He never got over feeling

like anyone really cared
and loved him.

He never got over
the abandonment.

-There's a lot of missteps
in his life,

and there's a lot of genius
in his life.

For historical purposes,
everything can be a lesson,

flaws, warts and all.

-♪ Funky, huh

[ Screams ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Soul music is the truth.
He's telling it like it is.

It's life in the raw.

[ Cheers and applause ]

The black community is --
right now,

is the biggest consumer --

consumer market
for entertainment.

50% of the album product
in the world is black product.

72% of the single soul
are Black singles.

Now, why should
the black community perish

when they're supporting
everything?

♪

-James Brown was always
about black capitalism.

You know, you can march
and protest all you want to,

but we need some money.

-James Brown, he doesn't
get credit for his brilliance.

It's the person, the brain,

the mind that generated
the music,

not the other way around.

So he wasn't just a singer
and a dancer.

He was a thinker,
a philosopher, a builder.

James Brown became the model

of how you could be successful
and authentic.

-I want you to know that,
only in this country,

the shoeshine boy.
can start

from where I started from
and be where I am today.

♪ Here's a dime, boy

♪ Gimme a shine, boy

[ Screams ]

♪ Down and out
in New York City ♪

♪

-During the Nixon era,

you have Mr. Brown
promoting self-determination

and thinking about, well,
how can we advance black people?

Post that, you have him
doing these soundtracks

for blaxploitation.
Well, what is blaxploitation?

It is the anti-hero
gaining prominence,

the people who we don't think
about --

the hustlers, the pimps,

all of these characters
that he's familiar with,

by the way, from his childhood.

-Let's talk about this one,
"The Black Caesar."

-Well, this is the one
I had the pleasure of doing

with brother Fred Williams,

and it was just
a fantastic thing.

It showed that you could
take street music,

people music and make it
what's happening?

-Those soundtracks were
very important

that he was
a part of them.

There were not a lot of
opportunities for black actors

and black directors,

and blaxploitation films
were a medium.

-And you finally get to also

have some of the dopest artists
of the time --

you know, Curtis Mayfield
with "Superfly,"

Isaac Hayes
with "Shaft."

You had James Brown
doing "Black Caesar."

So it's just an extension
of the black liberation movement

and black freedom struggle
that he was already fighting

definitely in the mid
to late '60s,

but bleeding over into the '70s.

♪

-"The Payback" was actually
supposed to be

the third soundtrack.

-When the song starts,
the first voice that you hear

is my voice hitting
that high pitch, that high note.

♪

-"Payback" started out to be
the soundtrack

for what was going to be called
"Hell Up in Harlem."

-It was turned down
from a movie

because I said
it wasn't soulful enough.

That made me angry,
and I put the song out.

♪

-♪ Amen

-"The Payback" --
He hit the mother lode on that.

Both the record
and the single itself,

"Payback,"
number ones.

James Brown, most of
his singles were R&B-oriented,

so that's where he had
the most presence chart-wise

in the Billboard arena.

So the chart we call now,

it was R&B songs
back in the day.

It's called Hot R&B
Hip-Hop songs.

He had more than 100 hits
on that chart alone,

and 17 of those
were number ones.

-The idea that an artist

could consistently
reinvent his music

to the point of being
considered cutting edge

for as long
as James Brown did,

arguably from the "Apollo"
album in 1962

up through "The Big Payback"
in '73,

that's unheard of.

-And one thing
about James Brown,

it's like Coca Cola.

They spell it and say it
the same way in every language.

♪ Hit it

♪

-James Brown's marketing
and branding was so on point,

and People Records was cool
because People Records had

the the purple label
People Records,

and then they had
the red label People Records.

-The fact that when you bought
a James Brown record,

it had his picture on it,
it was a James Brown production.

-♪ Look at him, ha

-If you think
about that blueprint,

that blueprint was the one
where there was a bunch of acts,

but they were all kind
of the same group.

Prince very much
did that same thing,

where it was a collective
of groups

that were all kind of together.

