Marshall Tidus, a fan of Funk music pioneer Rick James, speaks with reporters outside the singer's apartment complex August 6, 2004. James, a dynamic performer famed for the sensuous 1981 dance hit "Super Freak" as well as a descent into drugs and crime, died in his sleep Friday morning of natural causes, officials said. James, 56, the self-proclaimed "icon of drug use and eroticism," battled a crack-cocaine habit for years. He had been in fragile health since suffering a stroke in 1998 after bursting a blood vessel at a concert in Denver. REUTERS/Jim Ruymen JR