Wilson-Okamura Authors Essay in PopMatters

Dr. David Wilson-Okamura’s article “Uptight Funk,” on Prince and James Brown,  was published in PopMatters and linked to at Arts & Letters Daily.

In the article, Wilson-Okamura wites, “In fact, funk was never as free as it seemed, starting with Soul Brother No. 1, His Bad Self, the Minister of New New Super Heavy Funk, James Brown. Like Prince, Brown was raised by an authoritarian father; and, like Prince, he fined his staff when they didn’t meet his standards. The stories about both men point to a larger truth about funk music in general: it might be nasty, but it was never undisciplined.”