{"id":276125,"date":"2021-06-16T16:27:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T13:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/rick-james-doc-bombshells-coke-penis-wielding-lionel-richie\/"},"modified":"2021-06-16T16:27:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T13:27:43","slug":"rick-james-doc-bombshells-coke-penis-wielding-lionel-richie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/rick-james-doc-bombshells-coke-penis-wielding-lionel-richie\/","title":{"rendered":"#Rick James doc bombshells: Coke, penis-wielding, Lionel Richie"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Rick James doc bombshells: Coke, penis-wielding, Lionel Richie<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s Rick James, bitch \u2014 and don\u2019t you ever forget it.<\/p>\n

That classic Dave Chapp<\/a>elle catchphrase is exactly the kind of emphatic statement that the late \u201cSuper Freak\u201d funkster made in one encounter revealed by his former manager Kerry Gordy in the new documentary \u201cBitchin: The Sound and Fury of Rick James,\u201d which premiered Tuesday night at the TriBeCa Film Festival<\/a> and will be available to stream on TriBeCa at Home<\/a> beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Gordy \u2014 eldest son of legendary Motown Records founder Berry Gordy \u2014 vividly describes how James, frustrated by disappointing sales for his 1982 album \u201cThrowin\u2019 Down\u201d and its accompanying tour, marched into the office of then Motown President Jay Lasker to deliver his next LP. Then he proceeded to pour coke onto Lasker\u2019s desk, snort it, jump on top of said desk, take out his penis \u2014 and shove it in Lasker\u2019s face while yelling \u201cSell my goddamn record!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Gordy reveals that, after the singer left the room, Lasker simply said \u201cLionel Richie<\/a>,\u201d effectively signaling that all of Motown\u2019s muscle would now be put behind another one of the label\u2019s stars \u2014and James\u2019 career was never the same.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just some of the juicy tea in the documentary about the artist born James Ambrose Johnson Jr.,\u00a0 who died at 56 in 2004 from cardiac and pulmonary failure \u2014 with nine different drugs in his system.<\/p>\n

\"Rick
Rick James is the subject of a new documentary, \u201cBitchin: The Sound and Furty of Rick James,\u201d which premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival on Tuesday night.<\/figcaption>
Mark Weiss<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One big surprise comes early in the film when it is revealed that at the beginning of his music career, after the Buffalo, New York native fled to Toronto to escape the Navy, James \u2014 then going by the name Rickie Mathews \u2014 was in a \u201960s R&B band with Neil Young called the Mynah Birds. That was until their manager dimed him out for deserting and he ended up in the brig.<\/p>\n

Then after stints with other bands, he busted out of the Motown mold in the late \u201970s, funking up the legendary label with his Stone City Band culled from his favorite Buffalo musicians. But James wanted his crew to be in hair harmony: \u201cHe said, \u2018If you wanna be a part of this band, you have to get your braids,\u2019 \u201d says SCB drummer Lanise Hughes of James\u2019 signature style, which was inspired by an African woman from the Maasai tribe who he met on a plane.<\/p>\n

Their drug use went as deep as their grooves. \u201cThere was plenty of dope around,\u201d says keyboardist Levi Ruffin Jr. \u201cI think I snorted everything on God\u2019s planet Earth when I was in the band.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rick
Rick James battled drug addiction until his death at 56 in 2004.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In archival interview footage throughout the documentary \u2014 which will premiere on Showtime later this year \u2014 James himself reveals just how much debauchery went down: \u201cWe were f\u2013king standing on the verge of insanity in those days. Everybody was snorting cocaine. Everybody was taking quaaludes, drinking Cristal and Dom Perignon champagne, and getting butt naked and doing it in the bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although James was indeed a very kinky guy, pushing the boundaries of what women could withstand sexually, he had his own particular limits. \u201cHis sexual exploits were more \u2018You do that to that person. Let me watch. I wanna orchestrate some s\u2013t over here,\u2019 \u201d says his ex-wife Tanya Hijazi. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t personally involved. He was not that kind of super freak. He didn\u2019t let people touch him. He wasn\u2019t, like, in the orgy \u2014 he would watch the orgy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rick
Rick James had a royal rivalry with Prince, who opened for his punk-funk predecessor on a 1980 tour.<\/figcaption>
Michael Ochs Archives<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But James would meet his super-freak match in Prince, who opened for his punk-funk predecessor on tour in 1980 \u2014\u00a0 when the Purple One<\/a> was just beginning his revolutionary career \u2014 and it turned into one royal rivalry.<\/p>\n

\u201cRick definitely had an attitude with Prince. They just was competing with one another,\u201d says Parliament-Funkadelic bassist Bootsy Collins, who did some shows with them. \u201cThey would pull plugs on each other \u2026 and [be] getting ready to go to blows.\u201d<\/p>\n

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