Rick James passed away this morning at 9:20 AM in his sleep of natural causes at his Los Angeles home, per his spokesperson. He was 56 years old. He is survived by his 3 children (Ty, Rick Jr., Tazman) and 2 grandchildren (Jasmine and Charisma).
Last month, he performed his hit "Fire & Desire" with Teena Marie at the BET Awards. He had finished an album and was preparing for its release next year. He was also in discussion with various studios for a movie based on his life.
Born in Buffalo, NY, known as the King of Punk Funk, and the bad boy of Motown, Rick James blended the hard core funk of his predecessors James Brown, Sly Stone and George Clinton with the Rock and Roll theatrics of the Rolling Stones and Kiss. Rick James was the quintessential "Super Freak," a term he coined in the 1980's with the multi-platinum song he wrote, arranged, produced and performed sharing that same title. The single catapulted the album Street Songs to #1 on the R&B charts and #3 on the pop charts. This mega-talented, multi-Grammy and American Music Award winner played at least five different instruments and had not only sold millions himself, he wrote and produced songs for Eddie Murphy, Mary Jane Girls, The Temptations, Teena Marie and Smokey Robinson, all selling millions as well. He licensed his work for sampling by artists such as Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu and MC Hammer, whose sample of "Super Freak" for the hit single "U Can't Touch This" made Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em the biggest selling rap album in history.
Born James Johnson Jr., the third oldest child in a family of eight in Buffalo, N.Y., on February 1, 1948, Rick James is credited with establishing the "punk-funk" style. "It was my mother who raised us," he said. "She was a small elegant woman of great dignity and strength. She always had two jobs. Sometimes she worked as a maid, but her main income came from running numbers for the Italian mob. She raised us as strict Catholics."
An early 80s icon of rebelling against the establishment, Rick James started early by joining the navy at age fifteen and going AWOL soon after. He fled to Canada, and it was there, in Toronto, that he founded his first group, the Mynah Birds. Other members of the group included Neil Young and Bruce Palmer (who later formed Buffalo Springfield), and Goldie McJohn (who later joined Steppenwolf). It was at this point that he became known as Rick James.
Being the nephew of the Temptations' Melvin Franklin, Rick James was no stranger to Motown, and he and his band were signed to the label in the mid-sixties. Although the group recorded a couple of tracks, nothing was ever released. Probably because Rick James (who had now relocated to Detroit) was in trouble with the military, and because the rest of the band moved to Los Angeles.
Not easily deterred, Rick went to London where he formed the blues band "The Main Line." He commuted between London and North America (where he was a staff songwriter for Motown in the late sixties) for the next seven years. In 1977 he finally returned to the US completely, forming a band (the Stone City Band) with which he experimented at mixing rock and funk - creating "funk 'n' roll." "I'm into rock," Rick James said. "I'm trying to change the root of funk, trying to make it more progressive, more melodic, and more lyrically structured. More honest, as opposed to putting riffs together, saying, 'Get up and get down. I feel alright. Oomph! Good God! Get up and boogie' and all that redundant bull."
When he approached Berry Gordy in 1978, he had an entire record in hand. Impressed by his tapes, Berry Gordy once again signed Rick James to Motown - this time to the Gordy subsidiary. The album was released later that year as Come Get It and two of its songs immediately hit the charts. "You and I" went gold in September and "Mary Jane," a barely-disguised hymn to marijuana hit US R&B #3 in October.
Bustin' Out Of L Seven was his next album and sent him out on his first US tour. Other artists that accompanied him on his "Fire It Up" tour were the Mary Jane Girls (a group that he created), and a young singer named Prince. It was a big break for Prince and the two artists continued to be compared for a long time (something that both got sick of rapidly). Partly due to Rick James' wildly extroverted style of performance, the tour was a great success and drew not only large enthusiastic audiences, but also wide media attention.
Following Garden Of Love, an uncharacteristic ballad album, Rick James released his fifth album, Street Songs. Probably Rick James' definitive album, Street Songs achieved double-platinum status, stayed in the Top 100 Album chart for 54 weeks, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Rick James also received a Grammy Nomination for the song "Super Freak." When asked about "Super Freak," Rick James explained, "'Super Freak' came about after Street Songs was complete. I was listening to the tracks, just riffing on my bass, when I hit on this punky-funky sounding line. Reminded me of how punkers look funny when they try to dance. I heard it as a goof and never dreamed it'd take off. The lyrics were silly. The line about 'she's the kind of girl you don't take home to mother' was jive. I could take any girl home to mother. Anyway, the song came together, I had the Temps singing behind me, and next thing I know it's a smash."
Although Rick James released seven more albums (six of which were released by Motown) and had several more hits on the charts, none have equalled the popularity that Street Songs received. In 1983 "Cold Blooded" hit #1 on the US R&B charts, and later that year Rick James collaborated with Smokey Robinson on a song: "Ebony Eyes." But Rick James' legacy doesn't only live on through his songs. He created and nurtured young artists and bands some of which have included the Mary Jane Girls, Teena Marie, and Eddie Murphy.
