Originally posted by Tex
If you knew anything about Rick James you would know that he wouldn't mind.You should really watch Chappelle's Show once in a while!
And lay off the "you deserve to burn" bit, it's something that very old scary Poltergeist preacher man would say! 😛
Or a guy from Texas 😛
*Hides from people from Texas*fear
Funk singer Rick James dies at 56
Saturday, August 7, 2004 at 07:44 JST
LOS ANGELES — 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. He was 56.
James died in his sleep at his residence near Universal City, said publicist Sujata Murthy. James lived alone and was found dead by his personal assistant, who notified police, she said.
Police and Murthy believe James died of natural causes. The exact cause was not immediately released.
"There'll be an autopsy and we'll find that out shortly," Murthy said.
Publicist Maureen O'Connor, speaking on behalf of James' three children, said they believed he died of heart failure.
"He passed away peacefully in his sleep," O'Connor said.
"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. The 'Super Freak' of funk will be missed."
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 legal problems and health troubles.
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 served more than two years in Folsom 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. (Wire reports)