The original line-up consisted of four Troutman brothers—frontman Roger, Larry, Lester and Terry—first cousin, Sherman Fleetwood—and non-Troutman family members Bobby Glover, Gregory Jackson, Jerome Derrickson, Eddie Barber, Jannetta Boyce and Shirley Murdock.

Zapp released its eponymous debut album in 1980, and achieved mainstream recognition with the single "More Bounce to the Ounce".

In the 1990s, Zapp would also influence the G-funk sound and the broader cultural scene of West Coast hip-hop itself.

[9] George Clinton, the leader of Funkadelic liked the recording and encouraged Troutman to present the demo to Warner Bros.

Troutman's solo album The Many Facets of Roger[14] was primarily funded by Clinton, through CBS, and was slated to be released on his own Uncle Jam Records label.

[16] Funkadelic's final recording with Warner Bros., on which Troutman had worked briefly, was The Electric Spanking of War Babies.

[16] Troutman could see the disarray surrounding Clinton and severed their partnership by accepting a higher offer for the demo recordings of his album from Warner Bros. With Clinton out of the picture, Troutman was left to exercise virtually full creative control over the band's subsequent work.

I don't like to go into it on the negative side, but it cost about 5 million [dollars], and a lot of people's jobs and what we consider as the empire falling".

[9] The financial loss from the rupture with Troutman is credited as one of the factors that derailed Clinton's musical career and sent Funkadelic into hiatus.

[19] Zapp III's poorer commercial performance became a sign that the band's popularity and impact were beginning to decline toward the mid 1980s, with post-disco music falling out of trend.

Troutman gained recognition for providing talk-box backing vocals for both the original and remixed version of Tupac Shakur's 1995-96 comeback single "California Love"; the alternate version of the music video features Troutman playing the keyboard and talk-box during a party.

Roger's involvement in "California Love" awarded him a Grammy nomination for "Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group" in 1997.

[9][21] On Sunday morning, April 25, 1999, Roger Troutman was fatally shot several times in the torso by his older brother, Larry, as he exited a recording studio in Dayton, Ohio; he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, but died shortly after of his wounds.

Larry had been experiencing increasingly severe financial problems managing the family-run housing company, Troutman Enterprises, which eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy owing $400,000 in tax.

[citation needed] During Roger's funeral, his nephew Clet Troutman performed a talk-box rendition of "Amazing Grace".

Without Roger serving as the creative source, they effectively disbanded, and quietly left the music industry altogether.