It's a hit on my personal chart, that's really all that matters right? What it means to the individual and not the masses.

Love this song.

Love the song and video.

The awkward lyric about inducing someone to ''scream like a White lady" on the count of three baffled many people. I dug it, however.

Something (his divorce, I guess) happened just before the launch of 3121 which haulted all the promotion. I remember someone posting a list of all the things which were lined up before the album was out, but after the (excellent) SNL performance nothing happened for weeks. I think both the album and the song could have done a lot better if he had tried a bit harder, but I guess life got in the way..

nonames said:

Something (his divorce, I guess) happened just before the launch of 3121 which haulted all the promotion. I remember someone posting a list of all the things which were lined up before the album was out, but after the (excellent) SNL performance nothing happened for weeks. I think both the album and the song could have done a lot better if he had tried a bit harder, but I guess life got in the way..

If I remember correctly, he didn't play this song (the lead single from 3121) on SNL or American Idol, maybe because he was trying to sell the album instead of the song. As for the "scream like a white lady" bit, I thought that was the best lyric, but although whites love jamming to black music, sometimes a song like "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)," where the song is explicitly about being black, makes it hard for whites - the racial subgroup with the most buying power - to identify. Which doesn't remotely explain why "Black Sweat" did better on the pop chart than the R&B chart - I really do think this has more to do with youth than race. Case in point: it went to #2 in Canada (?)

And as I wrote before, this song went over better than everything else he played in his sampler set at Muzique in March - it connected with a mixed-age, mixed-race crowd. I'd say it was the high-pitched synth that stopped it from being a bigger hit, but it was the synth hook everyone seemed to love.

I love this song !!! This is the video and song that sealed the deal with me for Prince. I was only a casual fan up until then (was big into Madonna prior) but the instant I saw that video I was hooked - and obsessed ever since. The song and video are smooth and funky and his expressions are wonderful. This song holds a special place in my heart (as does he, even if my heart feels broken right now)

the beat was SICK

i think maybe the song got repetitive after the first verse/chorus and doesnt ever 'build' for lack of a better word?

but yes, WTF happened after 3121 came out.. FURY was on fire on SNL... Lolita was a little 'off' for me on AI.. but he didnt really promote this one well.

I mean, I thought Black Sweat and Fury were going to be HUGE

and Fury pretty much disappeared after SNL

WTF?!

It's hard to describe the feeling I get listening to Black Sweat. The musical setting is ultra-cold and minimalist, those synth lines and those beats should be the opposite of warmth and make you think of a clinical, steely place, but somehow with the vocals and all the touches, it becomes a hot sexy song...

VH-1 Soul used to play this video a lot. This was one of the last hittin', ol' school P "funk" joints I loved by him.

soladeo1 said:

I agreeable, irresistable pop hook, lusty sexualised lyrix and a cool video to boot. This was Kiss reloaded, a perfect song and where did it get like number 90 or something. I mean its a million time better than the shit hop and white boy douche bag rock groups like Maroon 5 and One Republic dominating the charts then along with the skanky Shakira type ho singers.

Adorecream said:

Agreed. One of his best tracks post 1993. Neither Prince nor record company pushed it at radio. It was like they just left it up to the video to make it a hit. When he left WB the hits stopped. He had such a huge success with TMBGITW he thought he could do it himself. There are a couple dozen Prince songs that should have charted. Had "The One You Wanna See" been released in the 80s/early 90s it would have been Top 10.

HeavenMustBNear said:

That song came out when I was in middle school. My mum gifted me the album in purple wrapping paper the day it came out as she did every P album. I ran upstairs and saw it on my bed. I listened to the first few tracks and this song came on. I WAS HOOKED. Me and two more of my friends used to scream this song in the gym while we were running. LOL Such great memories. We had a local music station called IMC back then and they played it EVERY morning. It was the first thing I watched before catching the bus. Still love it. So funky!!! I flipped when I found out the girl in the video was Yoruba. His expressions in the video... Priceless

You have a cool mom.

Guitarhero said:

mtlfan said:

This is one of my favorite Prince songs/videos. This was the video that made me realize how sexy he was and made my 16 year old hormones go crazy

Guitarhero said:

In fact BLACKSWEAT went to #1 in the USA with 11.000 physical copies sold.

It sold so much because Prince didn’t want it to be released on I tunes. At that time, physical sales were very low but still counted on BB hot 100.

But BLACKSWEAT wasn’t on the top 75 airplay, so it couldn’t chart more than one week on the top 100.