-♪ We're gonna have
a funky good time ♪

-♪ Take 'em up
-♪ We gotta take 'em higher

♪

♪ Should we take 'em?
Should we take 'em? ♪

♪ Hey
-♪ Hey

-James Brown always said
he was, like, 75% business

and 25% entertainment.

You know, he had a reputation
at one point

for his business acumen,
which became very questionable

with the failure of his radio
stations and the restaurant,

some of the other things
that he lent his name to.

But if you look at
how he built his career

in the music business,

he had a very sharp
business acumen,

inspiring audiences to go home
after a James Brown show

and tell everybody,
"My God,

you got to see this
the next time he comes to town."

-James Brown was invited
to do the festival in Zaire,

which I kind of nicknamed
Woodstock in Africa.

-First of all, we want
to thank all the newsmen

for so graciously
coming out at this hour

to see the people --
the champion depart for Africa.

Going to meet George Foreman,

and his quest to regain
his crown

as the heavyweight champion
of the world.

What I want to do is to add
a little bit more to this --

the complimentary proposal
we're going to have down there

with a festival
that will complement

the greatest sporting event
in the history of the world.

Some of the most dynamic
performers from Afro-America

will be appearing down there.

It will be James Brown,
who is Soul Brother #1,

one of our top
leading black artists.

-Is he coming?
-Yes, James Brown

will be there performing.

-Not only black liberation
was happening here in America,

but internationally,
you had these countries

that were getting liberation
for the first time.

-I always wanted to go
to Africa.

Because I want to know where my
soul comes from, the heritage.

I want to know
where it really started.

They say I have
so much in common,

my music even got the drum,

uh, syncopation,
the movements and the sound.

-James Brown liked to have
his own people doing his thing,

so of course, I had to go.

He insisted that he have
his own engineer

to record his segment
of the show.

Prior to getting on the plane,

they had a reception
press conference

at the Holiday Inn
at Kennedy Airport.

So we all went there.

-It's obvious answer,
but I mean, you, of all people,

most respected
American in Africa,

going to Africa.
-No, I --

You're respected,
but, you know -- come on now,

you know where that's at,
you know.

-We got on this chartered flight
to go to Africa,

the Pointer Sisters,

the Isley Brothers,
Bill Withers, B.B. King.

Talk about a plane packed
full of interesting people.

-Some beautiful ladies, too.

♪

-♪ Here I come

♪ Baby, here I come

-This is
the Rumble in the Jungle,

biggest fight in the world.

-They had postponed the fight

because Foreman got cut
during training,

but they did the music festival.

-There were about
100,000 people in the stadium.

And when James Brown
hit that stage,

the stadium erupted.

-[ Whistles ] First of all,
let's just talk about Zaire.

Like, his live performance
in Zaire

when he entered the stage
and like, yo, that...

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪ Get down, my girlfriend

And then he starts
doing the splits.

-♪ Uh

♪ Payback is a thing
you got to see ♪

♪

♪ Yeah

♪ You'll never do any damn thing
to me ♪

-It was the best thing ever.
The outfit, bananas.

Must -- Yo -- [ Laughs ]

Yo, he killed that joint.

That's one of my favorite
performances, period.

-♪ I can't stand it

♪ Ooh, can't stand your love

-People began to go
back and forth

in this awakening of Africa
being your home,

and it excited everybody
and excited the times.

He took black American culture
all over the planet.

You know,
he reintroduced it to Africa.

-He had those guys over there,
you know,

trying to get as black
as James Brown.

He made Africans
want to be blacker.

Like, think about that.

-♪ When I say hit it,
hit it ♪

♪ When I say quit it,
quit it ♪

♪ Hit it now

♪

[ Screams ]

-If I speak for Africa itself,
I think Africa is doing

what we should
have been doing long ago.

They're coming into themselves,
and they want to be independent.

Because unless you can
control your own destiny,

then you really don't have a
chance to live very comfortable.

-I ain't got much to say.

The only thing I got to say
is it's been a long time coming.

Now here's the payback.

And remember,
as long as you live.

Papa don't take no mess.

