Larry Troutman was a musician and a founding member of the funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

/R&B band Zapp

Zapp (band)

Zapp is a soul and funk band formed in 1978 by brothers Roger Troutman, Larry Troutman, Lester Troutman, Terry Troutman, Bobby Glover and Gregory Jackson [Cincinnati Ohio Funk Keyboardist]...

 alongside his younger brother, Roger Troutman

Roger Troutman

Roger Troutman was the lead singer of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the Funk movement and heavily influenced West Coast hip hop due to the scene's heavy sampling of his music over the years...

. The band enjoyed a string of hits throughout the 1980s, most notably "Computer Love" and "More Bounce to the Ounce

More Bounce to the Ounce

"More Bounce to the Ounce" is an influential funk single recorded by the Ohio-based band Zapp, led by singer-songwriter Roger Troutman. Released in 1980 on the Warner Bros. Records label, the song was originally recorded in 1979 while Troutman's group was part of George Clinton's Uncle Jam Records....

".

Murder-suicide

On April 25, 1999, at 7:20am, police found 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.