Let’s Rank All Of The Rick James Albums!
Growing up I was a huge fan of Rick James and I’ve never stopped listening to his music. Rick was no saint as we know ultimately spending a few years in prison, and the recent documentary Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James chronicles his career - his rise and downfall along with his sort-of-resurgence before he passed at the age of 56.
I’ve made a point over the years of turning on my friends to “Slick Rick” and it got to the point where we would have these hilarious Rick James parties where we’d get a little buzzed, throw on the jams and dance - we even had a little disco mirrorball - good times!
At Michigan my Rick James slow jams mixtape (on a TDK SA90 cassette) made the rounds and it was legendary…
Dude could sing too, he wrote songs for and produced other artists like Teena Marie (and to a MUCH lesser extent Eddie Murphy lol) and his version of Vanity/Apollonia 6 in the Mary Jane Girls. What’s funny is I never knew about the early “rivalry” with Prince from when Prince opened for Rick that they covered in the documentary… His story is actually really fascinating going back to his first band with Neil Young, his time in L.A. where he narrowly dodged the Manson murders, doing acid with Jim Morrison, spending time at Motown in Detroit with the Spinners and The Temptations (while pimping on the side for a bit - oy vey) and hanging with Smokey and Stevie all of whom he would collaborate with - even helping orchestrate a Temps reunion in 1982…. Wow.
In any event I felt an album ranking was in order - there was a comment from someone who was interviewed in the documentary saying he “hates Super Freak” and I get it. Often the one massive hit that gets overplayed and sampled to death can unfortunately come to represent an artist and Rick James’ discography is deep and wide. It’s not just Super Freak. So let’s do this.
13. Kickin’ (1989) - Rick’s problems were piling up - declining sales, inclining drugs, and this one got shelved. I didn’t even know it existed until recently. I put it on recently and after a couple minutes it just felt very basic to me…and we know he was not in a good place here. Not worth the time.
12. Urban Rhapsody (1997) - The comeback album after serving his prison sentence which I was really excited for. But it’s just…..boring. It sounds oddly uninspired for someone who had written a bunch of songs while in prison, but I think he was just trying too hard to make a current sounding record.
11. The Flag (1986) - It’s not horrible but the production got stale here with too much echo, too many hand claps and a by-the-numbers single called Sweet And Sexy Thing that just doesn’t totally cut it. The slow jam Slow and Easy isn’t bad and the highlight is probably Painted Pictures. Some political commentary here too but it doesn’t have a ton of impact. Rick was a mess by this point and was running out of ideas.
10. Wonderful (1988) - Surprisingly not as bad as it’s predecessor since Rick was spiraling but it’s still not that good. The opening title track is a nice jam, the Cameo-influenced So Tight is kinda fun I guess, the duet with Roxanne Shanté Loosey’s Rap is pretty good and Sexual Luv Affair is great with the “Come and get yer ya yas” refrain - such a pretty song about sex lol… I Believe In You is the slow jam and it’s a good one.
9. Deeper Still (2007) - His last album released posthumously, this is the album you would want to hear as a comeback from an older wiser Rick, although I’m not sure he ever actually got it together. But this is a more respectable coda than Urban Rhapsody. He’s in good voice here and the songs are enjoyable.
8. Garden Of Love (1980) - A needed detour from the hard driving “punk funk” of the first three albums that started to show subtle signs of getting stale on Love Gun, Garden Of Love is a much more laid back affair - not that it doesn’t jam but this album is…..well…..lovely. Not an adjective I’d use for the first three in general. You almost get the sense he wanted to be taken a little more seriously here, but that would really come on the next album. Still a good album.
7. Fire It Up (1979) - Musically this sounds like an earlier blueprint for the landmark Street Songs to me even though Garden Of Love was in between the two. It doesn’t feel fully realized all the way around but there’s still a few great songs. Come Into My Life is almost the same bass line as the later classic Give It To Me and it’s a banger. The real killer track is Love Gun - a pulsating KILLER and Rick indeed has a Love Gun holstered on the cover (he’s got it out on the back cover with a couple of ladies - dude was a character to say the least…). The title track is enjoyable if a little cheesy, and Lovin’ You Is A Pleasure is a jam too.
