What more could you possibly want as a state than to have the original Godfather of Soul as one of your very own? Music starts simply didn't come any larger than life than James Brown. Brown loved nothing more than a huge stage show, complete with outlandish outfits. That may have been an understandable consequence of his youth - he grew up so poor that he was once thrown out of school because he didn't have enough clothes to wear.
Brown may not have invented the rock-funk sound that became popular throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but he did more than anyone to popularize it, with songs like 'I Feel Good,' and 'Get Up.' He was also unafraid to tackle the social issues of his era head on, as he did with 'Say It Out Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud.' According to Rolling Stone magazine, more of Brown's songs have been 'sampled' by other artists than any other musician. Brown passed away on Christmas Day 2006.