If hip-hop could hold up a mirror, it would see James Brown in the reflection.

Brown - whose autobiography, "I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul," comes out Sunday - gave rhythm & blues its soul and invented funk.

But, never a modest man, the S.C. native also takes credit for hip-hop.

"[My music] inspired everything from their melodies to their looks, moves and onstage attitudes," Brown writes. "They took the fierce, positive pride that is the heart and soul of my music and blended it with the anger they felt at injustice."

He's right, says Howard Kramer, curatorial director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

"Hip-hop is built on two things: hooks and beat," Kramer said. "No one is better at creating hooks and beats than James Brown. [He] is the basis of hip-hop."

Still not convinced Brown passes the hip-hop paternity test? Try this analogy from "I Feel Good" co-author Marc Eliot: James Brown is to hip-hop what the Beatles are to rock 'n' roll.

"Rap is in-your-face. That's all James Brown," Eliot said.

Since its birth, hip-hop has always been about the rhythm, that beat that makes you tap your foot, shake your thang and nod your head.

Whether it was the sparse drumming of Grandmaster Flash or the solid bass lines of Sugar Hill Gang and Kurtis Blow, hip-hop has always had a thump.

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