Rick James: The Ultimate Collection

iTunes Review

More than any other artist, Rick James bridged ‘70s R&B to ‘80s R&B, but that isn’t the only bridge represented in The Ultimate Collection. James also served as a conduit between the rock world and the funk world, and between the black inner city and the mainstream music industry. Save for his 1981 concept-album masterpiece, Street Songs — which must be heard in its entirety, front to back — James was a singles powerhouse. He put his full capabilities into every song, concentrating an album’s worth of weight and urgency into single tracks. “You and I,” “Ghetto Life” and “High On Your Love Suite” are monstrous and muscular, challenging the listener not to get up and move to the music. “Mary Jane” and “Give It to Me Baby” are so extraordinary and perennially fresh that if released to contemporary pop radio they could probably become hits all over again. Of course, the centerpiece of James’ career, and this collection, is “Super Freak,” a song so delightfully bizarre and funny and sexual that thirty years after its release it remains in a category all its own.