James Brown grew up in a 1930s brothel and it shaped him forever
James Brown led an eventful, tumultuous, and often rather bizarre existence, so much so that the revelation that the ‘Godfather of Funk’ grew up in a brothel hardly stands out as one of the more surprising facts about him.
We are all products of our environments, whether we like to admit it or not. The places that we grow up, in particular, are carried throughout our lives, and there is no doubt that James Brown’s upbringing impacted the performer for the rest of his days. Born in 1933, in a wooden shack in the deepest depths of South Carolina, Brown’s mother was just 16 years of age when she gave birth, and the family lived in devastating poverty throughout the performer’s childhood, during the Great Depression.
Before too long, Brown’s mother escaped that poverty, along with the abusive tendencies of his father, Joseph Brown, by relocating to New York City. The future figurehead of funk was either two or four at the time, depending on which sources you consult, and he didn’t see his mother again for upwards of two decades. With that changing family dynamic, Brown’s father moved the family to Georgia, where his sister ran a brothel.
Without any other option, the young James Brown had to contend with life living in a brothel, and how that experience warped his perception of everyday life. During his childhood, he earned spare change by shining shoes, dancing for passing soldiers, petty theft or, in many instances, going out on the streets to find customers for his aunt, Honey – not your typical upbringing, even for a figure as outlandish as Brown.
In addition to living alongside sex workers and their assorted clientele, Brown also had to deal with routine beatings at the hands of his father and the aforementioned clientele of the brothel. As if that wasn’t enough, it must also be remembered that he was an impoverished Black child roaming the streets of 1930s and 1940s Georgia – a ripe target to be on the receiving end of all the violence, abuse, and discrimination that came with the Jim Crow era in the United States.
Music was Brown’s escape from that troubled childhood, singing in local talent competitions, teaching himself various instruments, and during a spell in a detention centre during his teenage years, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bobby Byrd. By the mid-1950s, he had already been a member of various gospel and R&B groups, and in just a few years, it became clear that James Brown was the standout star in all of those groups.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to link Brown’s childhood with the attitudes that prevailed during his musical stardom. For starters, the performer had a famously despicable reputation when it came to his treatment of and attitude towards women.
1966’s ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ was, for instance, written almost entirely by Betty Jean Newsome, who had to pursue legal action to be credited at all. More distressingly, the performer attracted various charges, lawsuits, and allegations of assault, violence, and sexual harassment over the course of his career.
While his upbringing is, by no means, an excuse for that behaviour – and taking into account that his unwavering drug habit undoubtedly contributed to those erratic behaviours – it is easy to see where James Brown’s moral compass was forged: in the brothel at 944 Twiggs St, where he spent the vast majority of his younger years.
