Christopher said:

christopher,you crazy

Reel said:

The whole Carmen promotion thing actually started before the whole name change and WB feud. Promotion to the general public started during the Diamonds & Pearls tour in 1992. It was the first Prince tour which showcased promotional videos and music on the screens in stead of the obligatory Andreas Volenweider of the past. It showed a promo video with the above mentioned and indeed utterly ridiculous "Can you keep a secret..." lyrics. In fact, she even acted as opening act on some of the first shows of the European leg! She performed some songs that were demo's for her album but never saw the release. I have to say in her defense that those songs were actually better than the ones that did get on the album. During the show they even dispensed fake dollars over the audience with her head on it! T bad I am at work now, can not show you one of them.
I will not argue that her album is horrible (although the demo's were better), but in retrospect we have to remember that these were the early nineties, in which acts as Monie Love (who collaborated and also got a Prince song on her album!), Betty Boo and the Cookie Crew were actually making the same type of girlie rap and making big bucks of it! Now I know that mentioned acts had a much bigger hit appeal that Carmen's songs, but I could see that there actually were people who believed that she could be a hit. Hey, we all know that the kid needed Morris to make a hit out of Apples and after all... aal that eventually had to be added to do make her a hit, were fake boobs! So our boy was definitely onto something...

Anyone else remember the Electra promo on the ABC late night promo show for the Symbol Album? Where a voice over declares, "she is the scariest thing on the face of this earth" and "listening to her between two loudspeakers is like coming a 1000 times"?

sosgemini said:

Ole girl musta turned ole man Prince's ass out! No way I've ever seen him carelessly promote such junk. Wow, I wonder what she did to him sexually. I gotta know so that I can be "1 up in da game".

sosgemini said:

I remember that line on the big screens at the 1993 Melbourne concert

I bought the CD and I liked it for a long time!

Reel said:

http://prince.org/wiki/1992_Contract

Reel said:

http://prince.org/wiki/1992_Contract

BartVanHemelen said:

Good information, thanks for posting the link.

Reel said:

SoulAlive said:

Reel said:

Wow, thats pretty deep. I didn't realize that Warner was still involved at that point. 2 millon dollars? As James Brown said "Good God!"

Yep,Warners was a part of it.In 1992,Prince re-signed with Warner Bros.,and they agreed to pour more money into his struggling Paisley Park Records label.The Carmen Elektra project was their primary focus.Prince somehow convinced them that it would be a massive hit and they launched an expensive promotional campaign.Most artists on Prince's label received very little promotion.Carmen was the exception.However,the investment didn't pay off.Released in February 1993,her album was dead on arrival.The first single "Go Go Dancer" went nowhere.Follow-up singles "Everybody Get On Up" and "Fantasia Erotica" also flopped.

Somebody from Warners shoulda gotten their asses fired. I really was unaware that Prince somehow re-signed with Warner Bros after the whole whoopla name change to an unpronoucable symbol, and the word Slave written across his face. He was jerking them off with this Carmen Electra thing. And someone at Warners was asleep at the switch. Oh well. [Edited 5/26/10 3:59am]

I have only been saying this for years. When all the orgers blame P for everything that went wrong between him and WB. Why can't anyone see that anything he did had to be approved by someone at the top of WB. I mean spending 2 million to promote Carmen Electra and not have one song chart much less receive radio airplay is ridculous. At the time you did have a lot of non-rapping girl groups selling shit loads of records so P was not getting this idea from nowhere. With this project being such a massive failure someone at the lable should have been canned.

SoulAlive said:

Reel said:

Wow, she was initially marketed as a rapper? I've never heard not one song by her off of this or any other album.

Yep,she was marketed as a rapper Her "rapping" is what makes her album so hilarious. all aboard,all aboard,cause I'm gettin' funky as you know,as you know,I'm a party junkie Her rapping doesn't sound "street" at all.It's like Apollonia or Vanity trying to rap,lol.

Wonder what's she's doing today.

