"If your mandate as an MC is to “Move The Crowd” there is no better tool to have in your musical arsenal than a segment of the Godfather of Soul’s sonic fabric. Whether it’s his frantic percussion, a horn stab, trance-inducing bass or one of his signature Gospel-flavored wails, James Joseph Brown, Jr. remains one of the most sampled artists of all time, if not THE most sampled.

“James Brown is music period,” says DJ Scratch, award winning turntablist and deejay for EPMD. “He spawned other genres of music. He was Rock-n-Roll, he was the Funk and the best live performer in the history of performance period. This genre that we are a part of is all based on James Brown. So if it wasn’t for James there would be no me, there would be no Hip-Hop.”

As part of our tribute to the Godfather Of Soul for the upcoming biopic, “Get On Up,” we asked two of hip-hop’s premier producers and DJs, Pete Rock and DJ Scratch to talk about 5 of the most sampled James Brown songs of all time."

Enjoy a tribute to The Godfather of Soul James Brown by The Underground Railroad radio crew and Ego Trip, a music event and discussion aired shortly after his passing in 2006. Music is spun by Monk One and 3-D, plus the crew talk in-depth about Ego Trip's new "The White Rapper" show.

"What The Funk, The Influence of James Brown on Hip-Hop" art by Samantha Stahl