Rick James Street Songs

In light of soul singer-songwriter Rick James' wild and
controversial behavior during his career, it's easy
to forget that he wrote some vastly successful and
celebrated music. Nowadays he's best remembered for
a famous and celebrated sketch from the TV show
Chapelle's Show, or for his various arrests for drug
charges, but during late-1970s and 1980s he was a
powerhouse of his genre.
The nadir of this success was undoubtedly James' fifth
album. He was already a gold-selling funk/soul artist
with multiple Top 40 hits under his belt, but 1981's
Street Songs was the album that broke him into the
mainstream. The album took the smooth, swaggering
sound that he had built his career upon, and fused it
elements of rock and new wave, into a sound that
James dubbed "funk punk." It even featured vocal
backing from The Temptations, and a harmonica solo
from Stevie Wonder.
Street Sounds was an immediate commercial hit,
reaching #3 on the Billboard Pop charts, reaching
platinum status, selling over a million copies. In addition
to various Grammy nominations, Street Sounds also
produced major chart hits in tracks like "Give It To Me
Baby", "Ghetto Life", and what would become his
most successful signature song; "Super Freak",
which peaked at #16 on the US Pop Charts, and
was famously sampled by MC Hammer for his
mega-hit "U Can't Touch This." It caught the attention of
publications as well, who heaped critical praise upon
the album, even netting a rare A- grade from noted rock
music curmudgeon Robert Christgau.