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Adult Top 40 (formerly known as Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks and called Adult Pop Songs on Billboard.com) is a variation on the United States Billboard charts. The chart tracks "the week's most popular adult top 40 songs, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS." It is a format in which the genre is geared more towards an adult audience who are not into hard rock, teen pop, dance music, hip hop, or adult contemporary fare.

History[link]

The origins of the Adult Top 40 chart can be traced back to the late 1980s, when several Top 40 stations decided to focus on playing artists in an effort to attract the more desired 25-34 demographic. In 1994, the Adult Top 40 became an official format after years of growth and support from both stations and artists. Most Adult Top 40 stations feature a playlist that include artists such as Lifehouse, Matchbox Twenty, Train, Nickelback, Goo Goo Dolls, Sheryl Crow, Daughtry, Maroon 5, Pink, John Mayer, The Fray, No Doubt, Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Alanis Morissette, Natasha Bedingfield, Jewel, Katy Perry and 3 Doors Down. Its programming is often compared to the musical playlist of the VH1 Channel (as its programming as seen often as a midway point between Top 40 Mainstream and The Adult Contemporary charts). Many Adult Top 40 stations today are a crossover of Hot AC and Top 40 formats, though it's officially classified as a Hot AC format. Billboard first published an Adult Top 40 chart in its October 7, 1995 issue. The first number-one song was "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal.

Records and Achievements[link]

Most weeks at number one[link]

25 weeks

• "Smooth" — Santana featuring Rob Thomas (1999-2000)

23 weeks

• "Wherever You Will Go" — The Calling (2001-2002)

18 weeks

• "Unwell" — Matchbox Twenty (2003)
• "Photograph" — Nickelback (2005-2006)

17 weeks

• "Iris" — Goo Goo Dolls (1998)

16 weeks

• "Complicated" — Avril Lavigne (2002)

15 weeks

• "Don't Speak" — No Doubt (1996-1997)
• "How to Save a Life" — The Fray (2006-2007)

14 weeks

• "Torn" — Natalie Imbruglia (1998)
• "Everything You Want" — Vertical Horizon (2000)
• "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)" — Train (2001)

Artists with most number-one singles[link]

• 6 - Katy Perry
• 5 - Pink, Nickelback
• 4 - Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, Train, Maroon 5, Matchbox Twenty
• 3 - The Goo Goo Dolls, Adele

Artists with most top 10 singles[link]

• 14 - The Goo Goo Dolls
• 12 - Matchbox Twenty, Maroon 5
• 11 - Nickelback, Train, John Mayer
• 9 - Daughtry, Sheryl Crow, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry

Artist with most charted singles[link]

Sheryl Crow, is the artist with the most placed singles in this chart with 19 to date. Second is Kelly Clarkson with 15 to date.

Most number-one singles by album[link]

Teenage Dream by Katy Perry is the album with the most number one songs (5).

See also[link]

• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Adult Top 40 chart
• Mainstream Top 40 (Pop Songs)

External links[link]

• Current Billboard Adult Pop Songs chart

A group of adult people.

An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age. In human context, the term has other subordinate meanings associated with social and legal concepts; for example, a legal adult is a legal concept for a person who has attained the age of majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible (contrast with "minor"). Adulthood can be defined in terms of physiology, psychological adult development, law, personal character, or social status.

These different aspects of adulthood are often inconsistent and contradictory. A person may be biologically an adult, and have adult behavior but still be treated as a child if they are under the legal age of majority. Conversely one may legally be an adult but possess none of the maturity and responsibility that may define adult character.

An event relating to the oncoming of adulthood is Coming of age, which encompasses passing a series of tests to demonstrate that a person is prepared for adulthood, or reaching a specified age, sometimes in conjunction with demonstrating preparation. Most modern societies determine legal adulthood based on reaching a legally specified age without requiring a demonstration of physical maturity or preparation for adulthood.

