Rick James - Give It To Me Baby

Although he was a funk artist, Rick James lived like a rock star. Huge highs, crashing lows, drugs, and horrific personal behavior defined much of James' life.  The resulting portrait is complicated, but there is little doubt that James was a major star who wrote some of the finest funk of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Rick James (given name: James Johnson) was born in Buffalo and was interested in music from a young age.  In his teens, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy to avoid the draft, but he deserted in 1964 and fled to Toronto.  While there, he became involved in the local music scene and became friends with Levon Helm (The Band), Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell. His band (The Mynah Birds) did well enough to sign a recording contract with Motown, but the entire thing fell apart after James was for imprisoned for desertion.

After working in the industry for years, James finally got his big break with Motown in 1978.  His solo LP, Come and Get It became a huge hit, launching James' career and helping to revitalize the Motown label.  However, it was his 1981 Street Songs album that became his biggest success - reaching #3 on the album charts, and providing two top 40 hits - "Give It To Me Baby" (#40) and "Superfreak" (#16).

Drug use and changing tastes caused James' success to decline during the 1980s, though he did receive a bump when MC Hammer sampled "Superfreak" in his 1990 smash  "U Can't Touch This." Unfortunately, James' personal problems (i.e., drugs) prevented him from capitalizing on this. James was introduced to a younger audience again in 2004, when he was featured on a Chappelle's Show segment Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories: Rick James, which is worth watching, in our view.

"Give It To Me Baby" was the first true video that James recorded and was the first single released off Street Songs.  It's a fantastic example of Rick James at the peak of his powers - nearly out of control, charismatic, and seriously captivating.

Sadly, Rick James died of a heart attack in 2004. He was 56.