West Coast Rappers Get Zapped

West Coast Rappers Get Zapped

LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) – You may not have heard of them, but the funk band Zapp was incredibly influential to today’s West Coast hip hoppers. That’s according to J. Ro, a member of rap group Tha Alkaholiks, who recently enlisted some of his friends to honor the band’s late singer Roger Troutman with a tribute record, Still More Bounce: A Tribute to Roger Troutman. The title comes from Zapp’s most famous song, 1980’s “More Bounce to Ounce,” which has been sampled by many hip-hoppers. J. Ro says he decided to honor Troutman because Zapp created so many “fun, party-time memories” for him, and the group’s use of the robotic vocoder talk-box was so influential, ending up on songs like Tupac Shakur’s “California Love.” Folks as varied as Snoop Dog, DJ Quik, Ice-T and George Clinton all contributed tracks to the record, which hits stores May 14.

Wed 05-08-02