James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” who billed himself as the hardest working man in show business, has died at age 73, CNN reported on Monday. Brown had been admitted to Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta over the weekend for treatment of severe pneumonia.

The singer, also known as “Mr Dynamite” is credited with bringing the word “funk” into mainstream musical vernacular and influencing a new generation of black music that spawned rap and hip-hop. Brown’s hit “Say it Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” became a civil rights anthem during the turbulent 1960s and he performed the song at Richard Nixon’s inaugural in 1968 — an act that temporarily hurt his popularity among young blacks.

He had more than 119 charting singles and recorded over 50 albums, was inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys in 1992. James Brown also built a successful business empire, including a string of radio stations and his own production company, and owned a fleet of expensive cars and his own plane. He even played the role of a manic preacher in the hit 1980 movie “The Blues Brothers.”

“Soul is all the hard knocks, all the punishment the black man has had … all the unfulfilled dreams that must come true,”

he once said.

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