James's career with the group halted after military authorities discovered his whereabouts and eventually convicted him of desertion related charges.

Rapper MC Hammer sampled James's "Super Freak" for his 1990 hit, "U Can't Touch This" which won Best R&B Song at the 1991 Grammy Awards.

In 1993, he was convicted of two separate instances of kidnapping and assaulting two different women while under the influence of crack cocaine, resulting in a three-year sentence at Folsom State Prison.

His mother was a dancer for Katherine Dunham, and later worked as a cleaner in the day, and as a numbers-runner for the Buffalo crime family at night to earn a living.

[citation needed] That same year, James formed The Mynah Birds, a band that produced a fusion of soul, folk and rock music.

At one point, Nick St. Nicholas, later of Steppenwolf fame, was a member; by the time "Mynah Bird Hop" was recorded bassist Bruce Palmer had replaced him.

James and Palmer recruited guitarists Tom Morgan and Xavier Taylor and drummer Rick Mason to form a new Mynah Birds lineup, and soon traveled to Detroit to record with Motown.

Hoping to prevent any scrutiny, Motown execs told Rick they would not be releasing any more of his material and convinced him to come back and work with them after straightening out his legal issues.

[9] After his release from Portsmouth Naval Prison in August 1967, James returned to Toronto[10] and endured another detention, initially derailing resumption of his career with Mynah Bird bandmate Neil Merryweather, with whom he would later collaborate, first at Motown and then in Los Angeles.

[8][11] In 1968, again working under the pseudonym Ricky Matthews, James produced and wrote songs at Motown for acts such as The Miracles, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, and The Spinners.

Reeves, hoping to find a better situation than the US$38 a week (US$745 in 2023 dollars[12]) he was earning as a session bassist for Berry Gordy, joined James, looking to "hitch a lift from Neil Young's rising star," and relocated to Los Angeles.

[14] James claimed that in 1969 friend and hairstylist Jay Sebring invited him to attend a party at actress Sharon Tate’s house, but he was too hungover to get out of bed.

"[5][4] In 1970, James and Salt'N'Pepper member Ed Roth participated in the recording of Bruce Palmer's solo album The Cycle Is Complete.

[15] During this period, James and Mainline guitarist Mike McKenna co-wrote the song "You Make the Magic", which would later be released by The Chambers Brothers as a B-side to their single "Boogie Children.

It eventually sold a million copies, launching James's musical career to stardom, and helping out Motown Records at a time when label fortunes had dwindled.

[citation needed] Following the end of the tour in 1980, James released the ballads-heavy Garden of Love, which was a relative flop only reaching number 83 on the Billboard 200.

During this period, when Prince also became a success as a producer of other acts including The Time and Vanity 6, James launched the acts Process and the Doo-Rags, and the Mary Jane Girls, featuring his former background singer Joanne "JoJo" McDuffie as the lead vocalist and background performer, finding success with the latter group, due to the hits, "All Night Long", "Candy Man", and "In My House".

In 1983, James recorded the hit duet, "Ebony Eyes", with singer Smokey Robinson, as well as a ballad "Tell Me What You Want" with an introduction by Billy Dee Williams.

James's rant was cosigned by David Bowie, who argued with MTV VJ Mark Goodman about the lack of black artists being featured on the channel despite the successes of Jackson and Prince.

That year MC Hammer released his hit signature song, "U Can't Touch This", which sampled the prominent opening riff from "Super Freak".

James and his co-writer on "Super Freak", Alonzo Miller, sued Hammer for shared songwriting credit and all three received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1991.

[24] In early 2004, after years out of the spotlight, James participated in a comedy sketch on Chappelle's Show, in a segment called "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories."

[28] In November 2020, James's estate confirmed the sale of a 50% stake in his publishing and masters catalog to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund,[29] founded by Canadian music industry executive and entrepreneur Merck Mercuriadis.

Although James claimed that he quit cocaine when he entered prison, his autopsy showed there was a small amount of the drug in his bloodstream at the time of his death.

[37][43] James faced a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on all charges, which included assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated mayhem, torture, forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment and kidnapping.

While serving his five-year sentence at Folsom Prison, James lost a civil suit to Sauger, who was awarded nearly $2 million in damages in 1994.

[47] In 2020, his estate was sued for $50 million by a woman who accused him of raping her when she was 15 years old at a group home for troubled youths in Buffalo, New York, in 1979.

[50] On the morning of August 6, 2004, James's caretaker found him dead in his Los Angeles home at the Oakwood Toluca Hills apartment complex, just outside Burbank.

His autopsy found alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam, bupropion (Wellbutrin), citalopram (Celexa), hydrocodone, digoxin (Digitalis), chlorpheniramine, methamphetamine, and cocaine in his blood.

[53] A public funeral was held at St. John Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2004, with an estimated 6000 fans attending the viewing, and cremation following the service; a free tribute concert took place later that day in Martin Luther King Park.