Several months ago,there was talk of a new album but,not surprisingly,it was never released.These days,she's too busy releasing "leaked" videos on Youtube,featuring her and other women fooling around.

laurarichardson said:

I have only been saying this for years. When all the orgers blame P for everything that went wrong between him and WB. Why can't anyone see that anything he did had to be approved by someone at the top of WB. I mean spending 2 million to promote Carmen Electra and not have one song chart much less receive radio airplay is ridculous. At the time you did have a lot of non-rapping girl groups selling shit loads of records so P was not getting this idea from nowhere. With this project being such a massive failure someone at the lable should have been canned.

Hilarious. It's never Prince with you, is it?

It was HIS label -- yet now you're advocating that WB should have been looking over his shoulder and vetoing any dumb shit he did? Why? HE'S A GROWN MAN.

How about STICKING TO THE FACTS?

http://prince.org/wiki/1992_Contract

Paisley Park Records became a joint venture with Warner Bros., which would force Prince to become more involved in the running of the label. Whereas previously PPR would simply supply the master recordings to WB who would then manufacture, distribute and promote the releases, now PPR would decide on what to invest in videos and promotional efforts. Warners and Prince would share investments and profits.

Funny, ain't it? Prince got to have more responsibility, and the whole shebang loses money by the bucketload.

This is what happens when Prince thinks with his pr*ck instead of with his head.

Some of the outtakes are really better than what ended up on the released album, but still lame.

BartVanHemelen said:

laurarichardson said:

I have only been saying this for years. When all the orgers blame P for everything that went wrong between him and WB. Why can't anyone see that anything he did had to be approved by someone at the top of WB. I mean spending 2 million to promote Carmen Electra and not have one song chart much less receive radio airplay is ridculous. At the time you did have a lot of non-rapping girl groups selling shit loads of records so P was not getting this idea from nowhere. With this project being such a massive failure someone at the lable should have been canned.

Hilarious. It's never Prince with you, is it?

It was HIS label -- yet now you're advocating that WB should have been looking over his shoulder and vetoing any dumb shit he did? Why? HE'S A GROWN MAN.

How about STICKING TO THE FACTS?

http://prince.org/wiki/1992_Contract

Paisley Park Records became a joint venture with Warner Bros., which would force Prince to become more involved in the running of the label. Whereas previously PPR would simply supply the master recordings to WB who would then manufacture, distribute and promote the releases, now PPR would decide on what to invest in videos and promotional efforts. Warners and Prince would share investments and profits.

Funny, ain't it? Prince got to have more responsibility, and the whole shebang loses money by the bucketload.

Why don't you shut the fuck up and learn how to read!!! At no point in time did I say none of the Carmen or PP mess was not any of P's fault. After all he was the one who found her in the first place I think WB and P both should share responsibility for the whole mess something a corporate butt kisser like yourself we never do. We have had Alan Leeds get on this board and in interviews discuss at length some of the stupid things WB was doing with the lable and that some of the artist on PP were picked by P's former managers but do not let the facts coming from someone who would know stop your bullshit.

According to Alan Leeds the whole shebang was losing money from the very begining because WB never promoted any of the groups and I for one don't believe 2 million was spend on Carmen? According to Alan the whole shebang was just a carrot to keep P around with no real chance of becoming anything from the start which is about what happens with all vanity lables.

laurarichardson said:

BartVanHemelen said:

laurarichardson said:

I have only been saying this for years. When all the orgers blame P for everything that went wrong between him and WB. Why can't anyone see that anything he did had to be approved by someone at the top of WB. I mean spending 2 million to promote Carmen Electra and not have one song chart much less receive radio airplay is ridculous. At the time you did have a lot of non-rapping girl groups selling shit loads of records so P was not getting this idea from nowhere. With this project being such a massive failure someone at the lable should have been canned.

Hilarious. It's never Prince with you, is it?

It was HIS label -- yet now you're advocating that WB should have been looking over his shoulder and vetoing any dumb shit he did? Why? HE'S A GROWN MAN.

How about STICKING TO THE FACTS?

http://prince.org/wiki/1992_Contract

Paisley Park Records became a joint venture with Warner Bros., which would force Prince to become more involved in the running of the label. Whereas previously PPR would simply supply the master recordings to WB who would then manufacture, distribute and promote the releases, now PPR would decide on what to invest in videos and promotional efforts. Warners and Prince would share investments and profits.

