|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 6, 2004 16:21:52 GMT -5
James Johnson Jr. PKA Rick James has passed away at his home in Hollywood Hills, CA, of apparent natural causes. He was 56. Here's an article from the net: Funk Singer Rick James Dies in Los Angeles LOS ANGELES - Funk legend Rick James, best known for the 1981 hit "Super Freak," died Friday, apparently of natural causes, police said. James died at 9:45 a.m. at a residence near Universal City, said Police Department spokeswoman Esther Reyes. "We learned of his death after responding to a radio call," Reyes said. After his big hit, James' fame began to fade as he became embroiled in drugs, legal problems and health issues. James was convicted in 1993 of assaulting two women. The first attack occurred in 1991 when he restrained and burned a young woman with a hot pipe during a cocaine binge at his house in West Hollywood. He was free on bail when the second assault occurred in 1992 in James' hotel room. James was sentenced to more than two years in state prison. In 1997, he released a new album, but a year later he suffered a stroke while performing at Denver's Mammoth Events Center, derailing a comeback tour. In 1998 he also underwent hip replacement surgery. With his trademark Jheri curl, James was one of the biggest R&B stars of the 1980s, using danceable rhythms and passionate ballads to gain a wide following. Aside from "Super Freak" — which MC Hammer used a decade later as the backing track for his monster hit "U Can't Touch This" — James' hits included "Mary Jane," "Ebony Eyes" and "Fire and Desire," a stirring duet with Teena Marie.
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 6, 2004 16:22:34 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 7, 2004 22:47:32 GMT -5
Here are two great sites to check for info Rick James WebsiteAll Hip Hop All Hip Hop has a great series of articles and is doin a tribute to Rick; there's other great info on the site as well
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 8, 2004 1:29:48 GMT -5
A Newsday article on the Funkmeister: Rick James:band:
|
|
|
Post by Forever Motown on Aug 8, 2004 3:01:22 GMT -5
Such a great loss to the music industry..... My deepest sympathies to Rick's Family :sweetsorry: :RIP: Rick James. You will certainly live on through your music.
|
|
|
Post by Emerald City on Aug 8, 2004 19:03:03 GMT -5
Thanks for the links :wink:
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 9, 2004 0:06:19 GMT -5
Thanks for the links They are pretty interesting aren't they :cheerstoyou:
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 9, 2004 17:03:26 GMT -5
James Funeral Set in Los Angeles LOS ANGELES - Funeral services were announced for Rick James, the funk singer best known for the hit "Super Freak," who was found dead Friday at age 56.
A public viewing will be held Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Forest Lawn Memorial Park-Hollywood Hills. A memorial service will be held there at 11 a.m. Thursday.
"Rick wanted everyone who loved him to be with him at the end and to celebrate his life," said Sujata Murthy, his record label's spokeswoman.
James was found dead at his apartment. An autopsy Saturday failed to determine the cause of death.
The singer had a history of cocaine addiction that led to two assault convictions in the 1990s and a two-year stretch in prison.
Coroner's officials were awaiting results of a toxicology test, which they said could take several weeks.
:sosad: :soblue: :sniffling: :butwhy: :tearing: :sosad:
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 11, 2004 22:36:14 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 11, 2004 22:49:31 GMT -5
Still more on Rick James, pretty decent article:
Party of One Rick James Left the Legacy of a Song Whose Ubiquity Is Almost . . . Freaky
By Hank Stuever Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, August 7, 2004; Page C01
Though he has gone (of apparent natural causes, said Los Angeles police, after a caretaker found him dead in his Universal City home yesterday morning), the singer Rick James will always be with us: at class reunions, bar mitzvahs, wedding receptions. He will sing eternally the 1981 R&B dance hit that made him: "Super Freak," a wonderful song about a nymphomaniac backstage groupie who is waiting in Room 714 of a hotel somewhere, "with incense, wine and candles -- it's such a freaky scene."
Blow, daddy.
