Foot soldiers in George Clinton's extended family of funk, Hamilton, Ohio-born brothers Roger, Larry, Lester, Tony and Terry Troutman formed Zapp in the late-`70s, drawing on their love of funk outfits such as Ohio Players and Parliament-Funkadelic. After a series of false starts for obscure local labels, Troutman and Co. signed to Clinton's vanity label Uncle Jam, releasing their sprawling, vocoder-laden debut in 1980--an album that was eventually picked up by Jam's parent label Warner Brothers. They remained on Warner for a decade, honing their electro-funk craft on five albums, ending with 1989's ZAPP IV. Lead singer and talk-box maestro, Roger went on to pursue solo work during the `90s to varying success. The mid-'90s spawned renewed interest in the group when Zapp's (particularly Troutman's) signature cyborgized vocals began to be sampled by countless hip-hop groups, ushering in rap music's "G-Funk" sound.
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Zapp Artist Snapshot:Product Description
Title NoteBuilding upon the unprecedented success of Zapp's self-titled debut and group leader Roger Troutman's solo debut, The Many Facets of Roger, along with those two album's hit singles -- "More Bounce to the Ounce" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," respectively -- Troutman returned in 1982 with Zapp II, a strong album again propelled by a mammoth single, "Dance Floor." Outside of the infectious single, which topped the R&B singles chart, Troutman stuck to his patented formula of vocoder-laden funk on each of the album's other songs. There isn't anything new here that wasn't on Zapp or The Many Facets of Roger, just more of the same; of course, this isn't exactly a bad thing, as Troutman retreads familiar ground effectively. At this point in his career, Troutman wasn't short on ideas and was able to inventively lay down dense, carefree funk with ease -- in sum, there's literally no filler here, impressive when you consider his prolific output during this era. Not quite as fresh as the first Zapp album but still a great album for its era. ~ Jason Birchmeier Customer Reviews for "Zapp II (Cassette)" by Zapp (Artist)There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review! Funk BestsellersExplore More Great Tower Sales & Specials
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