You know, i really was trying to avoid doing this but it's gotten to the point where i can't ignore it anymore. What's going on in the Wendy & Lisa thread has pushed me to my breaking point.

Not telling anyone else how to think. Like all things Prince related, everyone has an opinion. Like the one i keep hearing lately about how the Revolution wasn't "funky". Or was so much less "funky" than later incarnations of the band. Or when i hear another artist being put down for not being as "funky" as Prince.

Well here's the deal i'd like to discuss now.



Prince isn't that "funky". Not in the purest definition of the genre. Sure he likes to throw the word around, but in the PUREST sense of the genre he's not even taken that seriously.

Short of George using Prince to get yet another label home for a minute, no one in the P-Funk camp takes Prince seriously from a "funk" standpoint. To be blunt, he's a joke in the real "funk" camp. He's LAUGHED AT. He's respected as a musician, and for having a lengthy career, but Prince is so fucking far from the "standard bearer" for funk that's it's not even funny. I'm not pulling this opinion out of my ass (although i know i'm going to get accused of doing just that). I'm in Detroit and know and have talked to quite a few heavy hitters over the years who are main-stays in the funk community and Prince isn't taken seriously with these guys AT ALL.

I mean short of borrowing some stage tricks from James Brown, as well as some horn inflections (also borrowed from JB'S) in the TRUEST sense of the genre, how is Prince really that "funky"?

So explain to me how to some of you, Prince became the "keeper of the FUNK"?

Here u go with the JOKES again. Do u know any of these people. I assure u....u DON'T, cause that comment is pure nonsense.

Graycap23 said:

I'm completely serious. Not joking even a little.
I knew you'd be the first one in here.

Like i said, i'm not going to name drop. Some folks in here know where I am, and what i do for a living, and who i used to be in bands with. Suffice it to say, Prince isn't taken seriously at all in the funk community. Not even a little.

So i'm curious as to how some of you arrived at the conclusion that Prince is somehow the "gold standard" for FUNK?

And while we're at it, what are examples of Prince's version of FUNK that you think makes him significant in the genre?

I assure you, this isn't a "bait" post. I really want to know how and where the myth got started and why it's perpetuated?

ButterscotchPimp said:

Those are u words not mine. Prince is many things, funk just being one of them. That comment is laughable.

Number one, your own ears should be the determining factor, not someone elses comments or thoughts. Prince's FUNK can stand up 2 anyones. Just listen 4 yourself. There is no debate here. If u don't like it, so be it, but 2 come here and make such silly comments is well.....silly. Your point seems 2 be 2 riles folks up 4 absolutely no reason. Is there a point 2 this?

I love Prince, I do, but he's not the keeper of the funk. I think some people don't really know what funk is.

Graycap23 said:

See, here we go. I'm not belittling anyone's opinion. I'm not calling what you're saying "silly". I'm not trying to rile anyone up. I'm asking you and anyone else that puts other artists down for not being as "funky" as Prince to explain this position.

My ears are just fine. I was born in DETROIT. Believe me, my ears know FUNK when they hear it. And where Prince has occasionally done some stuff that could be defined as "funky" MAYBE, in the purest sense of what the GENRE IS, he's NOT the "bearer of the funk". Some of you act like he is, and i seriously want to know WHY.

This is one of those threads, where if you want to get into a track by track comparison i'm all for it. But i'm going to be using REAL "bearers of the funk" as a measuring stick, so beware.

ButterscotchPimp said:

Lol.....maybe u should talk 2 some of those people.

Butterscotch, who said that Prince was the "keeper of funk"?

Graycap23 said:

So in other words, you just throw that word around a lot to make Prince superior in your mind to other musicians for the sake of defending his purple honor, but you really don't believe it. Got ya.


Anyone else?

pynkcashmere said:

That's my point. I'm getting a little tired of people using "funk" as a reason why Prince is better than [blank] when i maintain Prince isn't that "funky".