Happily, many of us have seen our grandmothers and aunts dance to this song, such is its lasting ubiquity among party deejays-for-hire: "She's a very kinky girl," the song goes. "The kind you don't take home to mother. She will never let your spirits down, once you get her off the street. Ow, girl." (Now, everyone, please: a toast to the lovely bride and groom.)
This is not an insignificant gift to the world, the joy of one hit song that burns itself into the global pop consciousness, leaving its naughty intention behind and becoming something else, something permanent. James, who was 56, was known in his younger days by the blunt, Cleopatraesque funky braids and tight leather pants he wore, and he certainly had other accomplishments, other songs, other things to do with his life than channel the super freaks. (After all, on the same album as "Super Freak" was "Give It to Me Baby." And he gave us, via his guiding hand as producer in the late 1970s to mid-'80s, the Mary Jane Girls, Teena Marie and Eddie Murphy's No. 2 hit, "Party All the Time.")
Did you know that in one of his first bands, Rick James, having gone AWOL from the Navy, played with Neil Young?
(You didn't know. They were called the Mynah Birds, ripping off the Byrds.)
Probably what you do know is that James was for a time an actual super-duper freaky freak, surrounding himself with the proverbial hookers and blow, charged with abduction and assault in 1993, serving two years in a California state prison (the judge called it "a gift" from the jury, which acquitted him or deadlocked on still other charges), emerging in 1996 with a resolve to stage a comeback -- which he did, but mostly in a nostalgic, VH1, frequent-appearances-at-Constitution-Hall sense of the word. He last played Constitution Hall as recently as May, with his old protege Teena Marie. A Washington Post critic wrote that watching him was "sadly suggestive of a really good karaoke version of Rick James. But once he got there, he was ready to go all night."
The comedian Dave Chappelle, in his Comedy Central sketch show, does a Rick James caricature, inspiring people everywhere to walk around and say, "I'm Rick James, bitch!" Rather than bemoan this, James embraced it. According to MTV News, James was talking to Chappelle in June about the comedian playing him in a movie version of his life, based on "Memoirs of a Super Freak," which he'd been writing for years.
In 2002, after he'd recovered from a stroke and surgery to replace a hip, he told an interviewer from a financial advice Web site, Bankrate.com, that he used to spend $7,000 a week on cocaine in the '80s. He also said that he would always be rich, thanks to hits like "Super Freak" (the riff of which was sampled for MC Hammer's 1990 hit "U Can't Touch This") and because so many snippets of his oeuvre kept showing up -- with full credit and royalty payment -- on other hip-hop and rap songs. However, he wasn't a big fan of the new school:
"The majority of them don't have an idea of what it is to entertain a crowd," he complained of today's hip-hop stars in a Washington Post profile in 1998. "Holding on to your [anatomy], walking back and forth with your baseball hat turned backwards, throwing your hands up. . . . That ain't [expletive] entertainment. Today's music just makes me want to go out and buy old-school music even more. Today's music makes me more appreciative of what I did in the '80s, what George Clinton did, what James Brown did, the Gap Band . . . because right now, a lot of these youngsters, all they're doing is taking our stuff, sampling and putting a bunch of rap on it."
That's how it is for super freaks. They age and mellow, make parole, and something comes along that strikes them as irredeemably freaky, wrong, dirty -- something they themselves would never have done. Thus the freak becomes less super, less freak.
Upon accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Rhythm & Soul Awards last month in Beverly Hills, James was able to confidently make fun of his recent travails and recovery. Examining the glass statuette they gave him, he said: "Years ago, I would have used this for something totally different. Cocaine is a hell of a drug."
That's . . . well, that's just freaky. Which is why the song will remain the same.
For years, you may have thought a "Super Freak" was "the kind of girl you read about in Newsweek magazine." That is because some lyrics are never heard quite right. She was, in fact, "the kind of girl you read about in new-wave magazine." (Whereas Eleanor Clift is the kind of girl you read about in Newsweek magazine.)
