Carl Carlton, ‘She’s a Bad Mama Jama’ R&B Singer Dies at 72

Carl Carlton, the Detroit-bred R&B/soul star best known for his 1981 funk hit “She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked)” has died at 72. The singer’s son, Carlton Hudgens II, reported the news on his Facebook page on Sunday (Dec. 14), writing, “RIP Dad, Legend Carl Carlton singer of ‘She’s a Bad Mama Jama.’ Long hard fight in life and you will be missed”; Carlton was born Carlton Hudgens. At press time Billboard had not independently confirmed Carlton’s death.

Carlton, who reportedly suffered a stroke six years ago, was born in the Motor City on May 21, 1953 and began performing at a young age under the name “Little Carl” Carlton. By 1964 he’d released his first singles for Lando Records, “I Think of How I Love Her” and “I Love True Love,” scoring local hits the next year with the songs “So What” and “Don’t You Need a Boy Like Me.”

After gaining attention with the first few songs, in 1968, Carlton signed to Back Beat Records, relocating to Houston to be closer to label founder Don Robey to release “Competition Ain’t Nothing,” which topped out at No. 36 on the Billboard R&B chart and quickly became a beloved hit on the U.K.’s Northern Soul scene.

Already a budding singing star, Carlton graduated from Detroit’s Murray Wight High School in 1970 and scored his first national hit in 1971 with “I Can Feel It.” After Robey sold his label to ABC Records, the latter released a compilation of Carlton’s early singles, You Can’t Stop a Man in Love. Carlton finally broke through in 1974 with his biggest hit, a cover of Robert Knight’s “Everlasting Love,” a dreamy, yearning disco-tinged soul burner that became his highest-charting, most enduring hit, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in November 1974.

The singer bounced around to a few labels in the late 1970s, landing at 20th Century Records in the early 1980s and releasing his most well-known hit, the lascivious, Leon Haywood-penned R&B jam “She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built,She’s Stacked),” which earned Carlton a 1982 Grammy nomination for best R&B vocal performance, male. The song peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1981 and No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart.

According to Who Sampled, “Bad Mama Jama” has been sampled by a number of rappers, including Foxy Brown (“Big Bad Mamma”), BigXthaPlug (“Meet the 6ixers”), Flo Milli (“BGC”) and Das EFX (“Straight Out the Sewer”). Carlton released his fourth studio album, The Bad C.C., in 1981 and continued to record and perform for the next 20 years, dropping Private Property on Casablanca Records in 1985, which featured a cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” and the snappy, proto-Prince funk groover “Slipped, Tripped Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” He followed that up with 1994’s Main Event and was quiet for more than a decade before issuing the gospel project God Is Good.

Listen to “Everlasting Love” and “Bad Mama Jama” below.