Funny, ain't it? Prince got to have more responsibility, and the whole shebang loses money by the bucketload.

Why don't you shut the fuck up and learn how to read!!! At no point in time did I say none of the Carmen or PP mess was not any of P's fault.

You are saying someone at WB should have been fired. I don't see you say anything about Prince.

After all he was the one who found her in the first place I think WB and P both should share responsibility for the whole mess something a corporate butt kisser like yourself we never do.

Oh look, the "are you from WB?" defense.

We have had Alan Leeds get on this board and in interviews discuss at length some of the stupid things WB was doing with the lable and that some of the artist on PP were picked by P's former managers but do not let the facts coming from someone who would know stop your bullshit.

According to Alan Leeds the whole shebang was losing money from the very begining because WB never promoted any of the groups

Well duh. Because they knew that it was pointless: if they were successful it meant that Prince was going to waste even more time on them, and they already had problems keeping him focused. Also: I don't think WB can be blamed for the clusterfuck that was for instance The Family.

and I for one don't believe 2 million was spend on Carmen?

If there's any artist that got promoted, it was Carmen. You can easily spend $2 million.

According to Alan the whole shebang was just a carrot to keep P around with no real chance of becoming anything from the start which is about what happens with all vanity lables.

Any sane person knows that these vanity labels are mainly a way to please the artist. (Then again, Madonna's vanity label did make money.)

BartVanHemelen said:

laurarichardson said:

BartVanHemelen said:

laurarichardson said:

I have only been saying this for years. When all the orgers blame P for everything that went wrong between him and WB. Why can't anyone see that anything he did had to be approved by someone at the top of WB. I mean spending 2 million to promote Carmen Electra and not have one song chart much less receive radio airplay is ridculous. At the time you did have a lot of non-rapping girl groups selling shit loads of records so P was not getting this idea from nowhere. With this project being such a massive failure someone at the lable should have been canned.

Hilarious. It's never Prince with you, is it?

It was HIS label -- yet now you're advocating that WB should have been looking over his shoulder and vetoing any dumb shit he did? Why? HE'S A GROWN MAN.

How about STICKING TO THE FACTS?

http://prince.org/wiki/1992_Contract

Paisley Park Records became a joint venture with Warner Bros., which would force Prince to become more involved in the running of the label. Whereas previously PPR would simply supply the master recordings to WB who would then manufacture, distribute and promote the releases, now PPR would decide on what to invest in videos and promotional efforts. Warners and Prince would share investments and profits.

Funny, ain't it? Prince got to have more responsibility, and the whole shebang loses money by the bucketload.

Why don't you shut the fuck up and learn how to read!!! At no point in time did I say none of the Carmen or PP mess was not any of P's fault.

You are saying someone at WB should have been fired. I don't see you say anything about Prince.

After all he was the one who found her in the first place I think WB and P both should share responsibility for the whole mess something a corporate butt kisser like yourself we never do.

Oh look, the "are you from WB?" defense.

We have had Alan Leeds get on this board and in interviews discuss at length some of the stupid things WB was doing with the lable and that some of the artist on PP were picked by P's former managers but do not let the facts coming from someone who would know stop your bullshit.

According to Alan Leeds the whole shebang was losing money from the very begining because WB never promoted any of the groups

Well duh. Because they knew that it was pointless: if they were successful it meant that Prince was going to waste even more time on them, and they already had problems keeping him focused. Also: I don't think WB can be blamed for the clusterfuck that was for instance The Family.

and I for one don't believe 2 million was spend on Carmen?

If there's any artist that got promoted, it was Carmen. You can easily spend $2 million.

According to Alan the whole shebang was just a carrot to keep P around with no real chance of becoming anything from the start which is about what happens with all vanity lables.

Any sane person knows that these vanity labels are mainly a way to please the artist. (Then again, Madonna's vanity label did make money.)

"You are saying someone at WB should have been fired. I don't see you say anything about Prince."