If you leave this world remembered for one pop song, then you've left it in grand enough style: "She likes the boys in the band. She says that I'm her all-time favorite" -- sing it with me now -- "When I make my move to her room, it's the right tiiiiime. She's never hard to please. . . . That girl is pretty kinky, the girl's a super freak. I really love to taste her, every time we meet."
Rick James didn't want to see anybody sitting down. All y'all on the dance floor, grandmas and rabbis and not-so-super freaks, we're doin' it.
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 11, 2004 22:52:57 GMT -5
An excerpt from a Newsday article:
*James' career seemed headed for a possible revival: He had recorded a new song, "I Got You," with soul singer Teena Marie, and the two recently toured. The last time James mounted a comeback tour, in 1998, it was cut short after he suffered a stroke while onstage in Denver.
Though often remembered as an amusing caricature rather than a funk pioneer - he called his music "funk 'n' roll" or "punk-funk" - James' influence echoed through popular culture long after his hits stopped. His preening sexuality and sleazy wardrobe were successfully appropriated by Prince during the 1980s. As rap rose to prominence, the bouncy bass of "Super Freak" again became a hit when MC Hammer used it on "U Can't Touch This" in 1990. More recently, the comedian Dave Chappelle turned his impersonation of James into a recurring character on his Comedy Central television show.
A versatile musician who sang, wrote his own songs and played guitar and keyboards, James was born James Johnson on Feb. 1, 1948, in Buffalo, the third of eight children. James' mother worked as a maid. At 15, he joined the U.S. Naval Reserves but went AWOL and fled to Toronto. He changed his name to Ricky Matthews, then to Rick James. He also began to play music seriously, joining The Mynah Byrds, whose members included Neil Young.
By the late 1970s, James had landed at Motown. His 1978 debut album, "Come Get It!," yielded two R&B hits, "You & I" and the infamous "Mary Jane," a thinly disguised ode to marijuana. The title track of his follow-up album, "Bustin' Out," reached No. 6 on the charts. The album hinted at James' future troubles in the cocaine-themed song "Cop 'n' Blow."
The 1981 album "Street Songs" proved to be James' golden egg, going platinum on the strength of "Super Freak" and the R&B hit "Give It to Me Baby." The cover of "Street Songs" created James' most lasting image: Leaning against a streetlamp and holding a guitar, he sported long, corn-rowed hair and thigh-high boots, looking as much like a prostitute as a musician. Along with acts such as The Gap Band and Parliament/Funkadelic, James helped establish funk as a sexy, uninhibited, even goofy form of dance music.
James' rock-guitar sound also helped popularize funk among white audiences. "I'm into rock," James explained on his Web site. "I'm trying to change the root of funk, trying to make it more progressive, more melodic, and more lyrically structured."*
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 11, 2004 23:02:54 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 12, 2004 19:07:09 GMT -5
Fans Gather to Remember Rick James
By ANDREA ALMOND, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of friends and fans gathered Thursday at a memorial service to remember Rick James.
Stretch limousines pulled up to the auditorium at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood Hills, where a crowd of about 1,200 came to remember the "Super Freak" singer with musical performances.
Guests who arrived at the service included Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr., singer Chaka Kahn, Jermaine Jackson and others who worked with James or were fans of his work.
James died in his sleep last week at his home near Universal City. He was 56.
"On behalf of the James family, we would like to thank all of his fans. This is his moment of glory. He would've loved to have known he had this much support. We appreciate your prayers," Ty James, the singer's daughter, said Thursday.
Linda Truitt, a 47-year-old fan, attended the service and praised him and his work. "He was real — not like other entertainers," Truitt said.
"He did what he wanted to do, how he wanted to do it, his way. Rick James forever," she added.
James' career peaked in 1981 with the Grammy-winning hit "Super Freak," but the singer had enjoyed a bit of a revival recently, partly due to comedian Dave Chappelle portraying him as violent and arrogant on his "Chappelle's Show." James himself appeared on the Comedy Central show.
