Album dossier / 1980

Zapp

Zapp · Electro-Funk

Zapp's self-titled debut was cut at United Sound Studios in Detroit between 1979 and early 1980 and produced by Bootsy Collins, after Parliament-Funkadelic leader George Clinton heard Roger Troutman's 'More Bounce to the Ounce' demo and personally steered it to Warner Bros. Clinton reportedly wandered into the sessions one night, liked a re-edited section of 'Funky Bounce,' and suggested razor-splicing the tape to loop it under Troutman's talk-box vocal -- the technique that gave 'More Bounce' its hook. Troutman sang through a Bob Heil-style talk box (the same effect popularized on record by Peter Frampton and Stevie Wonder) routed into a Minimoog, turning his voice into the robotic, sung-through-a-tube signature that later powered a generation of West Coast hip-hop and G-funk samples from Dr. Dre to Tupac. The single hit #2 on the Billboard R&B chart and the album went gold within four months of its July 1980 release.