Troutman and Zapp, along with Lakeside, the SOS Band, the Gap Band, Cameo, Rick James and a few others.....represent the last funk bands to really make an impact on the R&B charts. Between 1980 and 1983, these bands were going strong.....until r&b began to change in 1984 (for the worse, in my opinion), and soul music has never really been the same since. But just prior to those terrible trend changes in the mid-80s, Roger Troutman was making some incredibly creative funk music which ruled the r&b radio stations of the early 80s.