musicradio77
06-17-2004, 08:48 PM
This is the Motown 45th Anniversary Artists Avatar of the Week. This week will feature a troublesome artist who made funk records, Rick James. Rick James was born in Buffalo. As he grew up, ran away to joined the service. After he ran away from the service, he went to Toranto to joined a rock band. In the mid or late-70's, he signed a deal with Motown Records. In 1978, his first record "You & I" and "Mary Jane" both topped the R&B charts and the debut album, "Come and Get It" was released and went gold. His second album "Bustin' Out of 'L' Seven" featured a hit single "Bustin' Out" was another R&B hit. His third album "Street Songs" featuring his first #1 hit "Give It to Me Baby" and "Super Freak" (a song later sampled by MC Hammer called "You Can't Touch This"). In 1982, he joined the legendary Temptations on a song called "Standing on the Top", a duet with Teena Marie (as I mentioned two weeks ago) on a song called "Fire & Desire" and another duet with the legendary Smokey Robinson on "Ebony Eyes". His last top 10 R&B in 1985 was "Glow" along with songs couldn't make on the R&B charts "Sweet & Sexy Thing" and "Can't Stop" from "Beverly Hills Cop". He left Motown in 1988 and went to Reprise Records and released "Wonderful" featuring the song "Loosey's Rap" featuring rapper Roxanne Shante. After these songs, he went into drugs problems and got jailed and put him into court. That's what Rick James was a legend of his time.