I'm no rap expert but I think he sounds good on:

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Sexy M.F

Days Of Wild (both studio and The Beautiful Experience versions)

The Good Life (Big City Remix)

P. Control

Now

U Know

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Also, the rap sections on:

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Gett Off

Acknowledge Me

Right Back Here In My Arms

Come On (Remix)

No. I think Prince was a much better singer than rapper.

A lot of the time in the mid 90s he was trying too hard and came across as a suburban dilettante. Much of rap/hip hop from 80s and 90s had pronounced regional sounds. Public Enemy sounded nothing like NWA and the Oakland sounds that came later were also their own thing.

So then in like 1992 you have this famous cat from Minneapolis who grew up on James, Jackson 5, Miles, Joni and Led Zepplin, who the last time listed to rap was Sugar Hill Gang, who probably thought Roxanne, Roxanne was a Police song, who seems to have discovered Doug E Fresh's La Di Da Di in 1993 allathesudden was acting all gangster and tough with a friggin gun microphone. WTF?

Early attempts att psuedo-rap like "Irresistable Bitch" sound much more organic, sound more like a natural evolution. "Dead On It" reveals his true initial judgement on the popular form of genre. I even like the more "jokey" tries like the Transmisssippirap from Beautiful Night. Supercalifrigicsexy is in this line

The problem with Prince's incorporation of Rap later was that he thought he could fool us. Instead of "let me dip my toe in this" it was more like "MY NAME PRINCE AND I CAN MASTER ANY GENRE, I"VE BEEN RAPPING FOR YEARS. LOOK AT MY CREW." No matter how acceptable of an execution it was, you knew it was fake-ass wacked.

I know we want our artist to explore new sounds and grow but I wish it would have seemed less forced and disingenuous.

[Edited 10/10/17 7:19am]

I really like "Dead on It;" he's rapping in a way that makes fun of the genre. But not in an overly mean way. It's a joke song.

But by that point, he'd already created "Holly Rock" for Sheila E.'s role in the rap movie Krush Groove. I'm not sure how other fans feel about that song, but I really like it.

I also really like Cat's raps on "Cindy C" and "Alphabet St." I haven't seen much criticism of those.

So since the early to late 80s, he already been experimenting with now to incorporate rap/spoken word into his work. But he took it to the next level adding Tony M. to his band.

I didn't know a lot of fans hated Tony M. until years later when the Internet evolved to having fan boards like this. I graduated from high school in '88 and was beginning to enjoy a lot of the fun party rap songs of that era (Salt 'n Pepa, Young MC, Technotronic, Rob Base, etc.). Tony M. reminded me of that side of rap. A lot of fun early '90s techno records had raps too (KLF "3 A.M. Eternal).

I didn't dig a lot of rap as much as it got super-hard in the mid-90s and it seemed like you needed gang street-cred to be taken seriously. I actually have grown to appreciate that era more as a late-40s-due listening the old school Atlanta station 102.9 (The Boom).

I've often wondered if the divide over Prince and raps comes down to fan demographics. I'm white, as is a considerable percentage of his fan base. Reading on this board I've wondered if some caucasian fans are just allergic to the hip-hop genre. Do some people hate the 1990 "Tick Tick Bang" because of the DJ scratching? I love that trippy little song.

I'd be curious to know what other fans, white or black or other, who actually enjoy rap music think of his efforts.

When I listen to D&P, I like to think of Prince, Rosie and Tony's vocal interplay on some songs like Sly & the Family Stone (where multiple lead voices would chime in). They're not all great songs, but "Willing & Able" is a classic for me.

To me, Prince had great vocal control where he was singing or rapping.

I really like his rap on "P Control" (though I can always do without the N-word). I thought not promoting that at clubs was a mistake in '95, but I'm glad to know even though the CD went out of print, that song became a cult classic. It's even big at karaoke (eek).

It worked way way better than "My Name Is Prince." That's the one time I thought Prince really was trying too hard. Try as it might, it just doesn't slam as hard as it could (Tony M's rap actually helps it for me).

"I Rock, Therefore I Am" is much more convincing. That's on one of my jogging playlists, and it's a great workout jam.

He got better. Days of Wild especially. Some of the raps should have stayed in the can.

Face Down obviously classic. Gett Off too.

I thought it was supposed to be "skillz". Preferably preceded by "mad"?

ThatWhiteDude said:

Now now we all know the best rap he wrote was If a Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up)

His rapping is fine, not elite, but not terrible either. It is what it is. Most of his raps are from the early 90s when rap and house music were very "in" and all over the popular music landscape.

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I really like the raps in "Live 4 Love" both Prince's and Tony M.'s because the lyrics in the raps are thought-provoking and "deep."

[Edited 10/13/17 18:54pm]