-I know he thinks I'm in.
-Somebody say, "Hey.

There goes J.B."

As long as I've been around
and as clean as I am,

if you don't know me by now,
you never will.

-You just don't know.
-We have to document our heroes.

We have to chronicle
their journeys, you know,

good, bad, or indifferent,

regardless of what happened
throughout their life.

Because whatever happened to
them, they put into their art.

♪

-Can I get down on Papa?

[ Crowd shouting ]

♪ Papa didn't cuss

♪ He didn't raise
a whole lot of fuss ♪

♪ But when we did it wrong,
say it ♪

-♪ Papa beat the hell
out of us ♪

-And that's just like
we said it.

-He wrote the song
"Papa Don't Take No mess."

I lived it.

Now, I went to college,
but my best life's lessons

Was when I was on the road
with my father.

And I could hear him,

how he talked
to different people

and how he wanted his business
taken care of.

I learned a lot

while I was putting
those rollers in his hair.

-Well, Mom was a homemaker.
She wasn't in the business.

And she was happy raising
her two daughters

And being Mrs. James Brown,
period.

I had my own pony.
[ Laughs ]

The pony's name was Sugar.

I was born
in Augusta, Georgia,

but dad was in Japan
when I was born

and he enjoyed
the name Mount Fujiyama.

He changed the spelling
a little bit,

put two "M"s instead of one.

Yamma, the name, came from Dad,

directly
from the Godfather himself.

He was so serious
most of the time.

Like, he would always
get on me about my hair

when I was a kid.

And just like, "What are you
doing with your hair?

You look a mess right now."
[ Laughs ]

It's just like, really?
You gonna call me out

in front of everybody?

-We lived in a part of Augusta
that was old money,

up on the hill.

Black people
couldn't live there.

We were the first
African American family.

-They moved into a house
up on Walton Way.

I don't think people
were put out at all.

There might have been some
conversation

at the "country club"
or somewhere,

but I don't recall hearing
any conversation about,

you know, "This is terrible.
This is horrible.

He's got to go."

♪

-During Christmas, people
would come from everywhere,

black and white,
to see the decorations.

Couldn't go outside
and socialize with the people,

but I was peeping
out the window.

A few years back,
a Caucasian woman told me,

she says, "I remember coming to
y'all's house during Christmas,"

and that was the first time
she ever saw Black Santa Claus.

Dad introduced a black
Santa Claus in the Deep South.

-♪ Santa Claus goes straight
to the ghetto ♪

-My mom was gorgeous.
They really were truly in love.

I loved seeing them like that

because it wasn't
always like that.

-His father beat his mom,
and he used to get beat, too,

really bad.

And when you see that,

and you think that
that's what love looks like

or that's the only love
that you know,

then that's how
you're going to express it.

-You spend your whole life,
you know, doing something,

and you still wind up paying
dues, from the day you're born

to the day you die and --
-What are you talking about?

-You know, and you get
on your knees every night

and you pray and you do
all those different things,

and you go and worship
at your church

or your temple
or what have you,

and you still wind up
doing the same thing.

-James Brown was never taught
how to be a son, a father,

or a husband.

He didn't have
those examples to fall back on.

-I would explain to James,
you got to cool it.

You know, you got to stop
with this domestic stuff.

But he would tell me, "Jack,

you're looking out
for my welfare,

but stay out of
my domestic affairs."

And I did.

-I grew up, of course,
seeing the love,

but also seeing the hurt that he
caused my mom by abusing her.

-Masculinity in America, period,
has been made a toxic thing.

Our efforts to imitate
what we think manhood is,

based on the definitions
that we've been given,

has always been a detriment
to our families

and the women
in our community, particularly.

-I came from nothing
out of a life of fighting

and a life
of trying to survive.

-If you're in a survival state,

who do you take
your angst out on?

The people closest to you.

-I remember being like 5 or 6
and just thinking,

"I can't take it anymore."

Like, and you hear about this
where, you know, people's kids

stand up to their parents abuser
before the parent will.

Oh, I remember it clear as day,

the last time
I ever saw him abuse my mom.

