California Loved

Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, as gangsta rap rose in prominence, West Coast hip hop producers borrowed -- and often outright stole -- from Troutman. "It's so hard-core," Ice Cube says of Troutman's music. "[Songs] like 'More Bounce,' 'So Ruff, So Tuff,' 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' -- these songs are not your typical 'Baby, come love me ...' [songs]. These are motherfuckin' songs that were the gangster rap of their time. ... He was very important to hip hop."

J-Ro and Tha Alkaholiks specifically tried not to copy Troutman's sound. Nonetheless, they admit they were heavily influenced by him. "We loved Roger the same way as everyone else," says J-Ro. "He was just a part of the West Coast culture. That's what you heard at every party. He, along with George Clinton, Parliament, and the rest of those cats. It was a part of the gang culture, and regular folks loved it as well. As far as the parties were concerned, once they played some [of Roger's hit cover] 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' or 'Flashlight,' that's when it was time to go, because that's when people were getting rowdy and throwing their sets up."

Even the great ones stole from Troutman. The Notorious B.I.G. borrowed from Roger's vault for "Hypnotize," and "Keep Ya Head Up," Tupac Shakur's manifesto of self-love, sampled Roger's "Be Alright." Rap group EPMD's career-making hit, "You Gots to Chill," bit "More Bounce" all the way to the core. In fact, to this day, "More Bounce to the Ounce" remains one of hip hop's most sampled songs ever.

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Dayton, Ohio, is just about the last place you'd look for the roots of West Coast funk. The blue-collar home of the National Cash Register Co., Dayton's the city where the Wright Brothers first started dabbling in aviation, the birthplace of track legend Edwin Moses and writer Paul Lawrence Dunbar. And it was here, in this slow stretch of the Midwest a world away from the streets of California's inner cities, that the Troutman family band built its skills.

They weren't supposed to be in Ohio. When Dock Troutman, grandfather to the Troutman brothers, headed north from his native Georgia in the 1930s, he was aiming for Detroit. But the former sharecropper made it only as far as Hamilton, Ohio, where he found success as a businessman, selling ice in the summer and coal in the winter and serving as the local black bail bondsman year-round.

As it turns out, Ohio was the perfect breeding ground for Zapp's hybridized brand of funk. Located close to the musical hotbeds of Chicago and Detroit and down-South spots like Memphis, the Troutmans had access to the best that black music had to offer, from soul to blues to rock and even country. And Roger Troutman soaked it all up.

"Roger was born to [perform]," says Lester Troutman, Zapp's drummer and, with his thick, black hair, bushy eyebrows, and clear, white eyes, a near carbon copy of his slain older brother.

"Dude was a comedian, man," agrees Terry "Zapp" Troutman, the youngest brother, whose nickname gave the band its name. "He was the type that would crack on you no matter what time of the day it was. When we were kids, Roger never got a whupping. My mother and father never hit him. You gotta have skills to do that. If you can get past your parents, you have to have something going for you."

Roger's natural charisma was paired with a precocious musical talent. "When he was 2 and 3, he tried to mimic what was on the radio by playing a broom," says Lester. "We would listen to a Victrola record player, and Roger [would be] like, 'I have to learn.'" Roger's father bought him a guitar when he was just a few years old, and Roger bartered for lessons. "There used to be an old guy walking around who would teach Roger for food," Lester says. "My mom would cook him a meal and he would show Roger some chords and notes. But Roger was a talent, man! He picked it up from there and ran with it."

When Roger was barely in his teens, he and Lester hit the road as Little Roger and the Vels, playing YMCA and YWCA dances, with Roger at times playing the bass, the organ, and the guitar all at the same time. "My dad would take Roger around to any stage he could get him on," Lester recalls. "TV shows and all kinds of little stuff. He won prizes and money. He was playing the guitar and singing. We would go to the clubs or Legions and we would play blues and R&B. I was, like, 6 or 7. Blues, Poison Ivy, Junior Walker, or the Supremes. Anything popular, we would imitate them."