Jim Ingram

Birth: Oct. 17, 1938. Death: Jun. 9, 1994, Detroit Michigan, USA. Jim Ingram (also know as the "Drum-beater" or "Jungle Jim" as his friends called him) was a self-taught musician, a columnist / reporter for the Michigan Chronicle, a DJ & newsman for WJLB-FM where he ran a twice-daily show called "Drumbeat Commentary", as well as the "Daily Boxing Roundup Program" during the 1970's and 1980's. Ingram grew up in the streets of Detroit and the dirt roads of Hamlet, North Carolina, and left school in the 10th grade to pursue a boxing career. Later on he would the third deputy Police Chief, and was in charge of the Audio-Visual services for the Detroit Police Department in 1987. Yet before that Mr. Ingram was a controversial character perhaps, as he was arrested during the second day of the infamous Detroit 1967 riots; at the time he was 28 years old, and was badly beaten and terrorized by white policemen, although he was never charged with any crime. Instead of responding with blind hatred for white people, Mr. Ingram responded with visionary love for his own people and open communications to all people, on more levels; and part of that experience was reflected in his poetry and music. He produced a Soul / Spoken-word LP in 1974 titled [i]Drumbeat[/i] whose title track, although not a huge success at the time, would later be sampled by Norman Cook in the [a=Urban All Stars]' track [i]It Began In Africa[/i]. The sample would then later reappear in the [a=The Chemical Brothers] classic [i]It Began In Afrika[/i].