The Payback (song)

"The Payback"
Single by James Brown
from the album The Payback
A-side	"The Payback - Pt. 1"
B-side	"The Payback - Pt. 2"
Released	February 1974
Format	7" vinyl
Recorded	August 4, 1973 at International Studios, Augusta, Georgia; unknown brass and female vocals overdubbed September 1973 at Advantage Studios, New York, NY
Genre	Funk
Length	7:28 (full album version) 3:33 (single edit)
Label	Polydor PD14223
Writer(s)	James Brown Fred Wesley John Starks
Producer	James Brown

"The Payback" (sometimes known as just "Payback") is a funk song by James Brown, the title track from his 1973 album of the same name. The song's lyrics, originally written by trombonist and bandleader Fred Wesley but heavily revised by Brown himself soon before it was recorded, concern the revenge he plans to take against the man who betrayed him and stole his money and his woman. The song is notable for its spare, open instrumental arrangement and its use of wah-wah guitar - a relative rarity in Brown's previous funk recordings. Released as a two-part single (featuring a radio announcer at the beginning of part one) in February 1974, it was the first in an unbroken succession of three singles by Brown to reach #1 on the R&B charts that year - the last chart-toppers of his career. The single was number one on the soul charts and peaked at number 26 on the Hot 100.

The song and the album of the same name were originally recorded by Brown as the accompanying soundtrack to the Soul Cinema Classic Hell Up in Harlem, but was rejected by the movie's producers as "not funky enough." An incensed Brown decided to release the album and let it stand on its' own merits. The subsequent soundtrack was then recorded by Motown Records artist Edwin Starr.

"The Payback" has been sampled by numerous hip hop and R&B producers. The group En Vogue recorded two different R&B hits, "Hold On" and "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)", that were both based on loops from the song's rhythm track. LL Cool J sampled "The Payback" in his 1990 song The Booming System. Total sampled "The Payback" in their 1995 hit "Can't You See" with the Notorious BIG. R&B Group Silk, in the song "Happy Days" (featuring Keith Sweat), sampled "The Payback" on their 1992 debut album, Lose Control (which was produced by Sweat himself). Big Black released a loose cover of the song on their 1984 Racer-X EP. Massive Attack also sample the song on their track "Protection" from the 1995 album of the same name. Eboni Foster sampled the song on the single, "Crazy for You" in 1998.

Brown released "Rapp Payback (Where Iz Moses)", a reworking of "The Payback", in 1980.

It was also remade in 1988, remixed and released as "The Payback Mix (Part One)" for the United Kingdom. This version was one of Brown's biggest hits in the UK, reaching #12 on the UK singles chart.

Appearances in other media

• In the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack on the Master Sounds 98.3 station.
• In the Guy Ritchie film Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
• In the 2001 Jesse Dylan movie How High
• In the 2002 Mars Callahan film Poolhall Junkies
• It was featured in season two of Everybody Hates Chris in the episode Everybody Hates DJs. However, Chris scratches the record and then he and his mom Rochelle are listening to it while it is skipping. It repeats the word "payback" in loops. At the end of the episode, the singing goes "Everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody hates Chris" as if it's skipping like the record. Also during the course of the episode, Chris imagines himself actually performing the song, complete with a band and in full James Brown attire.
• In the Hughes Brothers movie Dead Presidents
• In the first season finale of the FX television show Damages.
• In an episode of Scrubs, during one of J.D.'s fantasies about how cool it is to enter the hospital as a surgeon.
• In many professional boxing ring entrances. Most notably used by Lennox Lewis during the ringwalk prior to his heavyweight championship rematch with Hasim Rahman in 2001, which Lewis won by knockout.
• In a Bernie Mac Show episode.
• In the television show The Cleveland Show in the episode entitled The Curious Case of Jr. Working at The Stool.
• In May 1995, the song was featured prominently in the opening scene of "Catman Comes Back", the first season finale of the FOX police drama television series New York Undercover.

References

• Leeds, Alan M., and Harry Weinger (1991). Star Time: Song by Song. In Star Time (pp. 46–53) [CD liner notes]. London: Polydor Records.
• White, Cliff (1991). Discography. In Star Time (pp. 54–59) [CD liner notes]. London: Polydor Records.

External links

• Song review at Allmusic
• List of hip hop songs that sample "The Payback"

Preceded by "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" by MFSB with The Three Degrees

Billboard Hot Soul Singles number-one single April 27, 1974 – May 4, 1974

Succeeded by "Dancing Machine" by The Jackson 5