Rick James broke many cultural taboos by flaunting his extravagant lifestyle. As an icon of drug use and eroticism, Rick James went further than anyone had gone before. But before long, his lifestyle started to catch up with him. "During the Throwin' Down tour I went to see Dizzy Gillespie at the Blue Note in New York. Man, I loved Dizzy. He was a guru, a beautiful man filled with the spirit of compassion, the father I never had. Diz was never judgmental. He used to say I was too serious and warn me not to look at life so black and white. He saw I was wild. 'Rick,' he said, 'you remind me of Bird. Boy, you better slow down.' But even Dizzy, for all his wisdom, couldn't change my reckless ways."
James's flamboyant lifestyle took its toll on his health and he was hospitalized several times between 1979 and 1984. He had major hits in 1984 and 1985 with the more relaxed '17' and 'The Glow'. The latter also provided the title for a highly acclaimed album, which reflected James's decision to abandon drugs. He cancelled plans to star in an autobiographical film called The Spice Of Life in the wake of the overwhelming commercial impact of Prince's Purple Rain. After releasing The Flag in 1986, James ran into serious conflict with Motown. James left the label, signing to Reprise Records, where he immediately achieved a soul number 1 with 'Loosey's Rap', a collaboration with Roxanne Shante.
Now "clean and loving it," James has returned to the music scene with Urban Rapsody, his first new album since 1988's Wonderful.
"I thought about doing an acoustic album, to pour out my heart, to get all self-indulgent," he says. "But that would have been too soul-searching. It might have been a downer."
And after bedding by his count "thousands" of women, James, 50, has settled down with dancer Tanya Hijazi, 27 (whom he married in December 1997 after an 11-year relationship), and their 5-year-old son, Tazman. "I'm too old to do crazy things anymore," says James. "Before, I'd just smoke dope and have sex. I never knew if it was day or night. Now I go to bed at 11 and get up at 7. I don't have aluminum foil on my windows anymore."
Swaggering decadence had been the essence of his image for so long that he wondered whether the public would be ready -- or, more important, willing -- to accept a Rick James whose concept of touchy-feely no longer had anything to do with an orgy. Ultimately, James decided not to ask them to. "I said, 'Fuck this, let's get back to the roots,' " he recalls, "and I wrote some new songs."
So instead of looking ahead, Urban Rapsody takes a long look back. James has attempted a concept album, an audio movie of his life; he compares the recording process to "recreating Frankenstein." And the record is something of a monster -- a sprawling, 70-minute, 15-track catharsis. If the CD has a problem, it is the obviousness of its intent, which is to appeal to the broadest audience possible. James enlisted a wide assortment of stars, from hip-hoppers (Snoop Doggy Dogg, Neb Love, Rappin' 4-Tay) to rhythm and blues legends (Bobby Womack, Charlie Wilson) to another of his protégées (Joanne "JoJo" McDuffie, of the Mary Jane Girls) to help out. Occasionally, the music sounds as though James has traveled to his collaborators' ground instead of staking out his own. The sly spelling of the album's title, Urban Rapsody, also carries the scent of concession, given the vehemence with which James used to rail against rappers.
"That was just me going through an artistic ego trip," he says now. "I didn't want rappers touching my shit, but a lot of us older musicians felt that way then. I wanted to sue them. But then I saw what kind of money I was making from Hammer and LL Cool J and Will Smith and on and on with the people sampling Rick James music. And I said, 'Never mind.' "
But if James's rap-and-funk approach now sometimes seems derivative, it's worth remembering that he's one of the innovators from whom it was derived. Certainly there is no doubting his technical mastery of the various styles he showcases on Urban Rapsody. His singing has acquired a honeyed richness, and his sincerity here can be downright disarming.
Snoop Doggy Dogg and Charlie Wilson contribute star quality to "Players Way," the single that was recently released to radio, but the CD has moments with far more magic. The title track, an ode to the inner city, plays Rappin' 4-Tay's smooth staccato against James's bruising crooning, both vocals folding seamlessly into a tangy backing of warm horns and funky bass. Neb Love, of the struggling rap duo Da Five Footaz, may get her big break with her hauntingly seductive performances on "It's Time" and "Favorite Flava." There's also no denying the earnestness of "Mama's Eyes," a painful recollection of James's mother, who died of cancer while he was in prison. Throughout, the underlying tone of Urban Rapsody is one of uncertainty, both musically and lyrically, and that is its most personal and poignant statement: This is Rick James, circa 1997, vulnerable and bravely struggling for direction and meaning.
"I have to establish myself again, but I have to be careful. I don't want to lose the fans I had, and I want to attract new fans, but I don't want to lose my musical integrity either," he says. "I don't want to make the same mistakes I made before, but I don't want to blow people away with something foreign or alien to what they expect. I have to find a happy medium. The album is out, yeah, but I'm still in search of that happy medium."
A nightmare of hassles behind him, he's both relieved and relaxed, a bright and quick-witted student of American popular music, the history of which he has helped shape.
Details on the funeral will be announced on www.rickjames.com shortly.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the American Cancer Society.
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I was so very sorry to hear of Rick's death today. Rick James was a funkmaster and a rock legend. Aundery 5000 of Outkast and Prince owe a lot to Rick James. I still own and listen to several Rick James albums,"Street Songs", "Come Get It!", and "Bustin Out Of L Seven" are great albums of funktatic darkness. And we've all enjoyed watching Rick be the super freak he is. His Superfreakyness will live on in his music and we can never forget. Cocaine is a hell of a drug! "Rick James Bitch! Show Me your titties!" RIP super freakster-
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