![]() ![]() Zapp would sometimes wear hardhats on stage as if their music was so bumpin’ the ceiling above them would crumble. The guitar lines are greasy and the almighty handclaps are smacked so punishingly hard it almost seems unhealthy. The baseline is so fat it stretches the track to its absolute limits, almost overwhelming everything else it comes into contact with. Even the title ‘So Ruff So Tuff’ reflects Troutman’s brand of funk. At under five minutes, it’s relatively short for a Troutman track (his version of ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’ swells to over 10 minutes), but the muddy, funky jam proved to be a microcosm for his entire sound. I’m quite partial to his solo hit from 1981, ‘So Ruff So Tuff’. Throughout the eighties, Troutman fluttered between releasing records with Zapp and as a solo artist, but there was a consistency to his sound regardless of what moniker appeared on the album, with the talkbox, as it was known, almost always present. Their sound was loaded with bumping grooves, almighty baselines and, uniquely, Roger’s vocals, which utilised a keyboard synthesizer that created robotic-sounding vocals through the simultaneous use of a piano-like interface and a breath tube. Their first hit ‘More Bounce to the Ounce’ set a template for Zapp’s biggest records. George Clinton and Bootsy Collins helped Zapp pen a record deal and they immediately began carving out one of the most singular careers funk has ever seen. Dedicating themselves to creating dance floor-friendly funk grooves, they were soon noticed by the genre’s overlords in the Parliament-Funkadelic collective who gave their career the breakthrough boost it needed. ![]() Zapp formed in 1978, with four Troutman brothers providing the nucleus and Roger being the one outstanding talent. But even with that, I’d wager there’s a good chunk of ’Pac fans out there who are unaware of the full extent of Troutman’s influence on that song, or that it borrows a large amount from the output of him and his band Zapp, who cut a huge body of funk music the previous decade. If the name seems only vaguely familiar, you probably recognise it from being attached to 2Pac and Dre’s 1995 hip-hop masterpiece ‘California Love’. Chances are that a good percentage of the songs you’ll hear bear the handprint of Roger Troutman. Turn on any mainstream pop radio station and listen for a couple of hours. (Prince William residents, call 690-4110.Originally Appears in Issue 7 of One More Robotĭean Van Nguyen examines Roger Troutman’s often overlooked influence on 30 years of pop music. * To hear a free Sound Bite from "United We Funk,", call Post-Haste at 202/334-9000 and press 8131. And it's hard to know what's more offensive about Rick James' "Table Dance," the misogyny of the lyrics or the half-hearted way he delivers them.Īppearing Saturday at Constitution Hall and Sunday at Pier Six in Baltimore. ![]() The album does contain the last known recordings by Roger Troutman of Zapp who was shot by his brother Larry last year. The grooves are deep but not deep enough the hooks are sharp but not sharp enough. ![]() With titles such as "Girls Night Out," "The Way You Shake" and "Nuthin But a Party," the emphasis is on party music-both the booty-shaking workouts for early in the evening and the slow jams for later on.įor the most part, these new songs are spirited funk exercises that neither tarnish the artists' past glory nor recapture it. Con Funk Shun and the SOS Band do three songs apiece the Dazz Band and Roger Troutman do two numbers each and the Gap Band, the Barkays, the System and Rick James do one track each. The disc contains new recordings of new songs by eight different acts on the funk oldies circuit. That was the thinking of the Dazz Band's Bobby Harris and Marlon McClain, who organized the new album, "United We Funk," and subsequent tour. This approach has proven itself on stage, so why shouldn't it work in the studio? You might not want to sit through 90 minutes of Con Funk Shun, but you might want to hear them do their hits for half an hour followed by the Gap Band and the SOS Band. James Brown, George Clinton and Earth Wind & Fire still draw well enough to tour by themselves, but the second tier of funk acts have to combine into package tours to make it on the road. ![]()
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