Famous for hits like Sex Machine, Brown died of heart failure on Christmas morning in Atlanta while hospitalized for pneumonia. He was 73.

The public funeral will be the third memorial event in as many days for the musician known as the Godfather of Soul reports BBC.

On Thursday, thousands of fans poured into the Apollo Theatre in New York, where Brown made his stage debut in 1956 and recorded several live albums.

A private service for family and close friends was held in South Carolina on Friday.

Reverend Sharpton, now a black civil rights leader, delivered the eulogy and praised Brown's effect on popular music.

"The James Brown that I know, he started singing in the woods of South Carolina," he said.

"What made James Brown so great was his commitment to a beat that some people tried to kill."

Brown was born in 1933 in Barnwell, South Carolina. He spent much of his childhood in Augusta, and adopted the town as his home.

He remained involved with the city throughout his stardom, handing out Thanksgiving turkeys every year, providing meals for more than 1,000 families.