James Brown, who was known as the Godfather of Soul, died early on Christmas morning. Brown, 73, had been admitted to Atlanta's Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday, as he was suffering from pneumonia. He reportedly died around 1:45am, with his manager and friend, Charles Bobbitt, by his side.

As a prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader and record producer, Brown influenced the evolution of gospel and rhythm and blues into soul and funk. The hustling that he learned as a child living in Georgia led to a prison term, where he met his first bandmate, Bobby Byrd of the Gospel Starlighters. The band quickly changed its format from gospel to hard R&B, and Brown's career promptly took off with the hit single "Please, Please, Please." In the years following, James Brown faced criminal charges stemming from drug and alcohol abuse, including spousal abuse of his third wife He survived a 1988 police chase, a resulting prison sentence, and also survived prostate cancer.

The topics of Brown's uplifting music ranged from the sexist, to the merely sexual, to Black pride. He rightly claimed to have influenced many genres of music -- from his style of bandleading, to dress, to dancing, to rhythms that have been sampled by hip hop artists. His high-energy performances and his habit of nearly non-stop touring earned him the moniker, "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business." In the 1960s and 1970s, Brown was most active in American politics, including activism on behalf of African Americans and the poor. Snoop Dogg, Nas, and President George W. Bush issued statements in tribute to Brown following his death.

Davey D's Tribute to James Brown | Democracy Now: Harry Allen on How JB Revolutionized Popular Music | RIP James Brown -- Godfather of Soul | Funky Stuff's James Brown homepage | Wikipedia's James Brown page