In 1993, the group scored their biggest-selling album when a compilation album, Zapp & Roger: All the Greatest Hits, was released. Troutman also made a habit of producing solo efforts for Zapp band members and associated acts.
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Throughout Zapp’s tenure, the original five-member lineup grew to around fifteen. The album would become the group’s final studio album though they continued to release singles into the 1990s releasing the hits "Slow & Easy" and "Mega Medley", which put together a collection of the group’s hit singles in a remix. Zapp’s hit making magic faded shortly after the release of their fifth album, Vibe, in 1989. The debut album reached the top 20 of the Billboard 200 and firmly launched Zapp and Roger into the national spotlight.īetween 19, Zapp released gold-selling albums such as Zapp, Zapp II, Zapp III and New Zapp IV U and released top ten R&B hit singles such as "Be Alright", "Dance Floor", "I Can Make You Dance", "Heartbreaker", "It Doesn’t Really Matter" – which was a tribute to black artists of the past and present, and the Charlie Wilson and Shirley Murdock-assisted funk ballad, "Computer Love". Records and released their self-titled debut, which yielded the Bootsy Collins produced & Troutman-composed hit, "More Bounce to the Ounce." The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Soul Singles chart in the fall of 1980. A year later, as Uncle Jam Records was forced to close, Zapp signed to Warner Bros.
#ROGER TROUTMAN PROFESSIONAL#
Zapp made their professional television debut on the first and only Funk Music Awards show. Within two years, Roger and his brothers were discovered by George Clinton, who signed the newly-christened Zapp to his Uncle Jam Records label in 1979. In 1977, he and the Human Body issued their first single, "Freedom". Troutman had formed various other bands with his four brothers, including Little Roger and the Vels and Roger and the Human Body. The band members were Rick Schoeny, Roy Beck, Dave Spitzmiller, and Denny Niebold. The band played in Cincinnati and recorded a 45 record Busted Surfboard and Seminole.
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The first band Roger was in was THE CRUSADERS. He was a late-arriving member of Parliament-Funkadelic and played on the band’s final Warner Brothers’ album The Electric Spanking of War Babies. Solo discographyīorn in Hamilton, Ohio, Roger was the fourth of ten children. In his later years, he was mostly known for singing the chorus to the hip-hop classic by Tupac Shakur, "California Love" and the Vice City Soundtrack, "More Bounce to the Ounce". As both lead singer of Zapp and in his subsequent solo releases, he scored a bevy of funk and R&B hits throughout the 1980s. Roger used a custom-made talkbox-the Electro Harmonix "Golden Throat," as well as a Yamaha DX100 FM synthesizer. Troutman was well known for his use of the talk box, a device that is connected to an instrument (frequently a keyboard) to create different vocal effects. Roger Troutman (Novem– April 25, 1999) was an American singer, songwriter, producer and the lead vocalist of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the funk movement and heavily influenced west coast hip hop due to the scene’s heavy sampling of his music over the years.