Super Freak

Few American superstar stories are richer, wilder, or more excessive than Rick James’s. He played in a band with Neil Young, spent years in jail, produced his first album (which was then picked up by Motown) with money from shadowy sources, crossed rock and funk to come up with one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s, became one of the biggest pop star of the era, turned a young white woman named Teena Marie into an R&B superstar, displayed an outrageously sex and drug-filled lifestyle, was tried and found guilty of assaulting and imprisoning a young woman, went on to record new music that was compared to the Beatles’ White Album, and ended his life as a punch line for Dave Chappelle. And along the way, he scored a large number of major hits, sold tens of millions of albums and became intimate with dozens of big-name celebrities.
            Rick James attempted to tell his own story—in two different books—but left out many incidents that showed what he was really like. Nobody has written the full truth about his life. Now, based on court records, newspaper archives, and extensive interviews with dozens of family members, band members, friends, and lovers, here is the definitive biography of Motown’s most controversial superstar. 

“"Rick James was one of the biggest musical stars of the 1980s, and his life was a roller-coaster of moods, musical styles, triumph, and failure. He was definitely a Super Freak, and this book will tell you why." -- Library Journal”

"An unapologetic, no-holds-barred biography of a flamboyant and controversial artist." Booklist Online
"Benjaminson acts as a gifted stenographer laying the facts out for readers to come to their own conclusions without trying to push one verdict or the other." Passions of the Weiss
"Rick James was one of the biggest musical stars of the 1980s, and his life was a roller-coaster of moods, musical styles, triumph, and failure. He was definitely a Super Freak, and this book will tell you why." Library Journal

Peter Benjaminson is the author of Death in the Afternoon: America's Newspaper Giants Struggle for Survival, Secret Police: Inside the New York City Department of Investigation, and The Story of Motown, and is the coathor of Investigative Reporting. He is a former reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Detroit Free Press. He lives in New York City.

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