Some propose that moving into adulthood involves an emotional structuring of denial, suggesting this process becomes necessary to cope with one's own behavior, especially in uncomfortable situations, and also the behavior of others.^{[citation needed]}

Biological adulthood[link]

Historically and cross-culturally, adulthood has been determined primarily by the start of puberty (the appearance of secondary sex characteristics such as menstruation in women, ejaculation in men, and pubic hair in both sexes). In the past, a person usually moved from the status of child directly to the status of adult, often with this shift being marked by some type of coming-of-age test or ceremony.^[1]

Most medical and general English dictionaries define childhood as the period from infancy to puberty, thus historically adulthood began with puberty. After the social construct of adolescence was created, adulthood split into two forms: biological adulthood and social adulthood. Thus, there are now two primary forms of adults: biological adults (people who have attained reproductive ability, are fertile, or who evidence secondary sex characteristics) and social adults (people who are recognized by their culture and/or law as being adults). Depending on the context, adult can indicate either definition.

Although few or no established dictionaries provide a definition for the two word term biological adult, the first definition of adult in multiple dictionaries includes "the stage of the life cycle of an animal after reproductive capacity has been attained".^[2][3] Thus, the base definition of the word adult is the period beginning at puberty. Although this is the primary definition of the base word adult, the two word term biological adult stresses or clarifies that the original definition, based on the beginning of puberty, is being used (that is, the organism has matured to the biologically important point of being able to reproduce).

Although there is no scientific agreement on when physical maturation completes, in modern society social adulthood somewhat corresponds to the completion of physical maturation. Because the term adult is most often used without the adjective social or biological, and since the term is frequently used to refer to social adults, some writers have taken the meaning of the two word phrase biological adult to begin at the end of physical maturation rather than the onset of puberty.

In modern developed countries, puberty and therefore biological adulthood generally begins around 10 or 11 years of age for girls and 12 or 13 years of age for boys, though this will vary from person to person. ^[4][5]

Legal adulthood[link]

Legally it means that one can engage in a contract. The same or a different minimum age may be applicable to, for example, parents losing parenting rights and duties regarding the person concerned, parents losing financial responsibility, marriage, voting, having a job, serving in the military, buying/possessing firearms (if legal at all), driving, traveling abroad, involvement with alcoholic beverages (if legal at all), smoking, sex, gambling (both lottery and casino) being a prostitute or a client of a prostitute (if legal at all), being a model or actor in pornography, etc. Admission of a young person to a place may be restricted because of danger for that person, concern that the place may lead the person to immoral behavior, and/or because of the risk that the young person causes damage (for example, at an exhibition of fragile items).

One can distinguish the legality of acts of a young person, and of enabling a young person to carry out that act, by selling, renting out, showing, permitting entrance, participating, etc. There may be distinction between commercially and socially enabling. Sometimes there is the requirement of supervision by a legal guardian, or just by an adult. Sometimes there is no requirement, but just a recommendation.

With regard to pornography one can distinguish:

• being allowed inside an adult establishment
• being allowed to purchase pornography
• being allowed to possess pornography
• another person being allowed to sell, rent out, or show the young person pornography, see disseminating pornography to a minor
• being a pornographic actor: rules for the young person, and for other people, regarding production, possession, etc. (see child pornography)

With regard to films with violence, etc.:

• another person being allowed to sell, rent out, or show the young person a film, a cinema being allowed to let a young person (under 18) enter

The legal definition of entering adulthood usually varies between ages 16–21, depending on the region in question. Some cultures in Africa define adult at age 13.

According to Jewish tradition, adulthood is reached at age 13 (the age of the Bar Mitzvah), for Jewish boys, for example, are expected to demonstrate preparation for adulthood by learning the Torah and other Jewish practices. The Christian Bible and Jewish scripture has no age requirement for adulthood or marrying, which includes engaging in sexual activity. The age of consent for sexual relations in the Vatican is 13,^{[citation needed]} the age when many girls achieve menses, and are thus reproductive and therefore physically capable of marriage and childbirth. However, the Vatican does not allow sex outside of marriage.^[6] The 1983 Code of Canon Law states, "A man before he has completed his sixteenth year of age, and likewise a woman before she has completed her fourteenth year of age, cannot enter a valid marriage".^[7] According to The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman, the Christian Church of the Middle Ages considered the age of accountability, when a person could be tried and even executed as an adult, to be age 7.

