"Escape-ism" is a

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

song by American musician

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

. It was Brown's first release on his own label,

People Records __NOTOC__ Over the course of his career James Brown owned and operated several different record labels, which he used primarily to release his own Record producer, productions of artists associated with his revue. Try Me Brown founded his first la ...

. It

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

ed #6 R&B and #35 Pop as a two-part

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

in 1971. Both parts also appeared on the album ''

Hot Pants Hotpants or hot pants are extremely short shorts. The term was first used by ''Women's Wear Daily'' in 1970 to describe shorts made in luxury fabrics such as velvet and satin for fashionable wear, rather than their more practical equivalents t ...

'' in 1971, with the previously unreleased nineteen-minute unedited take of the track appearing on the album's 1992 CD re-release. According to

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

the song was "supposedly cut to kill time until

Bobby Byrd Bobby Howard Byrd (August 15, 1934 – September 12, 2007) was an American rhythm and blues, soul and funk singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, bandleader, and talent dedicated. He played a part in the development of soul and funk m ...

arrived" at the studio. A live version of "Escape-ism" is included on Brown's live album '' Revolution of the Mind''. The song was sampled in

Bell Biv Devoe Bell Biv DeVoe, also known as BBD, is an American music group from Boston, Massachusetts, formed from members of New Edition, consisting of Ricky Bell (singer), Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe. The band is best known for their debut ...

's song

Poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

References

1970 songs 1971 singles James Brown songs Songs written by James Brown Proto-rap songs {{1970s-R&B-song-stub