It seems that a great deal of the orgers do not get past the lyrics.

Which is beyond me, because clearly it's not rap per se that is the target here.
It's people like 50 cent and the like.

And even if the lyrics were to be taken seriously, I still wouldn't care.

This is one of what I call his mini-masterpieces.
Such perfect minimalism.
Such humour, even in the guitar.
The wicked witch gets me EVERY time.

I completely agree!

Great song on the Funk Bible..... (the Black Album is brilliant all the way through, the funky cousin to "Sign O The Times", the album....).



Big love from me to Dead On It and the rest of the tracks on TBA....

funkaholic1972 said:

Although certainly not the best song on the Black Album, it still is a welcome addition. Love the guitar and the beat on this one. And that BASS of course!! [Edited 5/5/15 3:59am]

Love this track. I think it's hilarious, and the guitar is funky.

controversy99 said:

Guitar and the best are great. Lyrics are embarrassing.

Why so? How are "Dead On It" lyrics worse than say, "SuperFunky..." or "Cindy C" ? Or "Rock Hard" ?
Surely you don't listen to "Bob George" in a serious manner.

I don't understand why the ha-ha factor doesn't get through with this one.

It's Prince the comedian, as in "Movie Star", "La, La, La, Hee, Hee, Hee", "The Mashed Potatoes Girl segue"
or when he's doin the Butler voice, or he's selling body massage batteries, you know the drill.


I think he had a right to say, as a hard-working musician, that some rappers are posers (it's "see their rap's first problem", not "see the rap's first problem").
My impression is that some listeners think that this song was somewhat Prince whining about how the music industry was shifting,

and not in his favor.
I don't think Prince superstardom decayed because of Lovesexy or TBA.
It's just that he got more intellectual, more refined.
And we know how popular finesse is, right? Whatever the artistic expression, for that matter.


To me it sounds more like Prince was already listening to rap, maybe Public Enemy.
It is my theory that there wouldn't be "Dance On", or "Positivity" without the Public Enemy breakthrough the year before.
SOTT the song is about the global state of the world, whereas "Lovesexy", a paradox for what is considered his most "spiritual"
and "out-of-this-world" album, focuses on North America issues.

Did you know that "Alphabet City" was a crack block in New York City, circa 1987?
Is "Alphabet St." an ambition of turning the ugliness of it into something positive?
Who knows. But I'm pretty sure he read the papers (crack, uzis, South Central, etc.), and knew about Public Enemy.

It would be unfair to judge "Dead On It" has being a delusion of self-centered Prince.

It may be his very first "real music by real musicians" statement laid on record.
I always kinda cringe at this phrase, but the man is substantially right :
When he says that, I don't think he means to send everything electronic or programmed down the drain.
Heck, if someone contributed in a massive way to the recording technique assisted by a machine,
the do-it-yourself home studio philosophy in general, that's Prince.

To me its lyrics are more of a variation of "Talkin'Lound and Sayin' nothing" tranposed to the Show-business.

bonatoc said:

controversy99 said:

The DOI lyric you mentioned is actually "See the rapper's problem usually stem from being tone deaf." It's pretty clear Prince meant this, in part, as a broadside attack on rap in general as non-musical with no talent performers. Why else would he say "rappin done let us down"? That's why I call it embarrassing. My parents generation were the ones talking bad about rap in general in the 80s. It's really for the best that DOI wasn't released until 1994.

Thanks for pointing the correct lyrics out.

Still... The fact that the whole song is rapped gives you a hint.
If he had done a melodic song with rap-bashing lyrics, maybe.

About the lyrics :

Riding in my Thunderbird on the freeway
I turned on my radio to hear some music play
I got a silly rapper talking silly shit instead
And the only good rapper is one that's dead on it

It seems to me that he's specific about a silly rapper, not rappers in general.
And if we consider that "Dead On It" can be interpreted as "right on", "spot on",
then the only good rappers are the one who are right on the beat (real "musicians"), and the rest are wannabees/posers.

