The sale to Primary Wave Music, for an estimated $90 million, provides resources to ultimately realize the musician\u2019s wish to fund scholarships for needy children.<\/b>
\nSince James Brown\u2019s death 15 years ago, a plan by the soul and funk music icon to leave the bulk of his estate to scholarships for needy children has been delayed by torrents of litigation. But the mission of financing those scholarships has taken a major step forward under the terms of a new business deal. Primary Wave Music, a New York company that specializes in marketing estates and song catalogs, is buying the assets of the Brown estate, including music rights, real estate and the control over Brown\u2019s name and likeness. Larry Mestel, the founder of Primary Wave \u2014 which did a similar deal for half of Whitney Houston\u2019s estate, and owns the largest interest in Prince\u2019s \u2014 envisions an array of new projects to honor Brown\u2019s legacy and promote his music to new generations of fans. Those may include a Broadway musical, television shows and the creation of a Graceland-like museum attraction at Brown\u2019s mansion in South Carolina, he said. \u201cJames Brown was one of the greatest musical entertainers of all time, and one of the greatest legends of the music business,\u201d Mr. Mestel said in an interview. \u201cThat fits what we do like a glove.\u201d The price of the deal was not disclosed, but is estimated at about $90 million. The money from the transaction will be used to endow the Brown scholarship trust \u201cin perpetuity,\u201d said Russell L. Bauknight, a public accountant who has served as the estate\u2019s personal representative, or executor, since 2009. He said that once the estate is closed, he will continue to work with Primary Wave as a member of a board handling some of Brown\u2019s assets. \u201cIt\u2019s time to bring in someone of Larry\u2019s expertise to take it to the next level,\u201d Mr. Bauknight said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at this as more of a partnership moving forward.\u201d The deal includes a provision for Primary Wave to contribute what Mr. Mestel called a \u201csmall percentage\u201d of some future deals to the scholarships, which are for underprivileged children in South Carolina, where Brown was born, and Georgia, where he grew up. The Primary Wave deal is a major move toward realizing Mr. Brown\u2019s dream of financing the scholarships, a dream delayed by one of the longest and most contentious estate conflicts in entertainment. The infighting has encompassed numerous lawsuits in state and federal courts, costing millions dollars in legal fees and leaving a convoluted public record. \u201cAs big a tangle as you\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Henry McMaster, now South Carolina\u2019s governor, told The New York Times in 2014, seven years after he became involved in the Brown estate as the state\u2019s attorney general. One part of that tangle involved Tommie Rae Hynie, a singer whom Brown wed in 2001 but later learned was already married to another man. Even with her spousal status unclear, Ms. Hynie, along with five of Brown\u2019s children, tried after Brown\u2019s death to set aside his will and negotiate a settlement to give themselves significant shares of the estate. They found a sympathetic attorney general in Mr. McMaster and a state judge who approved their agreement in 2009 \u2014 until South Carolina\u2019s Supreme Court struck their settlement down four years later, calling it a \u201cdismemberment of Brown\u2019s carefully crafted estate plan.\u201d (In 2020, that court ruled unanimously that Ms. Hynie was not Brown\u2019s wife.) For more than a decade, Brown\u2019s heirs and estate administrators, including Mr. Bauknight and Adele Pope, a former executor, have battled in court over the value of his estate. Mr. Bauknight estimated it at about $5 million, but Ms. Pope, who was removed from her position in 2009, put it at $84 million. Asked if the recent sale had not supported Ms. Pope\u2019s valuation, Mr. Bauknight defended it as accurate at the time of Brown\u2019s death. He added that the value of the estate had grown over the years, and he cited the efforts of industry professionals he had hired to advise him. The deal with Primary Wave has been in the works for nearly four years, and Mr. Bauknight said he had discussions with \u201ca number of players.\u201d Terms of the settlement are confidential, but Mr. Bauknight said the only beneficiaries of the estate are two trusts for education \u2014 one for Brown\u2019s grandchildren, limited at about $2 million, and the other for needy children in South Carolina and Georgia, which was to receive the bulk of Brown\u2019s estate \u2014 and the estate is not a party to Brown\u2019s \u201ctermination rights,\u201d or reclaimed songwriting copyrights. To negotiate the acquisition of Brown\u2019s estate, Mr. Mestel enlisted one of music\u2019s legal heavyweights, John Branca, who was Michael Jackson\u2019s longtime lawyer and is one of the executors of Jackson\u2019s estate. \u201cIt was complicated,\u201d Mr. Branca said of the deal, \u201cbecause James Brown was complicated.\u201d Primary Wave\u2019s transaction leaves unresolved a longstanding legal fight between Mr. Bauknight and Ms. Pope, who have each accused the other of trying to profit from the estate. Their outstanding cases \u2014 one by Ms. Pope against the estate, the other filed against her by Mr. Bauknight and others \u2014 are under appeal. Until they are decided or settled, the scholarships cannot be paid, Mr. Bauknight said. Dylan Malagrin\u00f2, a professor at the Charleston School of Law in South Carolina, said that any claim against the estate \u201chas to be resolved before you can start distributing money. It freezes everything.\u201d Mr. Bauknight said he hoped that the first scholarships would be awarded by the end of next year. A lawyer for Ms. Pope declined to comment. For Primary Wave, the deal is the latest in what has become a highly competitive market for hit music catalogs and artist estates. Its competitors include Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which has bought rights in music by Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and others, as well as the major music conglomerates \u2014 which have acquired Bob Dylan\u2019s and Paul Simon\u2019s catalogs \u2014 and a new wave of private equity giants that are pouring billions of dollars into new deals. Mr. Mestel said that Primary Wave\u2019s advantage is expertise in marketing and branding. For the Houston estate, for example, the company is involved in a hologram tour, a cosmetics line, a biopic and a Broadway show. The company, he said, has about $1.8 billion in assets and a \u201cwar chest\u201d of $1 billion in cash to announce new deals. Lately, it has been announcing transactions almost weekly, including deals with the estates of Bing Crosby, Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass, and for the music of Jeff Porcaro of Toto. \u201cWhile other investment firms have announced billions they\u2019ve raised,\u201d Mr. Mestel said, \u201cwe\u2019re announcing billions of deals we\u2019re closing.\u201d<\/p>\n