R.I.P. Rick James

[FORD]

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.

[Sarge]

I'm Rick James Bitch!
Dave Chapelle

[FORD]

Hey wait a minute.... He had hip replacement surgery in 1998? I wonder if he and Eddie had the same doctor?

[Antman]

I heard they had the same coke dealer though.

[JCOOK]

And I had my money on Ike Turner goin out first. YIKES!

[rustoffa]

If there's women and drugs wherever he's goin', the women better get some pain killers. Wait, drugs would already be there....fuck it.
So long superfreak.

[Panamark]

How old was he ? It doesnt say ?

RIP Superfreaky Dude !!!

[FORD]

He was 56. A little young for "natural causes" (likely heart failure)

[diamondD]

Cocaine's a hell of a drug

[pete]

http://rickjames.com/images/rickjames-smallphoto.jpg

Rick James
February 1, 1948 - August 6, 2004

[Dave IS VH]

Um, could the years and years of drugs have something to do with his death?

[Panamark]

NAH !!! what makes you think that ?? :p

[vhsinger22]

R.I.P. SUPER FREAK!!

[pete]

Janes Brown's Final Interviews

source (http://www.allhiphop.com/Alternatives/?ID=58)




Rick James: Fire And Desire
By Jigsaw


Everybody has a reason to love Rick James. Whether it’s his celebrated musical legacy or his outspoken nature. Hell, if you are media, his ability to generate headlines for living a defiant rock star lifestyle is reason enough to praise him. Rick’s life is one massive canvas that’s still being painted. In his past, he’s blessed us with hits like “Super Freak (Part 1),” which does not begin to quantify his legacy. He also served two years in prison after being convicted of assaulting and kidnapping a woman. Similarly, his time behind bars does not mark the totality of his legacy.
Recently, Rick has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from ASCAP and spoofed by comic Dave Chappelle, a different sort of tribute. AllHipHop.com talked and talked and talked and talked with Rick. The interview will be presented in an ongoing series, because frankly, its one of the most interesting dialogues to be featured on this site. Remember: HE'S RICK JAMES, B***H!!!!

AllHipHop.com: I would like to congratulate you, because it seems as though you are making a comeback and you are all over the place now.

Rick James: Yeah, I am definitely resurfacing in the world of entertainment. Back into the “bump and grind.” I am very happy about that, it feels good. I am learning a lot and I have matured a lot. I have a son, I have a family and I am taking life a lot more serious now.

AllHipHop.com: What are your plans? I know you have the movie coming out…

Rick James: Well I have the movie we’re working on that’s coming out and the book Memoirs of a Super Freak which is an autobiographical book. It was a great thing for me to do the writing, and that happened when I was locked down so it was very introspective, as far as my life is concerned. It gave me insight on musicians, a business aspect, as well knowledge on drug addiction and all that stuff.

AllHipHop.com: So you wrote it while you were incarcerated?

Rick: Yes I did, I wrote it while I was in prison, got a chance to look introspectively at myself and it was like therapy.

AllHipHop.com: I want to speak a little bit about Dave Chappelle, because he has infamously parodied you…

Rick: He is making a lot of money off of me, that son-of-a-b***h…

AllHipHipHop.com: He just resigned with Comedy Central for quite a bit of money [reports say $50,000,000]…

Rick: I know.

AllHipHop.com: What did you think of the skit, I mean obviously you were part of it but…

Rick: I laughed, I think it was funny, it was satire, and it was fun. You know people are too serious about things nowadays. A lot of people were expecting me to get offended, f**k no! Dave is a good friend of mine. So is Charlie Murphy, and I actually lived that life and to look at myself now, and to look back on my life and see how insane I was, is pretty funny to me. I used to do things like “I’m Rick James b***h!” and kinds of stuff.

AllHipHop.com: Oh you really used to say that?

Rick: Of course I used to. “Show my your t*ts b***h” and all that stuff, it was my world and I was the king of it. So if you lived in it, and you didn’t do what I said, then get the f**k out! When I look back on it, the insanity of it all; the drugs- when I made the statement about “Cocaine is one hell of a drug”- cocaine - that was the foundation of our party atmosphere, it was about that.

AllHipHop.com: What about the whole drug scene, some rappers are experiencing those kinds of problems…

Rick: One thing about rappers that I have noticed is that most of them smoke blunts, and that’s their big thing. But they smoke a blunt and they can’t remember their rap. So that could probably be worse than cocaine. You don’t really see a lot of rappers using cocaine; it is kind of a phased-out drug for them. Maybe because they saw their mother and fathers go under or there is some kind of psychological ramifications that they’re dealing with, but not lot of rappers use cocaine.

AllHipHop.com: Did you ever do crack or anything like that?

Rick: Crack is for poor people.

AllHipHop.com: There are some rumors that DMX is having problems with crack.

Rick: Well, I hope that DMX is all right and I hope that it is just rumors. Basically, cocaine is cocaine, and a drug is a drug. But people don’t realize that the biggest drug in the world is alcohol, that’s worst than cocaine. This drug that eats up 5-6,000-brain cells every time you take a drink, that do not replenish themselves. There is a lot of money in that too. And tobacco, now those are serious drugs.

AllHipHop.com: Yes, but you are talking business now.

Rick: Yes, but cocaine is business too…but if you want to talk about a serious drug, alcohol that is the number one drug.

AllHipHop.com: Right, I feel you on that. Business rules America.

Rick: The THC content in marijuana eats away your endorphins; it trains your endorphins to act totally different. So that is like not a good thing, alcohol kills thousands of brain cells in a single drink, I mean we have billions, but still. Cigarettes destroy your lungs. So if you think about it, you walking down the road and the guy on the bus is smoking a pack of cigarettes, then what can you really do that is healthy? I mean everybody is an addict for something, few of us will admit it. I am not in denial about my addiction. I live it everyday.

AllHipHop.com: As corny as this sounds, I am addicted to candy, personally. I drink juice to get my sugar now.

Rick: Candy is a horrible thing. Because of the sugar content there is a risk of diabetes and all that you know.

AllHipHop.com: Are you touring or anything? I know that you and Teena were going to tour…

Rick: Me and Teena been on tour since November…

AllHipHop.com: I thought it was a great thing when she got signed to Cash Money Records…

Rick: I don’t know how great a thing that was. I think it gave Cash Money legitimacy that I don’t think they had because Teena is a legitimate talent. But she is very old school, she isn’t Missy Elliot or Beyonce and I don’t know if Cash Money can necessarily produce her.

AllHipHop.com: Her album in its first week sold more than Ghost Face Killah’s album did.

Rick: But her whole album has not sold more than 180,000 records, so something is wrong somewhere.

AllHipHop.com: It is very hard to get somebody over 30 on these music video channels.

Rick: Let me tell you something, old school stations are the largest stations in the country. There is a bigger window. When the Temptations put out an album it goes double platinum, this shows you that people in their 30’s 40’s and 50’s don’t give a f**k about rap. I mean do you think people in their 40’s and 50’s go out and buy a Snoop Dogg album? Think about it. They are buying Temptations, Miles Davis, and on and on. They are not going to go out and buy f**king Eminem or Britney Spears. So there is a very large window out there starting at 30 to about 60. That’s millions and millions of records. If there wasn’t, I would give up and I wouldn’t be releasing this double album. The album has a chance because young kids don’t run it, old school stations do.

AllHipHop.com: New Edition was on the radio and the program director came on the radio to say why they wouldn’t be playing much New Edition, because their demographic stops at 25.

Rick: New Edition, I don’t consider New Edition an old school group. I mean New Edition opened up for me. But I don’t consider them your quintessential old school group, like the Commodores or the Ohio Players or Frankie Beverly. They come between a very strange line. They never had giant record sales that could compete with us. I mean we were selling stadiums out with this stuff, and that’s a big difference. Bobby broke out for them, Bel Biv Devoe and on and on. The demographic for New Edition would be very hard to assess. With Rick James it’s simple if you like music.vI make millions of dollars a year with not even recording.

AllHipHop.com: Where does your money come from?

Rick: Mary J. Blige, had a number one record last year with Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez, Old Dirty Bastard, Will Smith, LL Cool J. That’s where it comes from.

AllHipHop.com: How much money did you get off of Hammer “Can’t Touch This”?

Rick: I don’t know $30-40 million dollars. It was an 80/20 deal; it ‘s the largest selling Rap record of all time. We sold like 100 million records.

AllHipHop.com: That’s crazy…

Rick: Yea, but it isn’t anymore crazy than opening a magazine and seeing Puffy Combs or Master P are the richest young guys in the country. That’s insane and these guys don’t know anything about music. Master P told me, “Ricky if I had a fingertip of your talent,” I said, “N***er, you already have 700 million dollars!” Puffy is sitting there not doing a thing, putting his face on everything making $800/900 million. In our day, we couldn’t release our record, and distribute them, we had to deal with the Mafia or major companies. If we made $1.75 we were doing great, that’s why I charged Motown one million dollars an hour. I was one of the first blacks to get a million an hour. But that’s because I know that if they steal five copies, they are going to charge you for such and then be part of RIAA. So I said if they are going to f**k me, then I am going to make sure that I get paid. But it’s a big difference now; these kids are sitting on 600/700 million dollars for records that will never get recorded again. You think anybody is going to re-record 50 Cent? You think there is going to be a standard or something for Eminem? Frank Sinatra has been here since I was 3 years old, he has to be about 80 years old and he is still going strong [sales wise].

[pete]

source (http://www.allhiphop.com/Alternatives/?ID=59)

AllHipHop.com: You guys made timeless music, we always say that the type of music Hip-Hop is, when we are older we won’t really be able to enjoy it…
Rick: Hip-Hop is a replica or a refurbished version of old school. When you can’t make a hit record unless you do a Rick James album what does that tell you? On one hand I love it, but on the other hand it is taking music out of schools and kids don’t know how to play instruments. They resort to the best thing they know how, like black people surviving, taking away an art form. Can I really love that? I am pro-black, so for me to see these kids grow up in the projects and they can’t play nothing, but they can take a Rick James record and turn that around the turntable as Rap: sitting, drinking Crystal. I mean it’s a beautiful thing just as well.

AllHipHop.com: What do you think about kids not playing instruments, I am a former musician myself I used to take interest in guitar and drums…

Rick: I think it is a very sad thing, I think it’s a plot by the government, number 1 to take music out of schools. I think it is the worst thing that the government has done to the educational program. When I was growing up, you could play guitar, drums, saxophone, learn music theory, harmony all that s**t. Now, you can’t even get an instrument in high school and kids have nothing to r resort too, and that’s a very sad thing.

AllHipHop.com: Can you speak on that project that you, Kanye West and Bumpy Johnson are doing? What did you guys do together?

Rick: Well that’s a very strange thing, how that happened. My son called me up once when I talked to him, and said to me that his favorite rapper was Kanye West, and I didn’t know who the hell Kanye West was. He had introduced me to Andre from Outkast in Atlanta and I didn’t know who the hell he was either. I was wearing an Outkast shirt that I had bought, so I went over to him and we talked, I told him I loved all his records, but I didn’t know one record. This Kanye West thing my son turned me on to it too and my ex-wife, she said “Rick you have to get this album by this kid, Kanye West,” so I said “why is it so special?” Because he doesn’t look like a rapper with gold teeth, baseball hats on the side, he’s not talking about b***hes and hoes, and he isn’t shooting people. He actually has some religious connotation to his music, which really attracted me. I went and bought the album and I liked it, thought this boy had some talent, next thing I am getting a call to do a Kanye West bit. So you know God works in mysterious ways.

AllHipHop.com: So did you play instruments or just sing?

Rick: What I did is, I laid about 16 tracks of vocals, just to help with the melody. He was a very sweet kid, very humble. It was really a joy; it is always a joy watching these young kids who learned from us do what they do now. Because a lot of stuff these kids are doing, I can’t do. I hear some tracks going on, and say what was he on? I think they need to get together more often. One of the reasons why Andre and Outkast is so great is because they grew up from what he told me, on the old school. I mean he knows about the Beatles; he knows about Rick James, Jimi Hendrix; he has done his homework. Their album is one of the best rap album’s I have ever heard.

AllHipHop.com: Did you work with Andre?

Rick: We are trying to match our schedules, it’s just that he is so busy now. What he is going through right now, I went through. He is so busy I don’t even like bugging him, and we keep missing each other on the phone. He wants to work with me really bad and I want to work with him also. But if we never work together its okay, I just want him to enjoy his fame. Who knows if next year anybody will buy Outkast; and if he strays to far away from his black base, he is really going to lose it. It going to be like a Prince thing, that’s what f**ked Prince up; he was getting too white. There is a middle ground there, cause I think me, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, The Commodores got that middle ground, unlike Lenny Kravitz. He wants to do a black thing but he is successful with his white thing, but he doesn’t feel comfortable because it’s a white thing and there are no black people in the crowd. If you have 20,000 white people out there paying 100.00 a ticket, and all are girls, be happy! People come over to my house, musicians, and Lenny won’t touch an instrument, because he feels inferior. Think about it, its like Hootie & the Blowfish trying to come up on stage and jam with me.

AllHipHop.com: You talking about a double album, talk to me a little bit about that.

Rick: It’s going to have about 26/27 songs and it is going to be very interesting, it is going to be a lot of things that I always wanted to do.

AllHipHop.com: What kind of label situation are you working out?

Rick: I am doing my own label, independent. I want to be just like Puffy. I want to make $700 million. If I could have done it 20 years ago, I would have done it.

AllHipHop.com: I spoke to Stephanie Mills, and she kind of echoed the same thing about the entrepreneurship of rappers and she’s doing her own independent thing too. I think that is a great thing for you guys especially because people are going to get it and you guys obviously get the lion share of their money.

Rick: When I was at the BET Awards this year, I was totally happy. When I saw [Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five], it almost brought tears to my eyes. Because they were so powerful and this is where Rap started, they weren’t singing about killing people and AK’s or sticking d*cks up b***hes asses. Then, Rap was a statement, “Don’t push me cause I am close to the edge” that’s still going on.” It’s like a jungle sometimes,” some of the greatest statement ever made. The old school segment was great, and my daughter got a chance to see how powerful Rap was, she got to see the originals.

AllHipHop.com: Would you say what you did back in the day was risky? “Super Freak,” was that shocking back then?

Rick: Everything that I have written, is stuff that comes from me, like George Clinton he writes sci-fi Funk, and he is great at it. He is a quintessential Funk artist. My musical intake is so much that it is hard for me to be new wave, because I come from so many different areas, every song that I have ever written came from my heart, I am not Prince, I don’t write stupid s**t. I talk about the streets, love affairs, a fire desire.

AllHipHop.com: What’s your favorite song?

Rick: I don’t really have a favorite song, but I have favorite moments. The moments with Temptations, I have the song with all seven Temptations, in the world and a video. Those are some of my proudest moments; there isn’t another recording with all seven. Recording with Smokey Robinson was another great moment; with Chaka Khan was another great moment.

AllHipHop.com: What about Eddie Murphy [Eddie Murphy scored a hit in the 80’s with the Rick James produced “Party All The Time”]

Rick: Eddie Murphy was a boring moment… it was exciting to take a comedian who has a great voice and give him a hit record.

AllHipHop.com: People try to crack jokes on that…

Rick: They can crack all the jokes they want on Eddie Murphy. DJ’s did not want to play, “Party all the Time.” He didn’t do radio. He was already a multi-millionaire. He said, “f**k y’all,” and they didn’t want him to be a success, but his record was so strong they couldn’t stop it. You can’t stop a hit record, a bulls**t record, you can promote the hell out of it and nothing will happen. There is no music that is going to change your way of dress, the constitution, your religion, or anything like that. Matter of fact a lot of Rap music has taken black people back 900 years. Whenever I hear black people say, “N***er,” it makes me sick to my stomach. Number one, the word has nothing to do with black people, it makes me sick to hear white people scream, “N***er,” because of the derogative term that it has come to be, which it wasn’t originally. Music has taken a turn for the worst, it is an art form, but I don’t call it music.

[vhfan010]

R.I.P. Rick James..he will be greatly missed

[DeadOrAlive]

Wonder what Dave Chapelle is going to do now...