Um, [laughs] my mom had on
a blue and white robe,

and he literally was screaming
and hollering at her

and hitting her,
and she was crying.

And I just remember
going over there

and trying to pull him
off of her.

And the look that he gave me
was like, who is this person?

But it didn't even matter to me

because at that moment
I was like,

I'm just trying
to protect my mother.

But it was enough for him
to look at me and, like,

Kind of, "What am I doing?"

-♪ Oh, I wish that I could
take back ♪

♪ All the things
I've done to hurt you ♪

♪ I didn't mean to be so cruel

♪

♪ And yet,
I know I've been selfish ♪

♪ At a time, a jealous fool

-Mom and Dad were married
for ten years.

They separated
because of domestic violence.

My mother had that experience
with my father,

and she left
because of those reasons.

-Once I got married
and thought about what marriage

meant and your responsibilities,

and then I just thought
of him different.

You know, it just always wasn't
the best feeling of thinking

about your dad,
like, on one aspect,

you knew he was this
amazing genius and great talent

you knew he was this
amazing genius and great talent

and had so much
and gave so much to the world.

But then on the other hand,
he was this broken individual

that saw something growing up,
saw his mom get abused.

I mean, now it's easier
to process.

But the five,
six year old Yamma?

Uh-uh, no.
He was public enemy number one.

-We had had a good run in
in '74-'75.

We had a great run.
He was on top.

We had million sellers.

We had number one records
left and right.

'76, disco hit.

♪

♪ It takes a lot
to make a lot ♪

-♪ Oh, yeah
-♪ You can't get it free

-♪ No
-It's such an interesting time,

especially in New York.

There's everything happening.

You've got punk happening,

disco happening,
all getting mixed up.

A lot of other people
were sort of left behind in this

because this was a huge change,
sea change in the musical scene.

-I'm the one who started disco.

Disco is really the vamp
of a soul record.

Like at the very end,
you started doing a repeat

of the things,
that's what disco's about.

-That repetitive nature
of disco

that definitely was influenced
by James.

Those grooves --
you think about the things

that the Bee Gees
would try to do,

you know, jive talk,
all them different things.

You know that comes from James.

-You look on, you see
"Saturday Night Fever,"

you see all the disco shows,

you'll see the percussion
of James Brown,

things that
I got tired of doing.

-By the '70s, you had
a lot of James Brown copycats.

The style was already
everywhere.

-James Brown's genius
sort of got used and eaten up

and borrowed
by every other band.

-He got frustrated
when other artists

that were influenced by him

started to make records
that sounded like him.

When you think about "Fame,"

it sounds like a James Brown
record with David Bowie singing.

-♪ Fame, fame

♪ What you need
you have to borrow ♪

-In his career,
when all these other artists

were making records
that kind of sounded

like James Brown records,

or at least there was
a solid influence from that,

he would get annoyed,

and then he would try to make
a record to outdo that record.

-♪ This morning I woke up
all in heat ♪

♪ Couldn't find no dry spot
from my head down to my feet ♪

-James Brown is on a mission
at this point, in the '70s,

going into the 80s, like,
all right, these boys is coming.

I done gave them the blueprint.

They adding on, you know.
They breaking walls

and they doing their thing.

And technology was also,
you know, starting to push.

-James Brown himself was
trying to catch up with disco.

You know, he was trying to be
the original disco man

and all those things.

It was sort of like
a creative arrested development.

-They do their things.
-[ Laughs ]

[ Laughter ]

-Okay. That's good, that's good.

I know when my parents
were 45, they could not do that.

-James was still really huge
in Europe and Africa.

He just wasn't
doing as big in America.

So he had a lot of free time,

and James would
just pop up everywhere.

I went to an afternoon movie
one time,

and there was James
sitting around the front of me,

and there was hardly
nobody else in the theater,

and he turned around and talked
to me most of the time.

-He was having trouble
making hit records.

When he got to that dry spell,

and we were still spending
a lot of money recording,

the record company decided
to cut back on his budgets.

