James was discovered in his home near Universal City, California by his personal assistant early on Friday. According to Police, James personal physician signed his death certificate which states that he died from "existing medical conditions".

The publicist for James’ three children says that they believe he died of heart failure. 

Born James Johnson Jr., he grew up in Buffalo, New York, with his seven siblings. At the age of 15 he left his native Buffalo and joined the Navy Reserves. When Navy life didn’t agree with him he escaped to Toronto, Canada where he hooked up with the Mynah Birds, a band that featured future Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Bruce Palmer, and Steppenwolf’s Goldy McJohn. The band signed to Motown but an album was never released.

James began his rise to fame in the late 70s when he began solo recordings for Motown. His 1978 debut album, Come and Get It!, went gold on the strength of two hits "You and I" and "Mary Jane". The former topped the R&B charts and hit the Top 40 pop charts. The hits "Bustin' Out" and "Give It to Me Baby" followed but it was 1981’s “Super Freak” that gave him his biggest hit and helped the album Street Songs go platinum.  Nine years later, James would win a Grammy for the song from its use in MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”. 

He followed up “Super Freak” by turning his producing skills on for The Temptations, who were hoping for a comeback. The chemistry worked and produced a Top 10 R&B hit with "Standing on the Top". 

James’ 1982 album Throwin’ Down was well received and spawned the hit single “Dance Wit’ Me”, but it couldn’t match the success of “Super Freak” and only went gold. His next album gave him another number one R&B hit with the title track “Cold Blooded”.  James had a string of R&B hits over the next few years with "17", “Glow”, “Can’t Stop”, "Sweet and Sexy Thing" and his first post Motown hit "Loosey's Rap", a song that also featured rapper Roxanne Shante and went to the top of the R&B charts in 1988.  James also helped comedian Eddie Murphy with his foray into music in 1985 when James produced Murphy's album How Could It Be, which spawned the hit single "Party All The Time". 

For the next couple of years, James flew mostly under the radar, with the spotlight going to Hip Hop and Rap artists, until the rapper MC Hammer brought James’ biggest hit back to the top of the charts and MTV with “Can’t Touch This”. 

It looked like the 90s where going to provide James with a resurgence but addiction took its toll. In 1991, James’ drug addiction led to violence. He was arrested for imprisoning and burning a woman with a pipe in his home. While he was free on bail for those charges in 1992, he assaulted another woman in a hotel room. He was convicted in 1993 and served over two years in Folsom Prison.

James was plotting a comeback after his release from prison in 1998, when he suffered a stroke. The stroke came a few months after he had undergone hip replacement surgery.

Recently, James returned to the spotlight, indirectly. Comedian Dave Chappelle used skits in his act and Comedy Central program where he portrayed James. James also appeared in a cameo in the last season of “The Surreal Life” where his friend Ron Jeremy invited him to the house where the reality series was being filmed, so that he could meet Vanilla Ice, who was a long time admirer. 

James spent the last months of his life working on his autobiography, “Memoirs of a Super Freak”. It is not known at this time if he had completed the project. In June, it was learned that film producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura was trying to get the rights to the book for a Paramount Pictures feature film. At the time, Di Bonaventura was reported to be in talks with Chappelle to play James in the film. There is no indication at press time what stage that project is currently at. 

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