Super Freak

Infobox Single
Name = Super Freak


Artist = Rick James
from Album = Street Songs
Released = 1981
Genre = R&B
Length = 3:24
Label = Motown Records
Producer = Rick James
Last single = "Give It to Me Baby"
(1981)
This single = "Super Freak"
(1981)
Next single = "Ghetto Life"
(1982)

"Super Freak" is a 1981 hit single, produced and performed by Rick James for the Motown label. The song, co-written by James and Alonzo Miller, was first released on James' album "Street Songs" and was one of James' signature songs. It features background vocals from Motown labelmates The Temptations, in which the bass singer is James' uncle Melvin Franklin, and Canadian singer Taborah Johnson.

The song was a big hit for James in 1981, charting on the pop, R&B and dance charts in the U.S. On the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the song peaked at #16 in the fall of 1981 and spent 10 weeks in the top 40. Together with two other singles from "Street Songs", "Give It to Me Baby" and "Ghetto Life", it spent three weeks at #1 on the American dance charts earlier that year.

The song is well known by those who grew up in the late-1980s/early-1990s for being sampled by MC Hammer on his smash hit in 1990 "U Can't Touch This," and was brought back into familiarity when used as background music for the famous Rick James sketch on "Chappelle's Show."

The track also features on the setlist.

Freak in films

An instrumental version of the song was also heard in the 1983 comedy "Doctor Detroit" and the 1992 movie "Batman Returns". The song is featured in the Australian movie "Garage Days", the 1995 film "An Ambition Reduced to Ashes", the 2006 film "American Dreamz", and plays a major part in the 2006 film "Little Miss Sunshine".

The track was featured in the soundtrack to the 2006 video game "".

The 2006 Beatfreakz remix was also featured in UK TV series "Nathan Barley"

Freak covers

*In 1984, the Los Angeles based novelty band Big Daddy (whose comic conceit was to cover fast songs as ballads and slow songs up-tempo, and all contemporary songs done in 1950s style) recorded the song to a slower beat as if it had been done by the Everly Brothers.

*The song was also covered by Heavy-Metal band Mordred in their 1989 album Fool's Game.

*The Dave Matthews Band also paid homage to the deceased Rick James in "Live Trax Vol. 8", segueing into "Super Freak," thrilling the fans, who sang along enthusiastically. [http://www.tomahclass97.com/music/mp3/audio/Dave%20Matthews%20Band%20-%20Super%20Freak%20(2004.08.07).mp3]

*Apollo Zero reconstructed a mashup featuring James' lead vocals to this song over the instrumentation and background vocals from the 2004 JC Chasez single "All Day Long I Dream About Sex", entitled "All Day I Dream About Sex...With a Superfreak".

*In 2006, the Beatfreakz made their own cover version of the song, under the same name of "Superfreak" and gained a #7 UK hit with it. "Australian Idol 4" finalist Bobby Flynn performed a version of the song. That same year the underground Chicago band Straitjacket covered this song on their album "Vices".

*The title track of Jay-Z's 2006 comeback album "Kingdom Come" features a sample from "Super Freak."

*In the song Freaky Gurl by Gucci Mane the lines in the chourus "she's a very freaky girl, don't bring her to momma" are a homage to this song.

*The song, done in bluegrass style by Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby, is featured on their 2007 eponymous collaborative album.

Freak in Slang

The term "super freak" (and the term "freak" from which it descended) are African American ghetto slang (see both Slang and Ebonics). "Freak" and "super freak" are both references to : a woman who enjoys sex; perhaps but not necessarily a woman who is promiscuous, is willing to experiment sexually or is hyper-sexualized. In common use either term can simply refer to a woman. The slang term "get freaky" (to act sexually) derives from the same root as well.

Given that the standard dictionary meaning of the word "freak" is a reference to a "freak of nature", one could easily make a case that the use (and origin) of these slang terms indicating a basic belief that 'any woman who has a healthy sex life must be a freak of nature' (or at least an oddity). This lies is in stark contrast to the well researched and contradictory realities of female sexuality and the fact that women possess a much larger capacity for sexual pleasure than men do. The slang term "freak" and its relatives say a great deal about the views of that segment of society in which they arose (in regards to preconceived ideas regarding female sexuality and socially appropriate female sex roles).

There is a very obvious link between this terminology (and it meaning) and the "Madonna Whore complex" in which all women must be virginal (sexually untouched) or are automatically unworthy of any respect (see also references to the veneration of virginity and the practice of 'cherry picking' in western society). For an example of this in film, see "Saturday Night Fever" in which a casual sexual conquest by the character of Tony (played by John Travolta) turns into male only gratification when he discovers that the woman he desires is not a virgin. The "Madonna Whore complex" is well documented in both psychology and Feminist literature. It lies at the very roots of the sexual morays of middle America and the mythology of the American Golden Age (common in conservative American politics). The pervasive and repressive nature of the "Madonna Whore complex" and the way in which it creates an unhealthy view of female sexuality were at the heart of crossover between the "sexual revolution" in America and the 20th century womens rights movement in America.

References

"The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits", 6th Edition, 1996

ee also

List of number-one dance hits (United States)

Audio sample

External links

* [http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/lyrics2/super_freak.html Super Freak Lyrics]

Additional Reference: "Super Freak" also a reference to anyone with exceptional skills in a specific area of concentration. Example: Dianne Belmonte is referenced as a "Super Freak" for her exceptional marketing skills while serving at iKnowledge, Inc.