Albums you own or used to own from artists that turned out to be awful people.

I don’t think I’ve ever listened let alone owned a Rick James album which is why I didn’t bring him up in the first place.

Only know him because of Dave Chapelle and the Super Freak sample on U Cant Touch This. I wasn’t even born when he rose to fame.

the mary jane girls, on the other hand, are essential listening.

Rick James has at least two all-time classic songs

Street Songs is a fucking great record.

I don't know anyone who thinks Rick James is funny; I do know a bunch of people who think Dave Chappelle imitating Rick James is funny, because it was.

Indeed. As much as I love Street Songs, I think Rick James became a joke, and not in the funny sense.

just saying, aside from super freak and chapelle show he's mostly forgotten. and if chapelle show had never happened he would be almost entirely gone aside from fm super freak airplay. he has a LOT of albums that nobody listens to. other than nerds. like you guys. joking! not really. a little!

Well, there's a sample of him shouting "GIMME SOME GANJA!" all over a Kendrick Lamar track that came out this year.

Not comparing it to Rick James or anything - well, maybe a bit - but Boy George handcuffing someone, keeping them prisoner and beating them with a metal chain doesn't get mentioned too often these days.

In an apparently accidental allusion to Culture Club's 1982 No 1 hit Heather Norton, for the prosecution, asked the jury during the trial: "Did he really have to hurt him?"

Very true, and he was only on TV last night singing a rendition of 'Purple Rain' during a show to promote a children's charity.

(xpost)

just saying, aside from super freak and chapelle show he's mostly forgotten by white people

^^^ more accurate in my experience

Haha yeah

also mary jane girls and 'party all the time'

also "Mary Jane" the song

xp: I love the part in that video when he steps out from behind the console to mime playing the bass for a few bars and then stops playing before the song's over to hug Eddie Murphy.

he was definitely huge. and a crossover hit. for about three or four years. and no doubt people loved those records but aside from super freak he's kinda gone in the wider world. is all i'm saying. people will always love lots of old stuff that they loved (and old r&b/soul fans are totally loyal to their faves of yesteryear) but it doesn't always linger or stick around in pop culture other than THE BIG HIT. lots of people sold millions of records. he's not marvin gaye. to bring up another troubling icon mentioned on this thread.

did he write party all the time?

Motown totally sold him to rock fans too. There were huge ads in every rock magazine for months on end for that first run of records. And it worked.

y

^ xp there

more "garden-variety prick" than actual abuser but even what little is public about the falling out between trent reznor and tori amos makes me very uncomfortable listening to NIN's stuff

also I still listen to Kate Bush even though she supports Theresa May

Bet she doesn't now.

didnt rick james have like a dozen albums? insanely dismissive reading of his career itt. you guys dont know 'cold blooded' or 'give it to me baby'?

plus yeah his mary jane girls stuff was fire too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jhf0NeyRfE

don't go full ilm on me here, guys. *what, i'm the only one who listens to The Flag every morning before work?* i'm not talking about you guys. and yes like i said earlier mary jane girls are essential.

although i'm suspicious. i don't even think that YOU guys listen to rick james that much. you are too busy listening to your bootleg CDs of prince doing rick james covers.

the broader culture will come back around to you & I, ghetto life and give it to me baby sooner or later.

There's a recent commercial that uses "Give It To Me Baby" but I can't remember it now.

I've seen/heard that, too, and I can't remember what the commercial is for. Good work, ad people!

ok I did it artists who plausibly appear to be good people

don't have anything to contribute tho. feel like I only know the bad stories.

I do slightly worry that anyone mentioned in that thread will shortly turn out to have rubbed unmentionable parts of his or her body on an underage puppy or something. Maybe that's superstitious but I am nervous about jinxing someone.

(Still, Janet Weiss is way cool.)

Street songs is a classic album, shite reputation aside

Not comparing it to Rick James or anything - well, maybe a bit - but Boy George handcuffing someone, keeping them prisoner and beating them with a metal chain doesn't get mentioned too often these days.

Just read about this. I don't think I heard of it before.

He got sentenced to 15 months in prison for it

Carlsen told the jury he only escaped after wrenching the fixture free, but was beaten with a chain by the singer as he fled into the street in Shoreditch, east London. In an apparently accidental allusion to Culture Club's 1982 No 1 hit Heather Norton, for the prosecution, asked the jury during the trial: "Did he really have to hurt him?"

Only on ILM could Rick James be dismissed by a bunch of dudes who listen to Ariel Pink and the fucking Swans

in my experience ILM is the only place where does fuckers get called out :D

ILM plausibly appears to be good people.

Which is why Nick S got Embrace to write that anthem about ILM...

Not comparing it to Rick James or anything - well, maybe a bit - but Boy George handcuffing someone, keeping them prisoner and beating them with a metal chain doesn't get mentioned too often these days.

seems comparable

does = those

Astonishing the disparity between Rick James's popularity in the US and the Uk. He never had a single Top 40 hit over here, even Superfreak did nothing in the days when funk/soul/(early 80s) Disco was still massive. Years later I remember being blown away by just how much of U Can't Touch This was based on Superfreak.

He regularly filled 12,000-18,000 capacity arenas in the states in the early '80s.

As long as there are wedding DJs, there will be "Superfreak."

So it is written, and so it will be.

Do Quietus readers know that John Doran is a Gary Glitter apologist?

ilx posters who turned out to be 51'd almost immediately

Rick James' albums after 1983 are depressing, as in "I can't believe the drugs were so terrible as to turn his common sense and imagination into hot mush."

(and I find James overall overrated, even Street Songs).