...hypothetically speaking of course. Well, if you were a protege of Prince would you see it as a blessing or a curse? Aside from The Time, Sheila, and W&L, none of his proteges have had long standing success. Even the careers of the successful ones have paled in comparison to the artist formerly known as "His Purple Badness". That is not to say that these artists wanted to be as big as Prince but I'm sure they may have wanted to be viewed as successful acts independent of Prince's realm; not solely as a Prince act/protege/sidekick. As for his most recent produced act...well I don't even have to go there.

So would you say, as a would be performer/upcoming star, it is a benefit to work with Prince or a hindrance? Should one not expect to go very far in the industry if they are associated with da pretty man? Or is Prince without blame? Perhaps his role is to get you in the door and if you can't hang well then that's your own damn fault.
Let's discuss...

Aww fuck, we really have covered everything.


http://prince.org/msg/5/304708

DesireeNevermind said:

Interesting concept no doubt DesireeNevermind, I would say that to be associated with P you had to have some kind of talent, but then again, maybe not! If you had talent, then thats a blessing. But if you just wanted fame then it was a curse. 'Cause nobody has fully recovered.

The vast majority of entertainers are lucky to have 15 minutes in the spotlight. Being associated with Prince doesn't exempt Prince proteges from that basic law of gravity. What goes up...

wha??? this thread has life?


okay.


I guess the flip side of this topic is whether we believe Prince wants his proteges to truly succeed or are they just another vehicle for him to express himself artisticly. I mean, he's writing for them and producing them and often providing back up vocals so at what point do you cease to become just a protoge and become an actual artist in your own right? Or is leaving the purple camp the kiss of death/curse? When Prince was touting Tamar, I think the general consensus was "she can sing but it's all still prince".

Forget about the proteges, they had their moment to shine. Prince himself is almost unknown to younger generations of listeners and casual fans and potential fans.So, without Prince being in the spotlight, it is almost impossible for any of his proteges to be successful. And if he keeps banning YouTube videos or other internet stuff and keeps playing other people´s songs or keeps releasing coversongs, them he won´t be that famous anymore, let alone his proteges.
He needs to take care of his own legacy first and not take it for granted, and THEN he can worry about proteges.
I´d say there is no Prince curse when it comes to proteges. It´s just no longer Prince´s heyday. He´s still my favorite musician and the best performer that´s out there but ruling the airwaves and charts these days? Those days are long gone,radio and the music industry are dead, and the younger generations hardly know about his qualities as a live performer.

He takes care of old legends and preserves their legacies but he should also take care of his own legacy and pay respect to himself, not just Larry, Chaka, Sly Stone, JB, or whatever he covers or whoever he supports these days. The man is too unique and talented to be forgotten.

The thing to remember back then it was not as easy to be a celeb. Think about how different the cast from Purple Rain would have it, if there was a TMZ, mediatakeout or all the other gossip websites back then. Jill Jones would have been on loads pages for what ever she was wearing (cuz Jill is a hot one in my eye) Lisa and Wendy would have been outed a LONG time ago. If Jesse and Prince really did have a beef,YOU WOULD HAVE KNOWN. So it was a different climate back then not a curse as much as it was a different error.

DecaturStone said:

Good point! But would they still have successful careers once the relationship or beef with Prince ended and became old news? Perhaps their 15 minutes of fame would only be prolonged as long as Prince was in the picture either working with them or dating them (the girls).

DesireeNevermind said:

Think about all of the new age 'celebs' who ride out the reality show wave for years. They would have been on different d list reality shows and would have mentioned Prince as often as they could to that 15 minutes going. Hell there are women still using FLAVOR FLAV for fame. So imagine a Prince ex girlfriend

DecaturStone said:

DecaturStone said:

Somehow Carmen Electra has managed to have a career absent any actual talent.

ElCapitan said:

true true but how many of her fans know she used to be a Prince chick. Some folk think she got her start bouncing around on MTV and dating Dennis Rodman. they don't even know rapper B Real bought her first set of silicone tits.

DesireeNevermind said:

For real ? You mean B Real from Cypress Hill sponsored her boobies? I knew they were together for a while but I didn´t know about the boobs being paid for by him.

KoolEaze said:

Yep she said so to Howard Stern. She cuddled them like they were diamond studded pillows and shit. too funny. I think she said she had gotten them because she had a cancer scare or something.

I think they all have a degree of success with their chosen paths after the relationship with Prince ended.

