Mind Power

Recorded for The Payback at International Recording in Augusta, Georgia, and mixed at Advantage Sound in New York. James Brown led the session with Fred Wesley and the J.B.’s, with Lowell Dorn on recording and Bob Both on mixing. It served as the closing track on The Payback, extending Brown’s early-1970s funk into a long, tense spoken-word groove. The song became a deep-album favorite rather than a hit single. The track became a major sampling source in hip-hop and related dance music, appearing in dozens of later records. De La Soul, Ice-T, and the Black Eyed Peas all drew on it, helping keep Brown’s rhythmic phrasing and mantra-like delivery in circulation.