In most of the world, including most of the United States, parts of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Wales), India and China, the legal adult age is 18 (historically 21) for most purposes, with some notable exceptions:

1. The United Kingdom: Scotland (16)
2. British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Yukon Territory in Canada; Nebraska and Alabama in The United States, and South Korea (19)
3. Indonesia and Japan (20)

See also[link]

References[link]

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The Top Forty or Top 40 is a music industry shorthand for the currently most-popular songs in a particular genre. When used without qualification, it typically refers to the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music songs of the previous week. Top 40 became the dominant radio format of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

History[link]

The term "Top 40" for a radio format appeared in 1951.^[1]

The Top 40, or top forty, whether surveyed by a radio station or a publication, was a list of songs that shared only the common characteristic of being newly released. Its popularity coincided with the rapid changes in recording technology in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, the recording industry agreed upon a standard recording format for higher fidelity music, so any new record player could play any new record. Also in that year, new single records were released on 45 rpm records, and the Top 40 thereafter became a survey of the popularity of these records (and their airplay on the radio). Tape recording had become perfected, allowing artists more freedom as they composed songs, especially novelty songs.

Other lists of hit songs may include a different number of entries, such as a "Top 50" or Hot 100 (Billboard magazine). By the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the 45 rpm record would decrease in popularity and other means would be used to evaluate the popularity of new songs, such as cassette-single, CD single, and digital MP3/AAC sales (plus radio airplay).

In contemporary publications[link]

The current top songs are tracked by a variety of trade publications, such as:

• Dutch Top 40, the Dutch music chart.
• Los 40 Principales, in Spain.
• The Net 40, a worldwide user generated Top 40 show.
• Ö3 Austria Top 40, the official Austrian music chart.
• Pop Songs, a chart of current popular songs in the United States, compiled by Billboard Newspaper and its various predecessors
• Radio & Records magazine, recently purchased by Billboard Publications
• UK Top Forty, the British version of the same concept.

Radio programs that highlight currently popular songs also refer to the "Top 40."

Further reading[link]

• Pete Battistini, "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem The 1970s", Authorhouse.com, January 31, 2005. ISBN 1-4184-1070-5
• Susan Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination (New York: Times Books, 1999)
• Durkee, Rob (1999). American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century. New York: Schriner Books. ISBN 0-02-864895-1. 
• Fisher, Mark (2007). Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50907-0. 
• Ben Fong-Torres, The Hits Just Keep On Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1998)
• Elwood F. 'Woody' Goulart, The Mystique and Mass Persuasion: Bill Drake & Gene Chenault’s Rock and Roll Radio Programming (2006)
• David MacFarland, The Development of the Top 40 Radio Format (New York: Arno Press, 1979)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Billboard Top 40 Mainstream
• Public Radio documentary featuring a history of Top 40

Seongha Jeong (정성하) (colloquially: Sungha Jung) (born 2 September 1996) is a South Korean professional acoustic finger-style guitarist who has risen to fame on YouTube and other sites. As of 2012, his channel had over 17 million views, with his videos getting a total of over 454 million views, and also over 726,000 subscribers.^[1]

Seongha typically takes three days to learn and practice a new piece, and video-record it for upload onto YouTube.^[2] His genre selection is rather broad, as he learns and plays many pieces that are playable on guitar, therefore consequently spread across numerous genres.

Seongha has won 13 awards on YouTube, including 6 "#1" awards. Also on YouTube, Seongha has 523 videos with over one million views. Seongha's video with the most views is the one which shows him playing the theme from "Pirates Of The Caribbean".

In 2010, he was featured on Narsha's solo album "Narsha" for the song "I'm in Love" Seongha has composed 18 pieces as of February 2011, two of which are featured in his debut album, "Perfect Blue". He released his second album, "Irony", on 21 September 2011.