6. Glow (1985) - To me this is the last really good Rick James album chronologically before the quality drops off a little and it was the last to chart in the top 10 of the R&B charts peaking at #7. He still feels like he’s in command here and not recycling ideas. The title track sounds fresh and the production shiny - Rick is in fine voice and even gets in a little scat vocal on that one that still makes me smile when I hear it. My other two favorite tracks are Melody Make Me Dance and Moonchild and the slow jam Sha La La La La (Come Back Home) is solid. Even on some of the shaky LPs you can usually count on Rick to hit the mark with the slow jam(s).
5. Bustin’ Out of L Seven (1979) - No sophomore slump here with the Stone City Band serving up the classic Bustin’ Out to kick it off. While the debut album was about sex and weed this track seems to be a credo of the lifestyle of having a great time - no squares (L7s) allowed. Granted it’s still….about sex and weed, but this seems like THE declaration. Sometimes Rick’s reach exceeds his grasp a little on this album but the jams are still solid with High On Your Love Suite, Cop N’ Blow and Fool On The Street.
4. Cold Blooded (1983) - Yes this album contains some filler but it all still sounds pretty good and the title track is one of his all time best - a spare and slinky groove that was one of 4 #1 singles he had in his career on the R&B charts. Also included here is the amazing duet with Smokey Robinson on the slow jam Ebony Eyes. The LP also hit #1 on the R&B chart and was the second and last of his albums to do so. P.I.M.P. the S.I.M.P. is a rejection of the pimp lifestyle he himself led briefly a decade or so earlier in Detroit with a guest rap by none other than Grandmaster Flash himself, and even Billy Dee Williams shows up for a spoken word spot on the slow jam Tell Me What You Want.
3. Throwin’ Down (1982) - As the follow up to Street Songs there may have been some pressure to duplicate that level of success and Rick returns to the well with the embarrassing Super Freak rewrite of Hard To Get, and while not as strong overall as its predecessor there are still two all timers here in the epic dance jam Dance Wit’ Me and the jam with the Temptations Standing On The Top, and when I say The Temptations I mean almost ALL of The Temptations… David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Dennis Edwards, Richard Street and Glenn Leonard all were on hand and the song also appeared on their reunion album the same year with Ruffin, Kendricks, Edwards and Rick all trading leads. Money Talks, 69 Times and the title tracks are all great.
2. Come Get It (1978) - The debut with the Stone City Band after a few false starts over the previous decade, this album definitely served notice that things would be different and that Slick Rick had found the formula. You And I is an epic funk jam of over 8 minutes that just doesn’t let up, and along with Black Sabbath’s Sweet Leaf, Mary Jane is the perfect ode to weed in this case thinly disguised as a love song to a girl by that name. “I’m in love with Mary Jane - she’s my main thang!” Legendary. Dream Maker is the slow jam that my buddy Lance gave me a hard time about being absent from my legendary Rick James mixtape back in the day - my miss. Maybe I should have gotten a 100 minute tape instead of the TDK SA-90 I used so I could fit it! Sexy Lady and Be My Lady are both fine funk jams as well.
1. Street Songs (1981) - The seminal masterpiece where all of his strengths are fully realized in a loose concept album addressing life growing up in the streets of Buffalo (where it’s zero degrees be-low). Everybody knows the crossover hit Super Freak and as the story goes Rick was very pissed off the first time he heard MC Hammer’s stupid Can’t Touch This remake…..until he started receiving the royalties lol. It’s actually a great song if you can get past the fact that you’ve heard it AND Can’t Touch This a thousand times each… but the rest of the album is dynamite. Mr. Policeman couldn’t BE more relevant today as a scathing commentary on bad cops and how “It’s a shame, it’s a disgrace, how every time you show your face somebody dies man…” Call Me Up with the killer bass line and the horns (I mean it’s not like a ton of his jams don’t have horns), Give It To Me with it’s delicious “Gimme that stuff that funk that sweet that funky stuff….(say what?) YOOOOOOO HO - OWWWW!!!! C’mon man…. it doesn’t get much better. Oh and then there’s the simmering duet with the late great Teena Marie Fire and Desire that can still give me chills when Teena chimes in. Ghetto Life (with The Temptations on backing vocals as well as on Super Freak) and Below The Funk (Pass The J) are both vivid tales of life growing up in the ghetto and are both prime slabs of funk. An overall triumph and essential to any collection!
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