“More Bounce for Your Ounce” - The Legacy of Roger Troutman

Originally Appears in Issue 7 of One More Robot

Dean Van Nguyen examines Roger Troutman’s often overlooked influence on 30 years of pop music.

Turn on any mainstream pop radio station and listen for a couple of hours. Chances are that a good percentage of the songs you’ll hear bear the handprint of Roger Troutman. If the name seems only vaguely familiar, you probably recognise it from being attached to 2Pac and Dre’s 1995 hip-hop masterpiece ‘California Love’. But even with that, I’d wager there’s a good chunk of ’Pac fans out there who are unaware of the full extent of Troutman’s influence on that song, or that it borrows a large amount from the output of him and his band Zapp, who cut a huge body of funk music the previous decade.

Zapp formed in 1978, with four Troutman brothers providing the nucleus and Roger being the one outstanding talent. Dedicating themselves to creating dance floor-friendly funk grooves, they were soon noticed by the genre’s overlords in the Parliament-Funkadelic collective who gave their career the breakthrough boost it needed. George Clinton and Bootsy Collins helped Zapp pen a record deal and they immediately began carving out one of the most singular careers funk has ever seen.

Their first hit ‘More Bounce for Your Ounce’ set a template for Zapp’s biggest records. Their sound was loaded with bumping grooves, almighty baselines and, uniquely, Roger’s vocals, which utilised a keyboard synthesizer that created robotic-sounding vocals through the simultaneous use of a piano-like interface and a breath tube. Throughout the eighties, Troutman fluttered between releasing records with Zapp and as a solo artist, but there was a consistency to his sound regardless of what moniker appeared on the album, with the talkbox, as it was known, almost always present.

For the rest of this story, go to:

http://deanvannguyen.tumb...y-of-roger

I'm a diehard Roger fan and this article is so on-point. "More Bounce...." is the second most sampled song in hip-hop after "Funky Drummer" and yet Roger still doesn't get his props.

I have every Zapp album, every Roger solo album, and a bunch of stuff he produced for others like Sugarfoot's "Sugar Kiss" and Bobby Glover's album, all the Human Body stuff, etc. I think for the wide influence he's had on musicians, he's one of the most under-rated artists of all time.

mikemike13 said:

Their first hit ‘More Bounce for Your Ounce’ set a template for Zapp’s biggest records. Their sound was loaded with bumping grooves, almighty baselines and, uniquely, Roger’s vocals, which utilised a keyboard synthesizer that created robotic-sounding vocals through the simultaneous use of a piano-like interface and a breath tube. Throughout the eighties, Troutman fluttered between releasing records with Zapp and as a solo artist, but there was a consistency to his sound regardless of what moniker appeared on the album, with the talkbox, as it was known, almost always present.

For the rest of this story, go to:

http://deanvannguyen.tumb...y-of-roger

Baselines?

Militant said:

I'm a diehard Roger fan and this article is so on-point. "More Bounce...." is the second most sampled song in hip-hop after "Funky Drummer" and yet Roger still doesn't get his props.

I have every Zapp album, every Roger solo album, and a bunch of stuff he produced for others like Sugarfoot's "Sugar Kiss" and Bobby Glover's album, all the Human Body stuff, etc. I think for the wide influence he's had on musicians, he's one of the most under-rated artists of all time.

Roger was also a very versatile and dynamic live performer.

i loved going to a roger/zapp concert. it's like their sound blanketed the auditorium with smooth/cool/harmonic/rhythmic sound corridors. at a roger concert everyone was into the "musically fulfilled" zone. roger troutman floated on a creative magic carpet. he was truly talented and filled with original sounds and melodies.

Roger/Zapp emitted a cool confidence onstate that made everyone in the auditorium dance, glide, clap and jump to the band's many mega-sic/bad/grooving songs (my fav will always be) "Doo Wa Ditty."

thanks for posting this thread

I think his death is partially responsible for the sound of hiphop moving further and further from its FUNK roots.

PDogz said:

Militant said:

I'm a diehard Roger fan and this article is so on-point. "More Bounce...." is the second most sampled song in hip-hop after "Funky Drummer" and yet Roger still doesn't get his props.

I have every Zapp album, every Roger solo album, and a bunch of stuff he produced for others like Sugarfoot's "Sugar Kiss" and Bobby Glover's album, all the Human Body stuff, etc. I think for the wide influence he's had on musicians, he's one of the most under-rated artists of all time.

Roger was also a very versatile and dynamic live performer.

to both of these posts.

Roger sure did get busy making children with different last names, from Wikipedia:

"Roger Troutman, who lived 24 years in the Dayton area, left 6 sons: Roger Lynch (January 31, 1970 - January 22, 2003), Larry Gates, Lester Gates, Brent Lynch, Ryan Stevens and Taji J. Troutman; 5 daughters, Daun Shazier, Hope Shazier, Summer Gates, Mia Paris Collins, Gene Nicole Anderson; and 4 grandchildren. In remembrance, Roger's nephew Clet Troutman sang "Amazing Grace" through a talkbox at his funeral."