Jill Jones still makes music and has a good fanbase.
Carmen Electra is probably one of the most well known women he's dealt with for her other talents.
Rosie Gaines is still recording and working with other artists.
Ingrid Chavez, the Family, Wendy & Lisa are all currently working on/promoting new work/projects.
Taja Sevelle is doing charity work and promoting it through her music.
Vanity has long since left the business and found her own personal success.

If anything the "curse" seems to affect the men who have worked with Prince more than the women.

T.C.Ellis, Tony M., Damon D., Good Question, The male members of the Revolution, Kip Blackshire, Scrap D. none of these guys gets anywhere near the attention any of the female artists get when doing something new or music related.

Carmen Electra could open a cat shelter and it'd be front page news.
Tony M. could cure cancer and you'd never know about it.
[Edited 8/25/09 18:21pm]

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[Edited 12/29/09 9:32am]

I wouldn't say that they are cursed, just living life on their own level. I never bought a Prince CD in the 80's or 90's because his music and image seemed everywhere and I didn't feel I needed to go out and buy it to access it. I bought CD's from other artists that were hardly played on the radio. Some not at all.

There are alot of great artists out there who never have a hit song, or maybe have one or two but who clearly are musicians and make their livelyhood that way. They have a "cult following". People hear about them through word of mouth.

I think that some of the prodeges are now in this category, which isn't such a bad place to be. They were never meant to be superstars/celebrities. Not all celebrities have talent and not all talented people have what it takes to be celebrities. ( there are alot of great singers who can't stand to perform infront of a live audience and are very shy).

BlaqueKnight said:

Interesting. But it wasn't an easy road for Jimmy and Terry. They had success because they were true talents in their own right and they veered away, slightly, from having that MNPLS sound and getting back to R&B. They've always been the exception to the rule in terms of having a purple hand up their backs. So perhaps the curse lies in separating yourself from Prince but not from the image or sound he created for you.

DesireeNevermind said:

That would be plausible if he'd actually created the sound. Prince, to reiterate B's point, never worked solo in a vacuum. "The Sound" owed its inception and growth to more artists than just Prince. Jimmy and Terry are proof of that.

Most of Prince's proteges simply weren't that talented, so of course they were cursed in the professional sense, after Prince was done with them there wouldn't be many career options left

Vanity, Appolonia, Jill Jones, etc.. were obviously picked cuz they were hot or he was trying to get with them, obviously not because they were musical geniuses or legendary entertainers.. Carmen Electra was able to take that and turn being hot into something of a career, the ones with actual talent like Jam & Lewis obviously had nothing to worry about and went on to do a lot of things

But what about Mazaratti and The Family and Taja Seville to name a few? I mean there was talent but they didn't really go anywhere. We're talking musicians and songwriters and they still couldn't catch any success beyond their debut. Prince bears some measure of responsibility/cursing in the deaths of these careers dontcha think?
[Edited 8/28/09 8:18am]

DesireeNevermind said:

It's the freaking music business.

The percentage of talented musicians/songwriters who can sustain a decent career is minuscule. I'd be willing to bet that if Taja/Mazaratie/or The Family had gotten a record deal independent of Prince, they're odds for post-debut success would have been the same, extremely low. That's not a criticism of their talent, just an observation of how hard it is to make it in that business. Regardless of talent, no one is guaranteed commercial success.

The best thing Prince, or anyone else, could do is give an artist a shot. If they couldn't sustain a career after that, so be it.

DesireeNevermind said:

i remember the name taja seville but can't place the music.. the Family was cool but cmon, they were singing Prince songs. Take away the Prince songs and they're decent singers but the guy comes across as somebody that would probably be doing showtunes in a theater somewhere more than a rock star imo, as does Susannah. They seem like nice people and with the Prince stuff it gives them an angle but without it I would've honestly never heard of or listened to them

weirdozmedia said:

Taja Sevelle had 2 CDs after Prince and actually managed to sustain a career.
The Family only fell apart because Prince took 3/5 of them to become Revolution members during the Parade Era.

HonestMan13 said:

Actually Paul pulled a Morris Day and left to have a solo career. Then Prince expanded the Revolution.

ElCapitan said:

That's cause the Family kept rehearsing for a tour that would clearly never materialise.At least they didn't (collectively) get as screwed as people like Margie Cox and Rosie who kept being put on hold.

thats becasue he really didnt choose people who had great talent other than the ones you mentioned, and the ones he picked were hit and miss's i,.e carmen electra who has made something of herself