In 2011, he performed in the US with Trace Bundy, as well as touring in Scandinavia and Japan.^[1]

See also[link]

• Yuto Miyazawa, Seongha's Japanese electric guitar-playing counterpart
• Trace Bundy, Fellow acoustic guitarist with whom Seongha collaborates
• Ulli Bögershausen, Fellow acoustic guitarist who helped him get his sponsorship with Lakewood Guitars

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

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Rick James
Rick James, 1996
Background information
Birth name	James Ambrose Johnson, Jr.
Also known as	Big Jimmy; Ricky James Matthews (early career); Jimmy "The Whale"
Born	(1948-02-01)February 1, 1948 Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Died	August 6, 2004(2004-08-06) (aged 56) Burbank, California, U.S.
Genres	R&B, soul, funk, pop, soft rock
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, dancer, bandleader, record producer
Instruments	Vocal, bass, guitar, keyboards, drums and other percussion instruments
Years active	1964–2004
Labels	Gordy Records Motown Records Reprise Records Mercury Records
Associated acts	The Mynah Birds Stone City Band Heaven and Earth Mary Jane Girls Process and the Doo Rags Val Young Eddie Murphy Teena Marie
Website	www.rickjames.com
Notable instruments
Rickenbacker 4001 Gibson Les Paul

James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B. Among his well known songs are "Super Freak", "Mary Jane" and "You and I".

In addition to his music, James gained notoriety for his wild lifestyle, which led to widely publicized legal problems, and which was famously satirized by Chappelle's Show in 2004.

Early life[link]

Rick James was born James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. in Buffalo, New York. He attended Orchard Park High School and Bennett High School before dropping out at the age of 15. One of eight children, his father, an autoworker, abandoned him and his siblings when Rick was a child. His mother, a former vaudeville dancer, later reportedly ran errands for a Mafia family to make ends meet.^{[citation needed]}

James grew up singing on street corners with fellow neighborhood boys. James' early idols included Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and The Temptations (particularly his uncle, Melvin Franklin). After briefly being involved in street crime, James dropped out of high school at 15 to avoid a possible draft and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. A year later, James left the Reserve after he began to miss weekend training, because it interfered with his music career.^{[1][not in citation given]}

Career[link]

Early career[link]

After failing to report for active duty on the USS Enterprise and in fear of arrest, James fled north to Toronto in the summer of 1964. Now using the stage name Big Jimmy, he formed his first band with future Steppenwolf member Nick St. Nicholas, initially called the Sailor Boyz. The band soon changed their name to the Mynah Birds, bassist Bruce Palmer took over for St. Nicholas in early 1965, and the group soon released their first single, "Mynah Bird Hop"/"Mynah Bird Song" for Columbia Records of Canada.

James and Palmer soon formed a new Mynah Birds lineup with guitarists Tom Morgan and Xavier Taylor, and drummer Rick Mason. In early 1966, the Mynah Birds auditioned for the Motown label in Detroit. Morgan was unhappy with the label's attitude towards the musicians and left, with Neil Young taking his place. With Young on board, the Mynah Birds returned to Motown to record an album, but their manager pocketed the advance money the label had given the band. The band fired their manager, who in turn told the label that James was actually a seaman who had gone AWOL. Motown told him to give himself up to the FBI, and the Mynah Birds' album was shelved.

James spent a year in a naval prison, after which he briefly returned to Toronto. During the summer of 1967, he formed a new version of The Mynah Birds (sometimes spelled "Myna Byrds") with Neil Merryweather. The band returned to Detroit and recorded a new version of James and Neil Young's "It's My Time", but the band broke up soon afterwards. During early 1968, James returned to Motown and became a songwriter and producer, writing under an assumed name and working with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Canadian band Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers and The Spinners.