-He had, simultaneously
to all of this,

developed some serious
IRS problems with back taxes

that were accruing interest
and penalties

and were well
into seven figures.

-This is all that's left
of the old WRDW radio studios,

where Brown sat as a young boy
outside and shined shoes.

When he became more famous
and wealthy,

he bought the AM radio station,
only years later to have it,

along with eight acres
of personal property,

sold at a public auction.

-Look, if you make $100,000
and spend $90,000

in your business,
how you going to owe tax?

After I get all
the tax shelters I can,

all the deductions I can,

because I'm putting
my money back in the business

and back in people.

-He hired some good
and some bad accountants.

Went out on the road.

Payment was always in cash.

When you're handling cash, you
think all that money is yours.

Even though it's cash,
you still have to take care

of the government
and everyone else.

-The first time I ever had
a conversation

with Eddie Murphy,
Eddie Murphy tells me the story

that when he first met
James Brown,

the first thing
that James Brown told him,

he was like, "Yeah, I see you're
making a lot of money there."

He said, "This is what you do --
get you a big,

giant plot of land and then bury
about 5 to $10 million."

[ Laughs ]

And Eddie Murphy's
trying to figure out

the logic behind this.

He said, "What if I died?

No one's going to be able
to find it."

And James Brown's like,
that's right,

and neither will the government.

-♪ I'm paying taxes,
but what am I buying? ♪

♪ A whole lot of government
muscle and everybody crying ♪

-His musical career
also suffered for seven years

during the late '70s
and early '80s,

when he failed to produce
any gold records,

touring only rarely and butting
heads with IRS officials,

who claim he owed
$2.82 million in back taxes.

-Our superstar
black entertainers,

they have a harder road
than most entertainers

outside of the black experience.

They go through a gauntlet of
things, learning about business,

learning about their craft,

learning about the people
around them as they go.

-Today,
I can do a lot of things.

Financial problems, I really
don't have them individually.

But I'm in companies, a lot
of things I don't understand.

And I'm still fighting
because I believe,

because I trust,
because I went back to God,

because I believe that there's
somebody who made that happen.

I'm not gr-great enough
to make it happen.

So I'm telling you, it can't
happen unless you believe.

So America,
I say to you this way.

If you fail me now,
then who can I turn to?

-James Brown was
one of those people

that you weren't
going to keep down.

No matter what happened
to him in life,

he had that determination
to get up, try again.

-Now, this is the new album.
Now tell me how this came about.

You went to Japan?
-Well, I just finished doing

"The Blues Brothers," right,
with John Belushi.

-You highlighted that film.
-I love --

-Come on, be honest now.
That was the highlight.

-Praise God.
-All right, all right.

Don't be lost
when the time comes.

For the day of the Lord cometh
as a thief in the night.

-When my father did the movie
"The Blues Brothers,"

he was a natural.

I mean, I can't say it
no simpler than that.

He was a natural because
he did the role of a pastor,

which was amazing
because he grew up

and performed
in a lot of black churches.

-It was just right up his alley,

you know, it's just -- it was
the perfect fit for him,

not just the film,
and the role,

but just in
expressing himself.

And very, very thankful
to Dan Aykroyd for believing

that he could have a place
and understanding who he was,

and, you know,
what that meant for the film

and all of that stuff,
and just taking a chance on him.

-His current national popularity

came about mostly because
of his short appearance

in "The Blues Brothers" movie.

-I'm glad because
I'm broadening my scope,

and this is good for me

because I'll be able
to talk to everybody

and hopefully I can give
some sound advice.

And thanks to John Belushi
and Dan Aykroyd,

they did a lot for me.

-Right now, if you're to ask
about James Brown,

I would guarantee you that
there's a certain generation

that holds him near and dear,

their experience with him
being like the preacher

in "The Blues Brothers."

-In the 1980s,

when I grew up, I didn't really
know James Brown's music.

Like, I knew
James Brown primarily

through Michael Jackson
and Prince,

and they would often make
reference back to James Brown,

or people would talk
about James Brown

being the progenitor
of those two artists.

