Which newer artists (if any) do you think are at Prince's level?

Question speaks for itself.
[Edited 8/19/09 17:12pm]

Ask me in 10 or 20 years and I'll tell you. Not to be too facetious, but there are so many heir apparents that are here today, gone today that its hard to say who's going to sustain a career to be even close to Prince's league.

10 years ago I might have said D'angelo, but you see how that's worked out.

sinisterpentatonic said:

exenn said:

sinisterpentatonic said:

ElCapitan said:

If I named then, ya'll would lose your shit.

4Eternity said:

ElCapitan said:

10 years ago I might have said D'angelo, but you see how that's worked out.

Err... Who?

Not a damn one. Hell, they aren't even on Millie Vanilli's level.
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[Edited 8/19/09 22:56pm]

vainandy said:

sinisterpentatonic said:

I wouldn't put anyone at Prince's level now or in the past. That doesn't mean that there aren't some impressive artists out there at the moment. The one that springs to mind immediately is LCD Soundsystem, who have shown a surprising amount of range. James Murphy (the lead singer) plays a bunch of instruments and has a few masterpieces under his belt. Bat for Lashes is another, although I think she takes more cues from Björk and Kate Bush than Prince.

"I'm a lover, not a haitcher"- Pandurito

vainandy said:[quote]Not a damn one. Hell, they aren't even on Millie Vanilli's level.

Not p o s s i b l e

vainandy said:

"I'm a lover, not a haitcher"- Pandurito

What is Prince's level?

Seriously - Prince's impact in the music world seems to be a bit like a cult following like The Grateful Dead (whom I don't care for).

I respect Prince's musical ability and creativity - but the drag queen look has always thrown me for a loop. Same vibe I felt about Michael Jackson and all the androgynous folks.

NONE!!!

"And When The Groove Is Dead And Gone, You Know That Love Survives, So We Can Rock Forever" RIP MJ

No one new is up there in that level. Thats like saying Prince first two albums are comparable to James Brown and Sly at their level already at the time....we may compare him NOW to his influences however he had so much more to show us and still has not stopped. Something that some new artists forget.

Lets say Dirty Mind Came out and people said he was better than George Clinton and the year was 1980. People would look at you upside your head. However now and days in 2009 this can be a argument that Prince could win. We cant compare now....it is not fair.

Obviously this question was posed by a die-hard Prince fan addressed to die-hard Prince fans. Why do I say that? Because to say an artist is at Prince's level indicates that they think that he is at some unobtainable level to where he is better than anyone else out there, so it looks like to me that the question is a rhetorical question, yes? To which, if this is not a rhetorical question, a newer artist could not be at his "level" because he has been at the music thing for many years, and it would not be fair to compare a newer artist to a veteran entertainer. and of course all the die-hards are going to say "NONE".....go figure.

kenlacam said:

Nobody
[Edited 8/20/09 11:47am]

In my mind, if someone's only been in the game for a few years, you can't compare them to Prince. Let that newer artist be around for 10+ years and then ask the question again. Prince didn't get to the level he is now 5 years into his career. It grew and grew with each new album. The same would be true for any artist who is trying to go beyond their boundaries in the type of music they do. I hope someone who's debut was within this decade will come and reach Prince's level someday but the way it's looking right now, it's not looking very good.
[Edited 8/20/09 11:56am]

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.

Can't think of any sexy JWs who write their own songs, produce their own songs, play all the instruments, perform all the vocals, release their own music, own the masters, and mask sexuality with religion all while sexily strutting around in 4.5 inch high heel boots. But I'm sure someone out there is working their way up to his level.

" LOVE YOU 4EVA GRANDMA LOLA, WATCH OVER US TILL WE MEET AGAIN. PRINCE: WH3N U L3T TH3 RAIN FALL DOWN, TH3Y ALL GONNA G3T W3T!

kenlacam said:

^Sinisterpentatonic, I'd have to partially agree with you here. I myself haave not found Prince to be relevant since 1989, with a couple of exceptions, but as a whole, not. Graffiti Bridge was very dissapointing, but I did like Diamonds and Pearls and the Symbol album as well, as well as Come. No one has done it yet, that is so true.

kenlacam said:

If John Legend is still relevant and creating a range of music as he has, I will list him.

Contrary to some of the other post the OP meant this as a rhetorical post.

However, I think the question needs to be tackled on two levels

1. As hinted at earlier the idea that newer artists, that are artists who are only one or two albums deep, could be compared to Prince is fundamentally flawed because of temporal disjunction. They simply just haven’t had enough time to accumulate a body of work as rich as P’s yet. Even though I doubt they’d surpass Prince I would like to see what artists like Van Hunt, D’Angelo etc produce in the next 10 years (In the later case if he ever releases anything!). However, there are newer artists, in the sense that they emerged after Prince, that are comparable e.g. M'shell Ndegeocello’s and Beck have fine back catalogues.

2. More importantly, however, is the fact that the corporations, the emergence of magic hit formulas and producers seem to have stifled ‘black commercial music’. None of the artists I cited above, who fall under the rubric of black music, could be said to be commercial. In this sense, are there any black artists in their mid 20’s creating a oeuvre of work that is a rich and varied and commercially attractive (and by this I mean both marketed and subsequently appealing beyond the cult) as P’s was from (1980-1991)? Straight up, I don’t think so. Are there talents out there that could do so, most probably yes! Moroever, this argument could be said to apply to an even wider field, as don’t forget Prince belongs to a wider lineage of cultural ‘trailblazers’ that goes beyond black music and into whole field of popular music itself (e.g. Bowie, Wonder, Gaye, Hendrix, The Beatles etc). Do we really have cultural ‘trailblazers’ nowdays?

Of course the retort to all this, is that us Prince fans are just no hip to what is cultural trailblazing nowadays!

Graycap23 said:

Superstition said: