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Rick James has died, according to ET Newslink. Out of respect for the "Superfreak," Defamer will not go around yelling, "He's dead, bitch!" or any variant thereof for at least two (2) days.

Details on cause of death will be provided as they become available, if we can somehow tear ourselves away from our TiVo'd copy of the immortal "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Story" featuring the late, great Mr. James.

RIP, Rick James 1948-2004

UPDATE: We're seeing a lot of "natural causes" talk around the coverage. The guy was 56! Sure, those were hard years, but the real story will come out eventually.