I also knew him
through Eddie Murphy,

because Eddie Murphy
would imitate him.

-Ha, ha! I say, ha!
Look at that! Ha!

-But the other way I knew him
was through "Rocky IV."

♪

-Sylvester Stallone
said to Brown,

"I'm making 'Rocky IV.'
I want you to do a song."

You're Sylvester Stallone,
Rocky. Who's bigger than you?

That's James Brown,
that's a legend.

-♪ Living in America

Sing it.

♪ Eye to eye

♪ Station to station

♪ Living in America

-The first time
I heard James Brown,

I must have been
maybe 7 or 8,

and it was the song from
"Rocky," "Living in America."

As immigrants to this country,

you think about what does it
mean to live in America,

even when you're a little kid.

It almost became, like,
my theme song.

-♪ I live in America

♪

♪ I feel good

[ Cheers and applause ]

-When "Living in America"
was released,

it changed James Brown's career
at that point,

because he hadn't had
a big record in quite some time.

His money went up,
his popularity went up,

and James Brown
was in heaven again.

-Brown's financial reputation

caused him
considerable embarrassment

as a famous entertainer.

His South Carolina home
was auctioned off

on the Aiken County Courthouse
steps to help pay taxes.

But now,
from "The Blues Brothers"

to "Living in America,"

the Godfather of Soul
is on the rise once again.

-"Living in America" is one
of his last top ten songs,

but it's such a fun song

and it's almost like
The Village People.

That's really
what it sounds like.

It sounds like "YMCA"
or "Macho Man"

or something like that,
but it just works.

-♪ You're my only love

♪ My only, only love
is you ♪

♪ Oh, baby

-I was there when they met.

She was a makeup artist
at Solid Gold,

and we were walking
to his dressing room

and he saw her and he liked her.
He loved women.

He said, "Reverend,
get her number."

So I go, and anyway,
they end up going to dinner.

I never thought he'd marry,
but they got married

over a period of time.

-Is it hard to be the wife
of such a big man,

such a big star as James Brown?

-It's hard to be a wife or
a husband to anyone today.

You have to be good
in anything you do.

I work at my marriage.
My husband works at his.

-I don't want to bad-mouth
Adrienne,

but things started to get crazy
about the time she came around.

Once Adrienne came
in the picture,

that was the beginning
of a different Mr. Brown.

-Oh, it's got everything.

This thing's everything
on wheels.

And I got you a case
to carry it with.

-You don't got the sticks,
have you?

-Yeah, sticks still with it,
too.

-I'm very happy
that I found a man in my life

that has the beliefs I do
and that has the energy I do.

He has to slow me down
and I have to slow him down.

It's good.

-Adrienne, he loved her dearly.

I mean, they fought,
but he loved her, he really did.

-His last wife, Adrienne,
is the one that I knew best.

She had a hard time
with James Brown.

But then again,
I think most of the women

in James Brown's life
had a hard time.

I mean, he got into some drug
problems, I think, also.

Um, didn't we all?

-It seems like almost every
week, something was happening

to put them in the news.

I know she loved him,
but they got into those drugs

and it would just turn them
into, uh,

something that they really
shouldn't have been.

-The Godfather of Soul says
he feels good.

This morning,
he and his wife, Adrienne,

emerged from a meeting with
Aiken County Solicitor Bob Hart

to try and fix the marriage
that a few weeks ago

seemed to be rapidly untying.

Easter weekend,
his wife went to local police,

claiming she had been
badly beaten by the entertainer,

and said he also shot up
her luxury car

and beat her with an iron pipe.

She showed, in People Magazine,
the gun he used to shoot at her.

A week later, she was arrested
at Augusta's Bush Field airport

and charged with possession
of PCP, which is still pending.

-What about the potassium bottle

they say they got
out of your purse?

-What?
-A potassium bottle

with alleged PCP in it.

-I have no idea.

-He used to get high
on what he called "gorilla."

"Gorilla" is a version of PCP.

They keep the PCP
in a Visine bottle

because you could
travel with it.

