Who Was Rick James?African American musician Rick James, was a popular performer in the late 1970s. James started singing on the street corners of his home town Buffalo at a young age. His breakthrough song, "You and I" on the album Come Get It! was the first of a long string of hits. James battled with drug addiction in the late 1990s and served time for sexual assault Musician and singer James Ambrose Johnson, Jr., better known as Rick James, was born on February 1, 1948, in Buffalo, New York.