Artist Playlists
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Rick James redefined funk in the late '70s and '80s. After signing to Motown in 1978, a string of increasingly rock-influenced funk LPs led to 1981's breakthrough Street Songs. Its mix of funk bass lines and new wave synths was hugely influential. The hits he wrote and produced for artists like Teena Marie, The Mary Jane Girls, and Eddie Murphy helped keep James on top until legal issues and drug addiction derailed his career, leading to a two-year jail sentence in the '90s. Just before his 2004 death, a legendary episode of Chappelle's Show made him a star to a new generation. - Rick James' brash, pioneering funk left a cosmic blueprint for future generations of artists to study. Echoes of his outrageous freakouts can be heard in the frantic drums of Janelle Monáe's wild pop workout “Cold War.” His effortlessly cool ballads also became sensual sacred texts for smooth-talking R&B lotharios like Ginuwine, who channels James on the slithering seduction jam “In Those Jeans.”
- Their original tunes have been the source material for some of modern music’s biggest hits.
- Rick James established himself as a funk auteur on his 1978 debut, with the electrified plea “Be My Lady” and the doo-wop-tinged ballad “Dream Maker” proving his facility for uptempo bounce and sweeping love songs. While a winking sexiness animated slinky tracks like the dance-floor-ready “She Blew My Mind (69 Times),” the lush “Summer Love” is all wide-eyed devotion, with James' heartfelt vocal playing off a swooning sax line.