He's been careful enough to start with "I turned my radio on to hear some music play".
That doesn't mean he would have switch the radio off if "The Message" went on.

Did Prince listen to Public Enemy prior to recording TBA? We may never know the answer. Their first album was April 1987, but they didn't hit it big until 1988. From what I can tell, Prince wasn't very well versed in hip hop until 1991 at the earliest.

There was this thread months ago about Prince and the origins of its rap incorporations.

Honestly, Controversy (the Our Father prayer), Annie Christian, Irrestitible Bitch, are evidence that Prince was pretty aware of rap and of what was going on in the pop/underground world. He probably read the 1999 reviews when it came out (Lady Cab Driver includes yet another rap),
and a great deal mentioned Kraftwerk and Afrika Bambataa as influences. He must have dropped an ear on both.

We all know the 1985 Rolling Stone interview where he pretends he never listen to other music, but he's full of shit.
Prince was the ultimate absorber of trends. It's his capacity to grab from such different sources that made Purple Rain the crossover it was.

So my guess is that he was decently trained in rap, if only by radio/club hits by Grandmaster Flash and such.
I'm 100% sure that despite what P says about awards, he read the Billboard 200 weekly.
Do not forget that he frequented clubs in NY and LA, so he probably heard rap at the beginning of the eighties, when it was still somewhat underground.

The fact that he wanted to have a band again (NPG) in the post-MCHammer era, clearly influenced the composition of such band.
He had to incorporate a rapper because it appeared as a mainstream element to him.
Still, I really don't think it was a 100% commercial move.

He would have not incorporate Tony M. in Graffiti Bridge if he did not believe in rap as a medium in the first place.
I don't think it's a turn-around on his part.

Heck, he already needed Sheila E to transmississippirap in 1987,
he already needed Cat to Rap in 1988, what more do you need?

[Edited 5/5/15 17:01pm]

I have always thought that this song is why the Black album was canceled.

There was tons of Hip hop and Rap out before the Black album and it was huge in the mid 1980s when I was a kid. It's all my firends listened to (Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Fat Boyz, LL Cool J, Too $hort, Gang Star, Whodini, Doug E. Fresh, Just Ice, Schooly D etc.) I think he was affraid his lyrics would be mis-understood and he would look foolish.

Call me crazy but it makes more sense to me than the X story. Or the other theory of "if it was your last peice of work, this is how you will be remembered." He penned and released far darker music later on.

Regardless, it's a very interesting track.

[Edited 5/5/15 20:55pm]

I dont think he is dissing rap, rather dissing bad rap. The clue is in the title. Dead On It. Good rappers are the ones that are dead on it... dead on the beat.... in the pocket.... in synch with the beat.... right on. When he turned on the radio, he heard a silly shit rapper who wasnt dead on it.

Its kinda ironic, because later on when Prince started rapping proper, there were many occassions when he was most definately not dead on it.

I also think he is having a dig at rappers in general not being able to do anything else. A one trick pony so to speak. See, the rappers problem usually tends from being tone deaf. Pack the house and try to sing, there wont be no one left. The key word there being usually, not always. So, not dissing all rappers, just those that cant do anything else like sing (which was probably most back then..... err.... and these days too).

Anyway it is a funny song, not meant to be too serious. The problem with his funny songs/segues etc is they are like jokes - funny at first but the humour soon wears off after youve heard it so many times. And if the song relies heavily on the humour, then once the humour is old, so becomes the song. Fortunately, DOI has great music attached to the humour so it stands up well anyway. Not my favourite track on TBA though, that goes to Le Grind.

Still my favorite rhythm guitar playing from Prince on a record. Silly lyrics but no sillier than Housequake.

"Dead on it" - excellent tune from the top drawer IMO - when Prince WAS dead on it. It's the 3rd of one of the best opening 1-2-3 tracks of any of his albums.