Zapp mines the same groove of disco, space funk, progressive jazz, street blues and second-line syncopation as its mentor, George Clinton. But what sets Roger and Zapp Troutman apart is that they've subsumed the "rap" to the dictates of the rhythm section – a twangy cubist mélange of rhyme, dance time and choruses of synthesized voices. No one's going to mistake this singing for that of...

Paramedics summoned by neighbors who heard gunshots arrived to find Roger bleeding from several gunshot...