"Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" is a funk song performed by James Brown, and written with his bandleader

Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis Alfred James Ellis (April 21, 1941 – September 23, 2021), known as Pee Wee Ellis due to his diminutive stature, was an American saxophonist, composer, and arranger. With a background in jazz, he was a member of James Brown's band in the ...

in 1968. It was released as a two-part single which held the number-one spot on the

R&B singles chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

for six weeks, and peaked at number ten on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Both parts of the single were later included on James Brown's 1968 album ''A Soulful Christmas'' and on his 1969 album sharing the title of the song. The song became an unofficial anthem of the Black Power movement. "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" was Brown's first recording to feature

trombonist The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

Fred Wesley Fred Wesley (born July 4, 1943) is an American trombonist who worked with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s and Parliament-Funkadelic in the second half of the 1970s. Biography Wesley was born the son of a high school teacher and big band lead ...

Lyrics

In the song, Brown addresses

racism against Black Americans In the context of racism in the United States, racism against African Americans dates back to the colonial era, and it continues to be a persistent issue in American society in the 21st century. From the arrival of the first Africans in early ...

, and the need for Black empowerment. He proclaims that "we demands a chance to do things for ourself" and that "we're tired of beating our head against the wall and workin' for someone else." The song's

call and response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

chorus is performed by a group of young children, who respond to Brown's command of "Say it loud" with "I'm black and I'm proud!" The song was recorded in a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

area suburb with about 30 young people from the

Watts Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power. Watts may also refer to: People *Watts (surname), list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters *Watts, main character in the film '' Some Kind of Wonderful'' *Watts family, six chara ...

and Compton neighborhoods. The lyrics "We've been 'buked and we've been scorned/ We've been treated bad, talked about as sure as you're born" in the first verse of the song paraphrase the spiritual ''I've Been 'Buked''. Several other Brown singles from the same era as "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud", notably " I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I'll Get It Myself)", explored similar themes of Black empowerment and self-reliance. The song's opening exhortation, "With your bad self", is an example of linguistic

reappropriation In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i.e. ...

, and added a new entry to Brown's long list of

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

s: "His Bad Self."

Recognitions

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music an ...

included "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" in their

500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...

. In 2004 it was ranked number 305 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine's list of

the 500 greatest songs of all time "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 in ...

. It inspired the title of a VH1

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

and box set, ''Say It Loud! A Celebration of Black Music in America''. "'Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud' was a record that really convinced me to say I was black instead of a

negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

," remarked

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe ...

's Chuck D. "Back then black folks were called negroes, but James said you can say it loud: that being black is a great thing instead of something you have to apologise for." However in direct response to the song's message, Willie Cobbs wryly observed that Brown was a millionaire by that point, as Cobbs retort was "Sing It Low - I'm Black and I'm Poor".

Personnel

* James Brown – lead vocal * Unknown children's chorusLeeds, Alan, and Harry Weinger (1991). "Star Time: Song by Song". In ''Star Time'' (pp. 46–53) D booklet New York: PolyGram Records. *Ryan Hayman-Ball Prep Academy with the James Brown Orchestra: * Waymond Reed –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Richard "Kush" Griffith –

–

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

– alto saxophone *

Maceo Parker Maceo Parker (; born February 14, 1943) is an American funk and soul jazz saxophonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s, Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s and Prince in the 2000s. Parker was a prominent soloist on many o ...

–

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

* St. Clair Pinckney – baritone saxophone *

Jimmy Nolen Jimmy Nolen (April 3, 1934 – December 18, 1983)
- accessed November 13, 2011 was an American

–

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

Charles Sherrell "Sweet" Charles Sherrell (born Charles Emanuel Sherrell, March 8, 1943) is an American bassist known for recording and performing with James Brown. Biography Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Sherrell began his career playing drums with fellow Na ...

– bass * Clyde Stubblefield – drums

Other versions and uses

Numerous hip hop musicians and groups have

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

"Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud", including Eric B. and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane,

Full Force Full Force is an American music group of hip hop and R&B singers and producers from Brooklyn, New York. Members *B-Fine (Brian George) - drums and drum programming, backing vocals *Shy Shy (Hugh Junior Clark) - bass guitar, backing vocal ...

, LL Cool J and

2 Live Crew 2 Live Crew is an American hip hop group from Miami, Florida, which had its greatest commercial success from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The group's most well-known line up was composed of Luke Campbell, Fresh Kid Ice, Mr. Mixx, and ...

in the states and Akil Ammar for the Mexican underground scene. A few performers have recorded

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of the song, including

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...

Lou Donaldson Lou Donaldson (born November 1, 1926) is an American retired jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop ...

(on his 1969 album '' Say It Loud!''),

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

singer

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

(in a medley with "Black Progress") and the punk rock band Black Randy and the Metrosquad. A slightly modified version of the bassline of "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud" appears in long sections of the track "Yesternow" on the

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

album ''

A Tribute to Jack Johnson ''Jack Johnson'' (also known as ''A Tribute to Jack Johnson'' on reissues) is a studio album and soundtrack by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was released on February 24, 1971, by Columbia Records. The album ...

''. Jazz pianist

Jaki Byard John Arthur "Jaki" Byard (; June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for hi ...

recites the title phrase at the onset of "Parisian Thoroughfare", the opening track of his album '' The Jaki Byard Experience''. However, the recitation is only audible when the track is played at a high volume. The song is referenced in an episode of ''

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' is an American television sitcom created by Andy and Susan Borowitz for NBC. It aired from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996. The series stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart ...

'', inspired by Black Power protests, Will, the African-American male lead attempts to hold a protest (ironically, Will and his cousin Carlton are the only black people in the room) to get a popular teacher reinstated, he inspires "Cornflake", a white fellow student, who stands up and shouts passionately "Fight the Power Will! Sing it loud, I'm black and I'm proud", to which Will replies "See, my man Cornflake's got the spirit. He's a little confused but he's got the spirit". The song is also referenced in the

Temptations The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 1 ...

song " Message From a Black Man". "Let's Take it to the Stage" by

Funkadelic Funkadelic was an American funk rock band formed in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1968 and active until 1982. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, pioneered the funk music culture of the 1970s.John, Bush. Funkade ...

gives a nod to this song with the lyric "Say it loud, I'm funky and I'm proud." R&B/Rock artist

Meshell Ndegeocello Michelle Lynn Johnson, better known as Meshell Ndegeocello (; born August 29, 1968), is a German-born American singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on so ...

covers the song during her live performances.

References

External links

* Song Reviewfrom

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

List of songs that sample "Say It Loud—I'm Black and I'm Proud"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud 1968 singles African and Black nationalism James Brown songs Songs against racism and xenophobia Songs about black people Songs written by James Brown King Records (United States) singles 1968 songs Songs written by Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis