Rick James
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
James had a journeymans career playing bass in various groups before signing again to Motown as an artist, songwriter, and producer. His first single, You and I (May 1978), topped the R&B charts and reached the pop Top 40. Mary Jane (September 1978) was another hit. Both were on James debut album, Come Get It! (June 1978), which went gold. Subsequent efforts were not as successful, though Bustin Out of L Seven (January 1979) featured the R&B hit Bustin Out (April 1979). James returned to form with the number one R&B hit Give It to Me Baby (March 1981), featured on the million-selling Street Songs (April 1981), which also featured the hit Super Freak.
James turned his production attention to resuscitating the career of the Temptations, recently returned to Motown, and Standing on the Top (April 1982), credited to the Temptations featuring Rick James, was an R&B Top Ten. (He also produced recordings by Teena Marie and the Mary Jane Girls.) James follow-up to Street Songs was the gold-selling Throwin Down (May 1982), which featured the hit Dance Wit Me. The title song of Cold Blooded (August 1983) became James third R&B number one, and the album also featured his hit duet with Smokey Robinson, Ebony Eyes. James greatest-hits album Reflections (August 1984) featured the new track 17 (June 1984), which also became a hit. Glow (April 1985) contained Top Ten R&B singles in the title track and Cant Stop, which was featured in the summer movie blockbuster Beverly Hills Cop. The Flag (June 1986) featured the hit Sweet and Sexy Thing (May 1986).
James left Motown for the Reprise division of Warner Bros. Records as of the album Wonderful (July 1988), which featured his number one R&B hit Looseys Rap, on which he was accompanied by rapper Roxanne Shante. Nevertheless, his punk funk didnt seem to rest comfortably with the trend toward
ap/hip-hop. In 1989, James charted briefly with a medley of the Drifters hits This Magic Moment and Dance With Me. In 1990, MC Hammer scored a massive hit with U Cant Touch This, which consisted of his rap over the instrumental track of Super Freak. That should have made for a career rebirth, but James was plagued by drug and legal problems that found him more frequently in court and in jail rather than in the recording studio. The majority of his legal woes behind him, James returned in 1997 with Urban Rapsody, which didnt yield any hits but was well accepted by critics. Rick James died of a heart attack on August 6, 2004, at his Los Angeles home.
