and what do you think went wrong?

sitruk7 said:

Definately Jill Jones

I feel that Paisley Park (well Prince) didn't properly promote her and if they have then Jill's album been better. I always wished that Rick James gotten her early on since after all she been around with his former protege Teena Marie and if Rick James had produced her album and she was signed to Motown I think that her career would done better than she did with Prince. Also I like her album but at the same time I feel that she should gotten bette material and did she at first but Prince took some of the songs back.

I'm sorry but I don't think JJ was all that talented.

I think the Mazarati album is excellent.It's as strong as The Time's first two albums.But it didn't stand a chance because of one reason: those hideous outfits that the guys were wearing.Prince had them looking like drag queens! It may have been okay for Prince to dress like that (flamboyant,pink paisley suits and pearls),but that doesn't mean that the public will accept a black funk bandin those threads.

Sheila's E's third album is spectacular.It's easily her best album.But it just wasn't promoted effectively."Koo Koo" was a weak choice for second single.They should have followed up "Hold Me" with these three singles: "Faded Photographs","The Pride and The Passion" and "Love On A Blue Train".But in the end,it is probably Sheila herself who complicated matters.When this album was released,she had just become the drummer in Prince's new band.So,there was no way she could have promoted her own great album.

tookielv said:

I agree with you.The Jill Jones album isn't bad,but it's lacking something.The best song is "My Man",a powerful pop tune that should have been the first single.The album needed more strong songs like that.Several of the other songs are just outtakes from Prince's 1983/84 period.I prefer Prince's own versions of these songs.

beret1022 said:

She wasn't - her hype comes from the same mindset that drives the Wendy and Lisa overrating that runs rampant in the part of the Prince fan base that is of european decent.

DavidEye said:

The Mazarati album is a definite sleeper - it could have done better with more promotion. Getting them on a tour of some significance and perhaps some TV shows would have helped alot. Prince was a "black funk band" so I dont understand the public acceptance angle. There was a opportunity to break some new ground with a different look and they missed it.

DavidEye said:

Dont blame the material. A stronger voice would have donr wonders with that music. Think if Chaka Khan or Rosie Gaines got those songs.

blade said:

If Mazarati had been a rock/pop band with those clothes on,everything would have been fine.The androgyny thing was more accepted in the rock world,which is why the feminine "big hair" bands like Poison were so successful.However,Mazarati was an R&B/funk band,and that look just didn't fly with that type of audience.Many people were turned off by their look.

The Family without a doubt. If it wasn't for "Under The Cherry Moon" delaying promotional work on their album, who knows what would have happened. Excellent album regardless.

My girl, J.J.

Apollonia 6

DavidEye said:

I agree with you. Sheila E seemed like she wanted to be a musician more than an artist. She had suffered from a collaped lung when her 3rd album was released. So, she couldn't promote it.
If she left Warner for another label and worked with Andre or Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis her career as a solo artist would have blow up.

misstoi said:

I think it was her fourth album Sex Cymbol that she suffered the lung collaspe and she have some potential songs of that album but I felt it wasn't promote properly because of the time that she got sick. But overall Sheila E is now back to being a drummer like she enjoys and also a businesswoman too of running her foundation and now there is a buzz there going to be another Family Jamm.

DavidEye said:

Truth. They looked str8 up G-H-E-Y. What worked for a 5' 2" feminine looking artist with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign won't work for 5'10" black men with very little $$$ behind them in a time where artist image was changeig completely. Can we say sabotage? I can.
[Edited 8/11/05 13:23pm]

BlaqueKnight said:

I can too. Now, when I saw Mazarati live at The Palace in 86, they didn't look anything like that. They just looked like black rockers in jeans. No makeup, no sissy ass paisley blouses and shit. If they looked the way they did in concert on their album and video, they wouldn't have had a problem. But uh, P KNEW what he was doing, putting them in the transsexual department. That shit was planned to fail from the word "get".

"Which associated artists side project should have been promoted better?"

All of them.

blackguitaristz said:

Right Right.