"Papa Don't Take No Mess" is a funk song performed by James Brown.
Like "The Payback," "Papa Don't Take No Mess" was originally recorded for a rejected soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Hell Up in Harlem.
Record World said that the song is "carefully fashioned from disco and pure black leather funk.
"[3] with Fred Wesley and The J.B.'s: A piano solo, performed by Brown, is included in the longer edit that appears on the Hell album.
Steely Dan covered this song in the band introduction segment of their "Rarities night" concerts in September 2011.