In late 1968, James and Greg Reeves moved to Los Angeles, California and formed a rock band called Salt and Pepper (under the name Rick Matthews) with drummer Steve Rumph from T.I.M.E and Michael Rummans from the Yellow Payges. A later version consisted of Coffi Hall from Mama Lion and Merryweather and guitarist Dave Burt and Keyboardist Ed Roth from Merryweather.^[2]

Former Buffalo Springfield roadie Chris Sarns played bass for a while, before Ron Johnson from Kaleidoscope stepped in the following year. The group recorded a demo for Atlantic Records, and played at The Fillmore West with Jethro Tull. In 1971, James and Roth both appeared on Buffalo Springfield bassist Bruce Palmer's solo album, The Cycle is Complete. Then they returned to Toronto, where they recorded two singles - "Big Showdown" and "Don't You Worry" - as part of Heaven and Earth, a band that also featured guitarist Stan Endersby, bass player Denny Gerrard, and drummer Pat Little. Heaven and Earth, minus Little, then merged with another local group, Milestone, to form Great White Cane with horn players Bob Doughty and Ian Kojima, drummer Norman Wellbanks, guitarist Paul C. Saenz, and keyboard player John Cleveland Hughes. The group recorded an album for Lion Records in Los Angeles in March 1972, but by that summer, they had disbanded.

In 1973, A&M Records released the first Rick James single, "My Mama", which is likely to have been recorded in Los Angeles. In 1976, James and South African guitarist Aidan Mason co-wrote "Get Up and Dance!", which was released as a single but failed to chart. In 1977, he returned to Motown as a songwriter/producer. He soon began recording for Motown's Gordy label, first with the Hot Lips and then with a new version of the Stone City Band.

Solo career[link]

In 1978, James released his debut solo album, Come Get It!, in which he played most of the instruments on the album (as he would for his next two albums afterwards before including members of his Stone City Band to back him in the studio). The album launched his solo career, thanks to the funky disco hit, "You and I", and the much smoother, soulful "Mary Jane". He followed this success with Fire It Up, and headlined his first tour in support of the album, which saw then rising funk-pop artist Prince opening for him. James' cordial relationship with Prince during the tour strained after Prince, according to James, stole all bits from his act to hype the audience. He got so fed up with this that he canceled the rest of the tour. In early 1979, he released his third album, Bustin' Out of L Seven, which like his previous two albums, focused on producing a concept project. "L Seven" was named after a street on which James grew up in Buffalo.

After a relative flop with his fourth album, Garden of Love, in 1980, in which he traded most of his disco/funk origins for a more pop-R&B flavored project, he returned to the top with the grittier Street Songs, which was also the first to include rock and new wave elements, particularly in the album's leading single, "Super Freak", which became James' biggest pop hit, reaching number-sixteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and later winning him a Grammy Award nomination. Due to this single, the follow-up top 40 smash, "Give It to Me Baby", the Teena Marie duet "Fire and Desire", and "Ghetto Life", Street Songs peaked at number-one on the R&B album chart and number-three on the pop chart, going on to sell more than three million copies; this became James' biggest-selling album and made James famous. In 1982, just as the hype from Street Songs dropped, he released the gold-selling Throwin' Down album, and followed that up with another hit album, Cold Blooded (1983), which included the hit title track. James continued to score hits with Motown into 1985 but by the end of that year he had begun to have struggles with the label.

Following the release of The Flag in 1986, James left Motown and signed a lucrative deal with Warner Bros, releasing the album, Wonderful, in 1988, which yielded the R&B hit, "Loosey's Rap". The video for the song was banned on MTV and BET for sexual content, which James labeled hypocritical. After the release of the UK-only 1989 album, Kickin', James' recording career slowed as he struggled with personal and legal problems. In 1997, a year following his release from prison for assault charges, James released his first new album in eight years, Urban Rapsody. Though James returned to live performances to promote the album, he stopped performing for a while after suffering a stroke following a show in Denver in 1998. Prior to the concert, James was interviewed on VH-1's Behind the Music, where he openly talked about his life and career and also mentioned his drug use, which he said was behind him.

