I Wonder if Artists Become Tainted Working with Prince?

I have never heard of anyone working with Prince achieving anywhere near his level of success and becoming a household name.

I mean, is there a wendy&lisa.org? dez.org? brownmark.org? fink.org? bobbyz.org?

Vanity/apollonia6.org?

TheTime.org?

I could go on & on (I guess I did go on & on)...

Questions for the cult-ish prince-o-phants...

Does Prince communicate with you, telepathically? If so, what does he tell you? What bath & bodyworks items to use? What to eat/drink?

Do you hear subliminal messages in any of his songs?

good thread. What makes me laugh is that from time to time fans, including myself and above all those who have worked with P insist that he's a swine to work with, steals ideas, doesn't give proper writing credits [i.e. the Time, W&L, Andre' etc] which is something that we all accept to be true. However the one thing that stands out is that several associated artists just couldn't make the grade on their own. Lets take Andre as a prime example, P took Do me baby [?] off him and did various other shitty things yet I thnk many will agreee that the Dance electric is possibly the greatest thing AC ever did. If AC was such a bad ass song writer, producer, multi-instrumentalist etc then where was his SOTT?, his P.Rain, his Grammies, etc. Now apply the same theory to the many other accusing artists he has worked with.
Many were able to chip in with great ideas , especially W&L, but most have done very , very little of note on a National scale let alone a global scale. Funny how many started to come out of the woodwork when the 04' come back started and rode his coat tails!.
[Edited 3/13/08 10:24am]

I think of the batch, W&L ended up being the most prolific and Prince-like.

They've produced for a bunch of artists, they do a TON of soundtracks, write, record, etc. And they do have fan sites and crap. girlbros.com.

Just because you're not hearing their records on the radio doesn't mean they aren't working as much. You'd be surprised how much of their work you're hearing but you dont know it. Soundtracks especially.

Wendy & Lisa are the most successful... there is a wendyandlisa.com

http://www.wendyandlisa.com

They aren't a household name because they do film/television music. But they have definitely established a great reputation in film and music. They do the soundtrack for Heroes.

W&L are really great but have made a an album that you can say is high impact, touched the hearts of millions etc?. When they work with P magic happens, but i get the feeling that they, especially Lisa have an F.U. attitude to P now which is cool because they are no longer his 'slaves'.

The music industry has changed so much. True enough, a lot of the artists he worked with didn't become as successful as he did, but look at the ones he promoted in the late 90's until now. They get absolutely no love. Why? They are not talented enough? Of course not. Today, music is about who can sell. Look at Rosie Gaines. She can sing her ass off, but she didn't get the respect she deserves. Even when he tried to help out Chaka, that didn't seem to help either. Chaka is the bomb. All the old schools artists that have influenced others can't seem to make a comeback. It's just sad.

mayebelle81 said:

it can b argued that the one artist that has become more famous than even w & L is carmen electra.

now b4 u start throwing shit at me, hear me out. she's become more famous after leaving prince, i mean she hooked up with dennis rodman 4 god's sake. but she's doing modeling and has a line of videos etc. hell she's even a fightable character in def jam's fight 4 ny video game she has even had a commercial during this year's superbowl!! not bad 4 a go go dancer

sheila gets a lot of recognition as well

Sheila E. has also been very successful.
Her most recent project, C.O.E.D., seemed to be well-received, as well as her stint on "The Next Great American Band".

Her official website is: http://www.sheilae.com/home.shtml

"...She's got electric boots, a mohair suit- You know I read it in a magazine ..." {Bennie & the Jets}

I forgot about Sheila!

L4OATheOriginal said:

it can b argued that the one artist that has become more famous than even w & L is carmen electra.

now b4 u start throwing shit at me, hear me out. she's become more famous after leaving prince, i mean she hooked up with dennis rodman 4 god's sake. but she's doing modeling and has a line of videos etc. hell she's even a fightable character in def jam's fight 4 ny video game she has even had a commercial during this year's superbowl!! not bad 4 a go go dancer

sheila gets a lot of recognition as well

"...She's got electric boots, a mohair suit- You know I read it in a magazine ..." {Bennie & the Jets}

coolcat said:

I forgot about Sheila!

funkyhead said:

Well let's face it theyhave been good musicians that have worked with Prince but none as talented as he is, not many would have gotten a chance if it we're not for him.

