The formidable funk legacy of Dayton, Ohio trailblazers Zapp will probably be burnished by the Oct. 26 launch on Leopard Records of Zapp VII: Roger & Friends.
The album arrives virtually 20 years because the dying of the group’s prime mover and frontman, Roger Troutman, and his older brother Larry, two of the 4 brothers who based Zapp in 1978. But with the assistance of visitors reminiscent of Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Frankie J and the band’s authentic producer Bootsy Collins, Zapp VII recollects the feisty, dancefloor-friendly sound that was fueled by Roger’s trademark voicebox vocal approach and which produced among the most-sampled discs in hip-hop. One of these new tracks, “Parking Lot” premieres right here.
Zapp exploded onto the R&B scene in 1980 with the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs No. 2 hit “More Bounce To The Ounce,” which helped their self-titled debut album go gold. Even better success was to comply with in 1982 with the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs No. 1 “Dance Floor” and subsequent hits by way of the 1980s reminiscent of “Doo Wa Ditty (Blow That Thing)”, “I Can Make You Dance” and “Computer Love.” Snoop Dogg was one of many numerous hip-hop notables who sampled the band’s work, as had been EPMD, the Notorious B.I.G., Public Enemy, Ice Cube and Eazy-E.
Zapp II, The New Zapp IV U and the 1993 compilation All The Greatest Hits had been additionally gold-certified albums; Roger, as he was broadly identified, loved solo acclaim together with a Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 1 album with 1981’s The Many Facets Of Roger, which featured a chart-topping replace of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” in his signature type.
“I’m sure [‘More Bounce’] has over 600 cleared samples now,” says Lester Troutman Jr. who, because the son of Zapp’s authentic drummer Lester Troutman Sr., now manages their enterprise affairs. “That song was hit hard. It was up there with some of James Brown’s catalog. It almost got to the point where if you wanted some kind of commercial success, you had to get a Zapp-Roger sample.”
The new album additionally options posthumous appearances by Roger on “Red & Dollars” and “Angel,” pieced collectively from an early demo, and elsewhere he’s heard explaining the evolution of his talkbox sound.
“This group has always been about three things,” says Troutman, Jr. “Hook ‘em, get ‘em dancin’ and keep ‘em dancin’. And I honestly think the secret to Zapp has always been its authenticity. They genuinely want to make you get up and really dance and just forget about all your troubles, and it comes out through the music.”
