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Zapp

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Zapp was an American funk band from Dayton, Ohio, built around the singer and multi-instrumentalist Roger Troutman and his brothers Larry, Lester and Terry. Roger began recording in the 1960s and formed Roger & The Human Body in 1976. In 1977 he took over the nickname Zapp from his brother Terry. Friends Bootsy and Phelps Collins, known from Parliament-Funkadelic, heard the band, and Bootsy invited Roger to the studio in Detroit. George Clinton helped get the demo of More Bounce to the Ounce to Warner Bros., which signed the group in 1979.

Music and breakthrough

The self-titled debut was released in 1980. More Bounce to the Ounce reached number two on the American R&B chart. The second album, Zapp II (1982), went gold, and it included the number 1 single Dancefloor (Part I) on the R&B chart. Zapp III (1983), The New Zapp IV U (1985) and Zapp V (1989) followed, with diminishing success. In the 1990s Zapp came back via hip hop: Roger sang on the talk box on Tupac Shakur's California Love from 1995. In 1999 he was shot dead by his brother Larry, who then killed himself. The album Zapp VI: Back by Popular Demand was released in 2003.

Influence

The sound of Zapp is funk with electronics: bouncing bass, tight, drum-machine-like rhythms and the talk box, an effect in which you use a tube in your mouth to shape the sound of an instrument into speech. That gave the voice something robotic. The group was influential in electro-funk and gave West Coast hip hop and G-funk many samples. Ice Cube said that More Bounce to the Ounce introduced him to hip hop.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to More Bounce to the Ounce and notice the talk box: how the singing voice sounds like an electronic instrument. Listen, too, to the danceable, bouncing bass.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

Categories: Artists