Street Songs  by Rick James

Rick James's fifth album would lead him to absolute success. The 1981 Street Songs would be an album that would arrive at just the right moment as it balanced funk with the extensive use of synthesizers in the pop and dance music of the early 1980s. Street Songs came to be released at the end of the disco golden age and the transition to something else.

The big hit of the album was the single Super Freak, which was one of the dominant dance songs in clubs of that era in the U.S.A. and beyond. It was no coincidence, after all, that a decade later the huge success of MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This completely borrowed or rather copied the song. However, apart from that specific song, Rick James made no compromises in any of the eight compositions of the album. All the songs have something to say. The production of the album was done by himself.

The album reached No. 3 on Billboard. The album's sales in the U.S.A. have exceeded 1,000,000, while globally they are estimated to be close to 4,000,000. Street Songs was the peak of Rick James. After that, he could not replicate something similar.