They would drip it
on the cigarette,

and when it dried,
you'd smoke a cigarette,

and they'd get wacky.

-But despite
all that's happened,

today,
she appeared a changed woman.

-You've decided
to drop the charges?

-Yes, sir. I mean,
I really didn't want to --

I mean, my intention
was never prosecuting.

Unfortunately, this matter
had gotten out into public,

and it was --
it was all a mistake.

And, you know, my husband
and I love each other very much.

-I knew a lot what was
going on with him

at that time of his struggle
with drugs

and where his place
was in society --

you know, in the music business.

It was a difficult time
because everybody

wasn't necessarily listening
to the James Brown sound.

They had moved on
to something else.

And as an artist,
a lot of them go through that.

So you see them in the slump
and picking up things

that,
you know, for whatever reason.

-How did all of this trouble
begin?

-♪ Living in America

[ Laughter ]

There's nothing wrong.
-Nothing wrong at all?

You're not in any difficulty,
but you're out on bond?

-No, I'm not.

-Have all the charges
been dropped?

-Yeah. I'm out on love.

-Oh, well, are you out on love
or out of love, which is it?

-Out on love.

♪ Alone from night to night,
you'll find me ♪

-I already knew that he was
struggling just in life.

And another thing I wish
I didn't see was the cheating.

And I didn't see
that necessarily growing up,

but I saw it
when he married his third wife.

-Although she has formally
filed a request to drop charges,

solicitor Hart says
he'll make the final decision.

Until then, the couple says

they'll spend
more time together.

-We're here to clear the air,
clear the smoke,

and let everybody know
that we're on the good foot.

-♪ Give me some static
-♪ You got it

-♪ Hit me

♪

♪ Huh

♪ Say it

-At the time we was working with
Mr. Brown...

-He was going through a lot.
-He was going through a lot.

But we kind of
didn't know it.

Something I never
spoke on before,

but we didn't know.

The first song he did
was "Time to Get Busy."

It was great.
But the other songs,

we had to go back and forth,
and I told my brother,

I said, "I know Mr. Brown
keep forgetting.

Like he wasn't even on on beat
at the time."

-Because he was going through
a lot at that time --

through the the painkillers

and the different type
of addiction...

- The shooting.
-...and all that stuff.

The shooting,
all kinds of craziness.

And we were like, I didn't --

I didn't, I don't remember
major, major problems.

-Like you having to sing some
of his parts.

-Right.
-On the record. Okay.

-I solved the problem.
You wouldn't even know.

It's all good.
-And it's on "Static."

-Me and Mr. Brown.
-Right.

-♪ Won't be no static
-♪ No

♪ Don't start none,
won't be none ♪

-I'm on the air, and I get
the news that Mr. Brown

was in a two-state car
chase in Georgia

and in South Carolina.

It's like, what is going on?

- Witnesses say Brown went into
a classroom

in the office building where
his office is located,

brandishing a pistol
and a shotgun

and demanding to know
who was using his bathroom.

-Someone was using
my facility without my consent.

All you have to do is ask me,
and I'll be glad to say yes.

-He did get his shotgun
out of the pickup,

but he did not fire it.

So James got in his pickup.

He went across on the interstate
to the South Carolina side.

-I said, Mr. Brown,
pull over, this is Officer Dan.

And he immediately pulled
over into the slot.

-I ask the officer,
"Should I get out?"

He said, "No, get out
on the passenger side.

The man shot eight times
at the wheel

at the bottom of the truck.

-[ James Brown scatting ]

♪

-17 bullets hit the truck.

Had only one bullet
hit the gas tank,

the truck would have blew up.

-James Brown's pickup,
his tires are shot off.

He's on rims, and he --
and he's got, like,

14 police cars behind him
with their lights going.

They're doing, what, five,
ten miles an hour?

And this is the chase?

-I don't condone people
running from the police

like that,
but also too, he says,

"I was scared,"

and that's what
a lot of black men deal with.

They're scared of what's going
to happen to them.

They're scared if they're
going to be the next hashtag.

