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In 2012 James Brown’s biography The Life and Music of James Brown was published, providing insight into the King of Soul’s entrepreneurial spirit. Known as the “Hardest-Working Man In Show Business,” Brown owned three record labels, various restaurants, and even a few radio stations. Besides corporations, Brown also notably created James Brown Food Stamps. Although not included in the story line in the singer’s recent biopic, Get On Up, Chadwick Boseman, who played the legendary singer, and Dan Akroyd, who took on the role of Ben Bart (Brown’s manager) revealed information on the singer’s past financial ventures during a recent press conference for the film.

Reflecting on learning interesting facts about Brown, Boseman said:

” The most surprising business venture was the James Brown Food Stamps. It was a part of him wanting to recycle money within in the black community before it goes outside of the community. It was actually James’ idea and obviously it is not still around but it was the most surprising thing to learn about him.”

Akroyd added:

“Nothing James did as an entrepreneur surprised me. He has a wide range of entrepreneur experiences; he knew how to handle people, money and balance an [accounting] book. Brown especially knew how to make a tour more profitable or highlight another artist. He also had his various radio stations and merchandising. Brown just got it and that had to do with him working from a very early age. Nothing surprised me with Brown, so when you hear he did various things I would say “oh yeah, of course he did that” because he has the knowledge and knows how to deal with the mechanisms of business.”

Spin magazine reports the James Brown stamps died out as the state of California phased them out of the Los Angeles area where the stamps were generally in use.

To learn more about James Brown’s life, check out Get On Up in theaters now.

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