NitnayLion
08-06-2004, 11:13 PM
By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 7, 2004
Rick James, the self-proclaimed "king of punk funk" whose brash, boisterous, self-destructive life epitomized the title of his greatest hit, "Super Freak," died Aug. 6 at his home near Universal City, Calif. According to Sgt. Catherine Plows, a Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman, the 56-year-old Grammy Award-winning entertainer died of "a preexisting medical condition."
Capt. David Campbell, spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office, said the official cause of death is pending the results of a toxicology examination.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. James had a string of manic and sexy R&B hits and was widely credited as the savior of Motown Records. His 1978 debut album, "Come and Get It!," which sold more than a million records, featured the hit "You and I," as well as "Mary Jane," a funk artist's paean to marijuana.
Mr. James reached superstar status with his 1981 album "Street Songs," which had partygoers across the country gyrating to the hits "Super Freak" and "Give It to Me Baby." The album sold 3 million copies.
With his cornrowed hair festooned with beads and his sequined spandex suits, with his down-and-dirty lyrics about "very kinky girls . . . the kind you don't bring home to mother" and a swaggering, strutting, drug- and alcohol-fueled "livin' large" existence, Mr. James was an explosion of decadent excess, yet for much of the 1980s, the hits kept coming.
Full Story (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46957-2004Aug6.html)
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 7, 2004
Rick James, the self-proclaimed "king of punk funk" whose brash, boisterous, self-destructive life epitomized the title of his greatest hit, "Super Freak," died Aug. 6 at his home near Universal City, Calif. According to Sgt. Catherine Plows, a Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman, the 56-year-old Grammy Award-winning entertainer died of "a preexisting medical condition."
Capt. David Campbell, spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office, said the official cause of death is pending the results of a toxicology examination.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. James had a string of manic and sexy R&B hits and was widely credited as the savior of Motown Records. His 1978 debut album, "Come and Get It!," which sold more than a million records, featured the hit "You and I," as well as "Mary Jane," a funk artist's paean to marijuana.
Mr. James reached superstar status with his 1981 album "Street Songs," which had partygoers across the country gyrating to the hits "Super Freak" and "Give It to Me Baby." The album sold 3 million copies.
With his cornrowed hair festooned with beads and his sequined spandex suits, with his down-and-dirty lyrics about "very kinky girls . . . the kind you don't bring home to mother" and a swaggering, strutting, drug- and alcohol-fueled "livin' large" existence, Mr. James was an explosion of decadent excess, yet for much of the 1980s, the hits kept coming.
Full Story (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46957-2004Aug6.html)