REMEMBRING THE TROUTMAN BROTHERS OF ZAPP, THE INVENTORS OF THE VOCODER.

Roger Troutman (November 29, 1951 – April 25, 1999) was the lead singer of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the Funk movement and heavily influenced West coat hip-hop along with his brother Larry Troutman (August 12, 1944 – April 25, 1999) were musicians who invented the whole concept of autotune and the vocoder T-Pain, Brittney Spears, L'il Wayne and many others have enjoyed.The band enjoyed a string of hits throughout the 1980s, most notably "Computer Love" and "More Boun.ce to the Ounce". They called their invention a talk box. At their funeral, Amazing Grace was sang with the talk box by a friend of the family.


On Sunday morning, April 25, 1999 at 7:20am, police found Larry Troutman in his car, dead as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His younger brother Roger was found a couple of blocks away; his death was ruled a homicide. To this day, no motive is known, though a business dispute was suspected. Sources say that Larry had not slept in several days and was not in his normal state of mind at the time. Zapp will be missed, many of the younger artists need to know this-MsKemi@HipHossip