Super Freak singer dies
From correspondents in Los Angeles
August 7, 2004
FUNK singer Rick James, best known for his 1981 hit Super Freak, was found dead today in his Los Angeles home of natural causes, police and the artist's representative said.
"Rick James passed away this morning at 9:20am (2.20am AEST) in his sleep of natural causes," the singer's spokesman said.
"The body was found by the musician's live-in housekeeper," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Jason Lee.
He said no autopsy would be conducted because the death was by natural causes.
Born James Johnson Jr in Buffalo, New York, James, 56, was credited with inventing the "punk-funk" style of music and cultivated a bad-boy image with flamboyant stage costumes and behaviour.
But drug abuse and time spent in prison for assaulting two women helped derail his career in the 1990s, and he suffered a heart attack in 1998 stemming from his crack cocaine addiction.
The "King of Punk Funk," also known as the "bad boy of Motown", was "in discussion with various studios for a movie based on his life," his representative said. He had also finished an album that he was preparing to release next year.
A planned comeback album was released in 1997, but James' health prevented him from promoting it.
James, a Grammy award winner who could play at least five instruments, joined the US navy at 15 and deserted a short time later. He fled to Canada, where he founded his first band, the Mynah Birds, with Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Goldie McJohn.
He also wrote and produced songs for actor Eddie Murphy, The Temptations and Smokey Robinson.
Samples of James' music have been used by rhythm and blues singers and rappers, including MC Hammer, whose use of Super Freak led to the hit single U Can't Touch This, and the biggest-selling rap album ever.
Neil Portnow, president of the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which awards the industry's Grammy award, said, "Today the world mourns a musician and performer of the funkiest kind.
"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 is survived by three children and two grandchildren.
Agence France-Presse