An autopsy has failed to determine the singer's cause of death.
James, who suffered a stroke in 1998, was a diabetic and also had a pacemaker.
He also had a history of cocaine addiction that led to two assault convictions in the 1990s and a two-year stretch in prison.
Coroner's officials said Thursday they were still awaiting results of a toxicology test, which they said could take several weeks.
James, who was born in Buffalo, N.Y., will be buried Saturday in his hometown following a funeral service.
He is survived by three children and two grandchildren.
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 12, 2004 20:27:01 GMT -5
This is another great article I've found about Rick Funk Singer Rick James Dies at Age 56 Funk Legend Rick James, Best Known for 1981 Hit 'Super Freak,' Dies in Los Angeles at Age 56 LOS ANGELES Aug. 6, 2004 — Funk legend Rick James, best known for the 1981 hit "Super Freak" before his career disintegrated amid drug use and violence that sent him to prison, died Friday at age 56. James died in his sleep at his home near Universal City, publicist Sujata Murthy said. The singer lived alone and was found by his personal assistant, who notified police. Police and Murthy said they believe James died of natural causes. The exact cause was not immediately released. An autopsy and toxicology exam will be conducted Saturday. "There's a possibility that his past history with drugs and current medical condition may have contributed to his death," coroner's spokesman David Campbell said. Publicist Maureen O'Connor, speaking on behalf of James' three children, said they believed he died of heart failure. James was honored in June by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers with the Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award. Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. presented the award. "His creative abilities, his instincts about music and production were just awesome," Gordy said Friday in a statement, calling James "a pioneer who took Motown in a whole new direction." "To me, he's like the original R&B rock star," said Smokey Robinson, who recorded the duet "Ebony Eyes" with James. "He created another kind of rhythmic style for R&B music. Rick was very unique in his presentation and he was very instrumental in the careers of a lot of other Motown artists." "I think he was really fantastic, he was a creator," singer Little Richard told MSNBC. "He made a lot of people happy, he made a lot of friends and a lot of people got famous through his music," he said, referring to sampling by hip-hop artists such as MC Hammer, who used the "Super Freak" bass line in his hit "U Can't Touch This." The song earned James and Hammer the Grammy for best R&B song in 1990. "Today the world mourns a musician and performer of the funkiest kind," said Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. "Grammy winner Rick James was a singer, songwriter and producer whose performances were always as dynamic as his personality." With long hair elaborately styled in braids, James had hit songs and albums from the 1970s into the '80s, but by the following decade his fame began to fade as he became embroiled in drugs, legal and health problems. James was convicted in 1993 of assaulting two women. The first case occurred in 1991, when prosecutors said James and his girlfriend tied a woman to a chair, burned her with a hot crack pipe and forced her to perform sex acts during a cocaine binge at his West Hollywood home. He was free on bail when the second assault occurred in 1992 in James' hotel room. He served more than two years in prison. In 1997, James released a new album, but a year later he suffered a stroke while performing at Denver's Mammoth Events Center, derailing a comeback tour. He also underwent hip replacement surgery. James had lately enjoyed a bit of a revival among a younger generation. Dave Chappelle recently portrayed James as violent and arrogant in a series of darkly humorous skits on his Comedy Central show. James himself also appeared on the "Chappelle's Show" skits, which have become often-quoted cult hits. Born James A. Johnson Jr. in Buffalo, N.Y., he had long been reported to have been born in 1952, but according to his Web site and police he was born Feb. 1, 1948. James went to work for Motown in the 1970s and got the chance to record an album, "Come and Get It," which was released in 1978 and produced the hit "You and I." He followed with "Bustin' out of L Seven," which had hits with the single "Bustin' Out" and "Mary Jane," and another popular LP, "Fire it Up." His hits in 1980 included the album "Garden of Love" and the singles "Fool on the Street," "Love Gun," "Come into My Life," and "Big Time." The following year came the well-received album "Street Songs" and the hits "Give it to Me Baby" and "Super Freak." After a decade at Motown, James left the label as the sexually graphic themes of his music conflicted with the company's conservative approach to pop music. "They never totally understood what I was trying to do, where I was trying to come from with my music," he said in a 1988 interview with The Associated Press. "For the whole 10 years, it was a constant battle in me trying to acquaint them with what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it." At the time he said he had freed himself from a cocaine addiction that threatened his life. "There was a bad period in my life some years ago when I got into a serious cocaine habit; $10,000 to $15,000 a week," he said. "I didn't really see it. My lawyers and my accountants and friends really saw it before I did. They saw that my usage of coke was getting to be a million-dollar-a-year habit. I didn't see it until I went into rehab and I didn't understand it until I got out." James said he got caught up in living the "bad boy" persona he had cultivated. "There was a time where I was just trying to live the image wholeheartedly; I wasn't thinking about the person, James Johnson," he said. "I mean, Rick James was just a man-made image, the image I created. Just trying to live Rick James almost killed me." James also had his own girl group, The Mary Jane Girls. The foursome had a huge smash in the James-penned hit, "All Night Long." He provided hits for other stars and worked with some of them, most notably R&B songstress Teena Marie, with whom he recorded the sultry classic "Fire and Desire." He also made The Temptations contemporary with the song "Standing on the Top" in the early '80s. James was not married, Murthy said. He is survived by daughter Ty, sons Rick Jr. and Tazman, and two granddaughters.
|
|
|
Post by Motorcity on Aug 14, 2004 10:34:21 GMT -5
Rick James' All-Star Send-Off
By Charlie Amter
Rick James said goodbye to Hollywood Thursday.
Hundreds of fans and close friends of the R&B/funk singer tearfully paid their respects at Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, not far from where James lived for many years.
Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson, Jamie Foxx (news) and Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. (James famously helped revive Motown's declining sales in the late 1970s and is credited with helping save the label) were among the notable guests at Thursday's somber, if not slightly surreal service. Legendary porn star Ron Jeremy, for reasons perhaps only known to James, was also in attendance, as were Marvin Gaye's daughter, actress Nona Gaye, and R&B singer Teena Marie, with whom James recently toured.
Controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke at the four hour-long ceremony, as did a provocatively dressed Yvette "Corvette" Barlowe, a former singer for the James-produced act the Mary Jane Girls.
Wonder, who performed the song "I've Had Some Good Days," told the crowd, "We're here to celebrate a father, a husband, a brother, a friend, a son...to celebrate life."
The Grammy-winning "Super Freak" singer died in his sleep last Friday. He was 56. James is survived by three children, two grandchildren and thousands of fans.
"On behalf of the behalf of the James family, we would like to thank all of his fans. This is his moment of glory. He would've loved to have known he had this much support. We appreciate your prayers," Ty James, the singer's daughter, said Thursday.
Hundreds of wildly dressed Rick James aficionados turned out for the memorial. One, 47-year-old Linda Truitt, summed up the her feelings for the singer by telling the Associated Press, "He did what he wanted to do, how he wanted to do it--his way."
Los Angeles coroner's officials have yet to rule on an official cause of death, pending the results of toxicology tests. His family believes that James most likely died of natural causes. In addition to his long history of drug abuse, he was a diabetic and suffered a stroke and heart problems in recent years.
James, whose super-freaky life had its major ups (hit songs like "Super Freak," "Give It To Me Baby," "Mary Jane") and downs (a stint in prison for a crack-fueled assault), had been in the midst of a comeback. He had recorded more than two dozen songs for a new album and was working on an autobiography titled Memoirs of a Super Freak.
He was also the subject of a wildly popular skit on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show. The show's star, Dave Chappelle, was in talks to star in a movie version of James' autobiography, but the future of the project is unknown in the wake of James' death.
The Buffalo-born singer will be buried Saturday in his hometown following another funeral service with local family members and acquaintances.
|
|