If you were a teenager in the 2000s, you probably associate Rick James with one of three phrases, all first heard on the February 11, 2004 episode of Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show: "Cocaine is a hell of a drug," "Fuck yo' couch!" and, most famously, "I'm Rick James, bitch!" If you were a teenager in the 1980s, however, you associate Rick James with a different phrase: "She's a very kinky girl/The kind you don't take home to mother" - the opening lines of "Super Freak," the 1981 hit that transformed James from a successful funk singer and producer into a pop music idol and a symbol of modern libertine excess. Without a doubt, "Super Freak" is James' most enduring commercial and artistic accomplishment, the reason he could say "I'm Rick James" with such unassailable confidence, and no doubt the reason he could say "Cocaine is a hell of a drug" with such authority, too.
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