Aloe Blacc really is the man.
In addition to two No.1 records, “Wake Me Up” and “I’m The Man”, Blacc also landed a role in the James Brown biopic Get on Up.
In the film, the 34-year-old makes his film debut playing Nafloyd Scott, a musician in Brown’s first band, The Famous Flames. “Playing a musician rather than the leader was different for me,” Blacc told ESSENCE.com. “I’m usually in charge of all the musicians that I work with so I got to see from the other side and get a better idea of how my musicians view me. It opened my eyes to see how I could be a better band leader to my band members.”
The Panamanian-American singer said he entered the project with a healthy knowledge of Brown’s music—having sampled it for songs in the past—and the film expanded his view of the man behind the music. “[It] made me see him in a more three-dimensional way,” he said.
Blacc co-stars with Chadwick Boseman, Octavia Spencer, and Jill Scott in Get on Up, in theaters today.