Click on the following link to see it: Video: Zapp, revolutionary electro funk pioneers. The first signs of life by the family Troutman was the album Introducing Roger by Roger & The Human Body in 1976. This story contains an accompanying video. What’s tour take on Zapp and the first two albums? Let me know! Their first two albums in particular are classics within the (electro)funk genre and are the main inspiration for g-funk, which was co-developed by Dr. Even though the band never gained the same amount of popularity outside of the US, Zapp was well-known amongst music lovers. In closingįor a short period of time Zapp was the most important funk group in the world. Just the song More Bounce To The Ounce alone has been sampled over 200 (!) times. At the end of the 1980s Zapp’s music was sampled many, many times in hip-hop productions.
Their funky rhythms and influence on electro funk haven been of great value to music in general.
Zapp is one of the most underestimated funk groups from the 1980s. Zapp’s classic singles More Bounce To The Ounce & Dance Floor Influence The band still performs from time to time. In 2002 the surviving members did make Zapp VI: Back By Popular Demand, which was inferior to the previous work. Roger Troutman, and with him Zapp, was no more. The music world was saddened and shocked by the drama that had taken place. The car contained the body of Larry Troutman, who had shot himself in the head. It didn’t take long to discover a car parked a few blocks away, the same car witnesses identified as the drive-by vehicle. The rush to the hospital was in vain, Roger Troutman passed away. On that Sunday Roger Troutman was shot upon leaving a recording studio. It isn’t written in stone, but it seems that that both events were the cause behind the drama that unfolded on April 25th, 1999. The company had to file for bankruptcy and was left behind with a $400,000 debt. The finances surrounding Troutman Enterprises, which were Larry’s responsiblity, were in shambles as well. When Roger fired Larry it didn’t go down that well. By that date, a new generation of artists, including many of hip-hop's leaders, had come to realize the foundational work of Zapp, and the bridge it provided from 70s funk to 90s rap.Ī version of the group, including some original members and some new members, continues to tour to this day.Brothers Roger and Larry Troutman worked closely together during their tenure within Zapp and Larry was Roger’s manager for many years. The evidence indicated that brother Larry Troutman had shot him following an argument and then committed suicide. Tragically, after an argument in 1999, Roger Troutman was murdered outside a recording studio in Dayton. He also focused on community development in some of the poorest sections of Dayton. Roger turned more to producing, working with such artists as Eric Benet and Dr. But both rebounded with big hits, as Zapp scored in 1985 with "Computer Love," the group's biggest crossover hit to date, and Roger hit even higher with "I Want to Be Your Man."īy the time the 90s arrived, Zapp had lost much of its momentum, though a couple greatest hits collections kept the group charting. Even better was the follow-up single, "Do Wah Ditty," a funked up dance song that was perhaps the group's most accessible track to date.īoth Zapp and Roger continued to chart with their next albums, but some of the initial enthusiasm around the act had waned. Troutman was back in the fold in 1982 for the hit "Dance Floor" and the group's sophomore album, Zapp II. Roger Troutman - simply labeled as "Roger" - released his solo debut, The Many Facets of Roger, the following year and topped the singles chart with a twisted cover of Marvin Gaye's "Heard it Through The Grapevine." It became a Zapp trademark sound, and was the vocal basis for a string of danceable hits that took the 70s Parliament/Bootsy sound to an even more aloof, futuristic level. Another of the great groups that arguably made Ohio the funk capital of the US in the 80s, Zapp was one of the most popular bands of the 80s and also launched a notable solo career for its leader, Roger Troutman.įormed in the late 70s in Dayton by brothers Roger, Lester, Larry and Tony Troutman, Zapp exploded out of the box with their 1980 self-titled debut album, which featured the #1 hit "More Bounce to the Ounce." Produced by funk legend Bootsy Collins, the song featured Roger Troutman's lead channeled through a "talk box," which twisted the vocals into a mechanized, computerized sound.
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