Not in the truest definition of what "funk" is.

ButterscotchPimp said:

so just because you don't think Prince is funky the world has to follow your thinking? there is no room for personal opinion on this site?

wonder505 said:

Well here's something someone said in another thread.





"95% of Prince's music is fonk fonk fonk"?

As if somehow Prince is on the same level as George, Sly or James? Really?

whatever he's got, he's funking got IT,
unlike your pals that just wanna bitch & are stuck in the 70's!

ButterscotchPimp said:

Are u serious? Show me where I have used those words.
Please.....I'm waiting.

BTW, The music speaks 4 itself, it certainly does NOT need defending as u so politely put it.
[Edited 8/19/08 8:28am]
[Edited 8/19/08 8:33am]

ButterscotchPimp said:

but that is their opinion!! and who cares?

wonder505 said:

Okay, do ya'll even read what i write anymore? Or do you just see my name, read three words and react?

I started off with saying that i get that different people have different opinions. I never said that "Prince wasn't funky". I said in the truest definition of the GENRE OF FUNK, he's not taken that seriously and i maintain from that DEFINITION he's not that "funky".

I'm asking for an explanation from those who feel that Prince is one of the "forefathers" of "funk" as to how they arrived at that conclusion. I'm trying to figure out how some people arrived at this conclusion. I'm not necessarily saying it's "wrong", more than i'm saying i don't understand it.

Read what i'm writing, people!

wonder505 said:

Good lord.
Do people read at all in here?

ButterscotchPimp said:

Your premise does NOT even makes sense. How could Prince be a forefather of funk when funk was damn near dead when Prince came along as an artist?

Ah, but Prince is so much more than Funk alone, as well you know. not much more to say. Prince's eclectic as anybody out there and his catalogue speaks for itself.

I think "funk" gets thrown around a lot but people don't know exactly what it means. That said, I know I don't know what it means, and I know I'm guilty of calling all kinds of songs, not just Prince's, funky, when they wouldn't mean the definition that you would apply to the word. So, for my benefit at least, I'd love to have a better definition of funk so I could use it more appropriately.

lottielooloo1968 said:

I should've known better than to think there could actually be a discussion about this. Wow.

Graycap23 said:

Funk was "damned near dead" when P came along?
REALLY?

And you get what i'm trying to say, Gray.
Not forefather in the sense that he created it, in the sense where he deserves to get mentioned in the same breath as George, Bootsy, Sly or James. Or Betty Davis.

ButterscotchPimp said:

but that's what i'm trying to get at. just because someone thinks that Prince's music is funky, how does that translate that he is the forefather of funk.

everytime someone offers their opinion that is not negative or favorable, you get all drama queen and take it and go overboard making it seem like we think Prince is a god or the maker of music, when someone is just offering their view.

lottielooloo1968 said:

& he redefined funktropolis...

ButterscotchPimp said:

It boils down 2 personal taste at the end of the day.
I'd rank Prince as 4th of time 4 FUNK. That's just me.

lottielooloo1968 said:

& he put the FUN in funkyy...

lottielooloo1968 said:

& he's BUFF

Efan said:

Thanks for being open minded. Seriously, i'm not trying to get people all riled up.

I think you're right, i think that the word "funk" does get thrown around in here way too much. And in a lot of ways, it's okay. There's a difference in calling a song "funky" because it makes you feel a certain way. Like if a song makes you want to dance, it's "funky". I get that. And that's fine. Keep on saying it.

I'm speaking more to the people (coughfamscough) who use Prince's "funk" as a measuring stick against other artists. Namely and specifically Wendy and Lisa, to start. The Revolution as a whole. How they weren't "funky" and the band got so much "funkier" later on. Or when discussing Prince vs say someone like Van Hunt, Prince is "fonk" when Van isn't.

ButterscotchPimp said:

Lol...are u saying thw W&L was funky?