-Mind you, I didn't say
my father was perfect,

but nobody deserves
to be shot at like that.

We still have the panels
with the 17 bullet holes.

He didn't want to throw it away.
He wanted to keep it,

to remind himself
of what that was about.

-The night that it happened,
the high speed chase,

his wife called me.
"They arrested James.

This, that and the other."
Told me what happened.

I turned on the CNN and I --

you know, he had had then
several altercations.

And I said, we just got
to get him to calm down.

-I'm not here for it.
I'm tired of this mess.

I'm tired of it.

The man's about to have
a reckoning.

I'm tired of
the federal government, tired!

I'm tired of them!

I'm tired of doing right!

[ Shouting indistinctly ]

-A function of being black
in America

is that I don't think we take
the best care of ourselves.

Oftentimes,
we're trying to live.

So we're concerned
with the basics

of living and survival.

Because to be black in America
is to have, you know,

affiliation and attachment
to pathologies and to trauma.

-I don't think James Brown
wanted everybody to know him.

I think James Brown kept
a part of him that only he knew.

And I think a lot of that was
that he had to protect himself.

Of course, he was abandoned as
a child and he grew up in jail.

-Brown just finished
three months,

42 grueling dates in Europe,
lifting his career there,

and taped a new cable TV special
for the U.S..

But meanwhile, prosecutors

in Augusta
and Aiken, South Carolina,

have been quietly
gathering indictments,

tying together evidence
of multiple cases

of what they say is a whole
different side of James Brown.

From an alleged drug, gun,
and police chase incident

over two days in September,

Brown faces close
to a dozen charges.

Police allege Brown tried
to run them down in his truck.

Now, authorities say they want
to throw the book at James Brown

and claim to have
evidence enough

to put him in jail
for five years.

-I was in high school.

I was a junior.
I won't forget it.

And I'm thinking to myself, he's
about to lose everything he has.

Am I going to be able
to go to college?

He said he would
help me with college.

Is this going to be it?

Like, all of this stuff
is going on in my head,

and then you got people
not being nice.

They're yelling,
"Free James Brown."

There's the, "Oh, your daddy
locked up.

What's your daddy --
He doing all this crazy stuff.

What's going on with him?"
All of that.

-People who themselves
are not totally free

through art open up the door
for others to be free,

even if they can't
exorcise the demons

that they have themselves.

-He's facing charges
of assault with intent to kill

and failing to stop for police.

Early in the day, defense
attorneys filed several motions.

Included is a request to move
the case to another county,

namely to disqualify
the pool of potential jurors

because it contains
a small number of blacks.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

-Four white policemen came up
and shot the truck up

and almost shot
the black deputy sheriff.

The deputy sheriff was afraid
to testify against them.

I wasn't afraid of them.

-It's just 6-12.
-It's cold out here.

-Thank you very, very much.
-Thank you, James.

How are you doing today?
-I'm doing good.

-When they went to trial,

everybody thought they'd
give him probation or something.

-There was talk in
the courthouse tonight

about James Brown,
philanthropist,

James Brown, legend.
I hold here in my hand

a presidential pin
from President Reagan

James Brown himself set.

But tonight,
James Brown was sentenced

to six years in prison,

plus five years probation
and $6,000 fine.

Earlier, a jury found him
guilty of failing to stop

when signaled
by a law enforcement officer

and two counts
of aggravated assault.

-A six year
and six month sentence

for a traffic violation
is extremely excessive.

And if that were
Jerry Lee Lewis

or Roy Orbison or Willie Nelson
or whoever --

I mean, I definitely know
country people

that have gotten into
shootouts and worse

that didn't get
that type of treatment.

-If James Brown was not who
he was,

was not of the race he is,
there's no question

that he would not have been
given this sentence.

-I'm doing the time
and somebody else did the crime.

-James Brown learned
and was reminded

that there are two Americas,

and he learned which America
he lived in that day.

♪

-♪ A man have to go back
to the crossroad ♪

♪ Before he find his self

♪ Sometimes, it's tough

♪

♪

♪