I think you just have to put it into perspective. Working with Prince is a fantastic experience for any musician. I would say that Prince probably benefitted the careers of all the musicians he's worked with. However, the potential for anyone to become a household name in the music business is so slim. It would be a miracle if someone worked with Prince and became as big as Prince. It's like in Pop Life - everybody can't be on top.

they all brought something 2 the table...i feel the girls especially, including dancers contributed heavily 2 prince success. he didn't do it all on his own!
prince without sheila like butter without the muffin, prince w/out lisa & wendy like mash without the bangers...
prince without candy like 4play without the sax

I've often thought this: It seems to be a kiss of death to work with Prince. Two examples that have been unmentioned:

Tevin Cambel: had some success early on but died off (probably not prince's fault)

TAMAR!!! -- boy did she make a mistake working w/ prince. If you go to her myspace page and hear her non-prince produced/written songs, they are SOOO much better than the crap on Milk & Honey (which I just bought the japan version and it really is bad).

Prince really does save all his good songs for himself.

This is a good topic, cause I thought about this. I don't know what it is about Prince that makes it to where if your name is not Sheila E or Carmen ELectra, they can't make it anywhere. Maybe they have a bad promotion team or maybe their lack of talent really shows thru without Prince. I don't know. One of life's unsolved mysteries.

Prince.org is a cemetery where folks mourn Prince instead of celebrate him and his music. Last time I checked, Prince isn't dead yet.

blackguitaristz said:

Prince.org is a cemetery where folks mourn Prince instead of celebrate him and his music. Last time I checked, Prince isn't dead yet.

purplecam said:

I may borrow some of the lyrics tho.....

.....I jes didn't know

I think a lot of things play into it. Sheila and Wendy & Lisa have continued to have impressive careers after leaving Prince's camp, and comparing their level of success to Prince's is somewhat unfair. Maybe they didn't want that level in the first place. In the case of Sheila, I could watch her play solo for hours, but I think her strong suit is the magic she adds to a show--particularly the magic she adds to Prince's show. The chemistry between them on stage is wonderful to watch. I don't blame her for knowing her strength lies in bringing something to the table, not necessarily in being the star of the show.

Carmen worked her ass off to get in the spotlight. Fame was everything to her and still is. There is not a thing she will turn down. She will come to the opening of an envelope. That's not exactly success. She just is hungry for fame and attention and will do anything to get it.

One other thing that I think has to be considered: The associated artists got a lot of attention in the '80s because of what Prince did for them, but they also had to take some of the backlash when the masses moved away from his music. By '87 or so, Prince was not selling as well, and that affected airplay and media coverage for Morris, Sheila, W&L, and the rest, imo.
[Edited 3/13/08 15:46pm]

Efan said:

"...She's got electric boots, a mohair suit- You know I read it in a magazine ..." {Bennie & the Jets}

Efan said:

Questions for the cult-ish prince-o-phants...

Does Prince communicate with you, telepathically? If so, what does he tell you? What bath & bodyworks items to use? What to eat/drink?

Do you hear subliminal messages in any of his songs?

JimRockford said:

Efan said:

Anyone who has had the opportunity to work beside Prince is fortunate in my eyes...whatever their relationship is between them, but gosh dang, look at me, I've been a Prince fan for a lifetime, and I have a terrible life.

I feel sorry for Jill Jones and Ingrid Chavez careers/collaborations with P, it's a big waste. Levi and Miko are amazing musicians, I don't understand that they didn't become famous outside of Prince's fans circle.
*
[Edited 3/13/08 21:37pm]

I always say that working with Prince was a blessing and a curse for many of these artists.Most of these pople never became big superstars when they left the Prince camp,even though some of them actually have talent.I'm not so sure that being a "Prince protege" is a good thing in the long run.Prince has a way of overshadowing the people he works with.

Face it most of the people that worked with Prince are only known at all because they worked with Prince. They may have worked in the music industry anyway but most would have remained unknowns. I mean really why would anybody think bobby z or Miko are any other musician would become world famous? They are just "players" however talented they are. Prince gave most of the people he has worked with their greatest notoriety. Its not his fault what happens to them after the fact.

chocolate1 said:

L4OATheOriginal said:

it can b argued that the one artist that has become more famous than even w & L is carmen electra.

now b4 u start throwing shit at me, hear me out. she's become more famous after leaving prince, i mean she hooked up with dennis rodman 4 god's sake. but she's doing modeling and has a line of videos etc. hell she's even a fightable character in def jam's fight 4 ny video game she has even had a commercial during this year's superbowl!! not bad 4 a go go dancer

sheila gets a lot of recognition as well

I see your point, but how many people realize Prince knew her first? Do U know how many times I've explained that to people and then had to break out her CD as proof, along with the commercial that touted her as "The Scariest Female on the Face of the Planet"?
I even shared it with my class because one of the boys had a crush on her and told me she'd have nothing to do with Prince. They were SHOCKED!