During James' Motown heyday in the late seventies and early eighties, James found himself in demand and was asked to produce Teena Marie's long-awaited debut album. James originally had planned to produce a full album for Diana Ross but when Motown told him they only wanted four songs from James, he gave the songs up to Marie, including the duet, "I'm a Sucker for Your Love", for her debut album, Wild and Peaceful. The album launched not only Marie's career but a personal and professional relationship between James and Marie, which continued until James' death. In 1982, he was asked to produce a song for The Temptations' upcoming album, Reunion, after former members Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin returned to the group for their ill-fated reunion. The song, "Standing on the Top", became a top ten R&B hit and James was credited in the song not only as a writer but as a duet singer, as well.

In 1983, he collaborated with longtime idol Smokey Robinson on their hit song, "Ebony Eyes", which became a top 30 hit on the R&B charts. That same year, he produced his longtime background vocal group The Mary Jane Girls, with their self-titled debut album, featuring the hits "All Night Long" and "Candy Man". The "Mary Jane Girls" originally consisted of Joanne "JoJo" McDuffie (lead/background vocals) and longtime session singers Julia Waters and Maxine Waters. The trio had long sung with James, who later included Kimberly "Maxi" Wuletich, Candice "Candi" Ghant and Cheryl Bailey (who used the stage name Cheri Wells) to join the group, though they didn't sing on the original records. After Wells left, she was replaced by Yvette "Corvette" Marine. In 1985, the group's second album, Only Four You included their biggest hit, "In My House: "JoJo" continued to sing lead and contributed to the backgrounds with the Water Sisters, as the other group members could not sing at all or were extremely limited vocally. Rick's band sang for the group with JoJo for concert tours. James also produced a couple of albums for his Stone City Band, releasing material by the group in 1980 and 1982 respectively. Also in 1985, James produced and wrote the Eddie Murphy hit "Party All the Time"; he also sang on the track. Following James' descent into drug abuse and his exit from Motown, the Stone City Band and the Mary Jane Girls both dissolved in 1987. Both groups reunited following James' release from prison in 1996.

Personal life[link]

James had three children, sons Rick Jr. and Tazman, and daughter Ty. At the time of his death, he was surrounded by his children and two grandchildren. James was extremely close with Teena Marie, whom he met in 1979 and began working with that same year. While James had denied that the two were romantically involved, Marie would say not only were they romantically involved but they were engaged "for two weeks". Their professional partnership lasted into 2004 when Marie released her comeback album, La Dona, which included the James duet, "I Got You". When James died, Marie said she struggled to come to terms with the loss. James' longtime girlfriend, Alfie Davidson, was said to have been a hidden fixture in James' life and was dating him for nearly a decade, even as James carried on relationships with other women, including Marie.

James began a close friendship with Eddie Murphy after the two met in 1981. Following his exit from the United States Navy in 1984, Murphy's older brother Charlie Murphy, whose first post-Navy job was working as security for his famous brother, began hanging out with James, bonding with the singer. Murphy would later recall the two's sometimes-strained relationship on Chappelle's Show, which helped to revive James' name in the public eye after years of seclusion following his mild-stroke in 1998. James also appeared in the episode recounting his memory of the experiences shared by Charlie.

James was friends with fellow Motown acts Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, though his friendship with the latter artist was tested after James began dating Gaye's former wife, Janis Gaye. James became godfather of Gaye's daughter Nona. In his biography, James called Gaye "a crazy motherfucker" but said he loved him to death. Gaye was one of the singers James idolized as a teenager. James' relationship with Robinson began shortly after James signed with Motown and in 1983, the duo recorded the hit "Ebony Eyes". James also idolized former Temptations lead singer David Ruffin and his uncle, bass vocalist Melvin Franklin and grabbed at the chance to produce the hit "Standing on the Top" for them in 1982. Prior to that, the then-current lineup of the group recorded background vocals on two James-associated projects - James' Street Songs and Teena Marie's It Must Be Magic, singing on "Ghetto Life" and "Super Freak" on the former, and the title track on the latter. In "Super Freak", "It Must Be Magic" and "Standing on the Top", James famously shouted out Temptations sing!

In 1989, James met 17-year-old party goer Tanya Hijazi. The two began a romance in 1990. In 1993, the couple welcomed the arrival of their only child and James' youngest, Tazman. Following their releases from prison for their involvement in assaulting Mary Sauger and Frances Alley, the couple married in 1997. The couple's marriage dissolved in 2002.

James' lifelong drug abuse began in his teens. A longtime marijuana user, he began using cocaine in the late 1960s. Cocaine use became an addiction for James by the late 1980s and he began freebasing by the end of the decade. James recalled smoking crack cocaine in his Beverly Hills mansion and often had aluminium foil on the windows to escape onlookers. James claimed he quit cocaine when he entered prison. Though cocaine would later be found in James' bloodstream following his autopsy, it was reported that the drug wasn't at a life-threatening level at the time of his death. After his 1998 stroke, James needed a pacemaker to help him breathe and by his death was dealing with overweight problems, which also affected his health.

Legal problems[link]

The start of the 1990s brought with it a string of bizarre and sometimes horrific incidents for Rick James. His drug use was by this time public knowledge, as he was mainly addicted to cocaine; he later admitted to spending about US $7,000 a week on drugs for five years straight. In 1993, he and future wife Tanya Hijazi were accused of holding 17-year old Katie Lauren Rowley of Gloucester hostage for up to six days (accounts vary on how long she was actually held), tying her up, forcing her to perform sexual acts, and burning her legs and abdomen with the hot end of a crack cocaine pipe during a week long cocaine binge. In 1993, while out on bail for that earlier incident, Rick James, under the influence of cocaine, assaulted music executive Mary Sauger at the St. James Club and Hotel in West Hollywood. Sauger claims she met James and Hijazi for a business meeting, but said the two then kidnapped and beat her over a 20-hour period.

He was found guilty of both offenses, but was cleared of a torture charge in the crack-pipe incident that could have put him in prison for the rest of his life. He served two years in Folsom Prison, and lost US $2 million in a civil suit to one of the women. He was released in 1996.^{[citation needed]}

Final years[link]

In 2003, James was a part of a skit on Chappelle's Show called "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories". He, along with Charlie Murphy (brother of Eddie Murphy) recounted humorous stories of their experiences together during the early 1980s. During the skit, Rick James' character, played by Dave Chappelle, utters the now famous catchphrase, "I'm Rick James, bitch!" The skits were punctuated by James, as himself, explaining his past behavior with the phrase, "Cocaine is a hell of a drug!"

At the time of his death, he was working on an autobiography, The Confessions of Rick James: Memoirs of a Super freak, as well as a new album. The book was finally published toward the end of 2007 by Colossus Books. It features a picture of his tombstone. He was also supporting Teena Marie's tour of her album La Doña, and toured with her in May 2004, playing with her at the KBLX Stone Soul Picnic, Pioneer Amphitheatre, Hayward, California.^[3]

Death[link]

On the morning of August 6, 2004, Rick James was found dead in his Los Angeles, California, home at the Oakwood apartment complex on Barham Boulevard by his caretaker. James had died from pulmonary failure and cardiac failure with his various health conditions of diabetes, stroke, a pacemaker, and a heart attack. Through his autopsy, alprazolam, diazepam, bupropion, citalopram, hydrocodone, digoxin, chlorpheniramine, methamphetamine and cocaine were found in his blood.^[4] However the coroner also stated, "None of the drugs or drug combinations were found to be at levels that were life-threatening in and of themselves."^[5] He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Come Get It!
• Bustin' Out of L Seven
• Fire It Up
• Garden of Love
• Street Songs
• Throwin' Down
• Cold Blooded
• Glow
• The Flag
• Wonderful
• Kickin'
• Urban Rapsody
• Deeper Still

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rick James official site
• Rick James, The Mynah Birds and Neil Young
• Rick James at the Internet Movie Database
• Rick James at Find a Grave