So you are so stupid that you actually think the lable would fire the artist when someone above P spent

2 million dollars or are you so dumb that you think P was able to green light that sort of money?

This is one of the reasons you need to get off your haterade because it is making you stupid.

The rest of your responses are more illogical bullshit.

"Any sane person knows that these vanity labels are mainly a way to please the artist. (Then again, Madonna's vanity label did make money."

Apparently you are not a sane person because from your post you have some sort of idea that PP should have been the next Motown and that it is all P's fault that it did not happen. Instead of using your common sense to see that the entire thing was going to fail no matter what P did since none of the artist expect the worst one signed was promoted this per Mr. Leeds.

Madonna lable lost 60 million which is the reason WB shut it down. In addtion, I don't recall one decent artist she had on it either. Now go do something useful with yourself.

Christopher said:

laurarichardson said:

"You are saying someone at WB should have been fired. I don't see you say anything about Prince."

So you are so stupid that you actually think the lable would fire the artist when someone above P spent

2 million dollars or are you so dumb that you think P was able to green light that sort of money?

That money was spent before anyone figured out it was that much, I bet.

(And by the way: it's LABEL.)

"Any sane person knows that these vanity labels are mainly a way to please the artist. (Then again, Madonna's vanity label did make money."

Apparently you are not a sane person because from your post you have some sort of idea that PP should have been the next Motown

Making up shit, I see. Nothing new there.

Thing is, PPR would have never succeeded. It's PRINCE: he's got the attention span of a gnat when it comes to his own career. The only reason The Time and Sheila E etc didn't fail in the 1980s was because there was a machine behind Prince taking care of a lot of this stuff, and because they got first-class material.

and that it is all P's fault that it did not happen. Instead of using your common sense to see that the entire thing was going to fail no matter what P did since none of the artist expect the worst one signed was promoted this per Mr. Leeds.

WB didn't promote them because the ROI wasn't going to be there. Hell, Prince's own career was barely profitable. You seriously expect WB to invest time and money in artists and albums that never would succeed in the first place?

(And sheesh, why do you confuse "except" and "expect"?)

Madonna lable lost 60 million which is the reason WB shut it down.

Maverick hasn't been shut down.

http://www.cbsnews.com/st...4638.shtml

In March, Maverick filed suit against Warner Music and its former parent, Time Warner Inc., claiming breach of contract and alleging that they had misstated Maverick's profits and mismanaged the company, costing Madonna and her partners millions of dollars. (An investment group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. purchased Warner Music Group last year.)

Warner Music filed a lawsuit of its own against Maverick, claiming the company had lost tens of millions of dollars.

In an agreement announced Monday, Warner Music said it would buy Madonna and Dashev, Maverick's chief operating officer, out of their share of the label. Madonna will have no role in the company, while Oseary will keep his share and stay with Maverick as CEO.

Neither side would discuss the financial terms.

You know what that spells to me: WB made up some bogus number to fend off the suit, so instead they reached a deal in which WB bought a company that was "losing money by the bucketload".

In addtion, I don't recall one decent artist she had on it either.

Let's see:

Maverick has had noted triumphs with acts such as Alanis Morissette, Michelle Branch, The Prodigy, Candlebox, Venezuelan pop-rock singer Douglas Vale and the band Deftones.

The label also had success with soundtracks for The Wedding Singer, Jackie Brown and The Matrix.

In addition, Quentin Tarantino’s A Band Apart imprint is distributed by Maverick.

I see plenty of artists there that had multi-million selling albums.

kimrachell said:

SoulAlive said:

Reel said:

Wow, she was initially marketed as a rapper? I've never heard not one song by her off of this or any other album.

Yep,she was marketed as a rapper Her "rapping" is what makes her album so hilarious. all aboard,all aboard,cause I'm gettin' funky as you know,as you know,I'm a party junkie Her rapping doesn't sound "street" at all.It's like Apollonia or Vanity trying to rap,lol.

Wonder what's she's doing today.

Several months ago,there was talk of a new album but,not surprisingly,it was never released.These days,she's too busy releasing "leaked" videos on Youtube,featuring her and other women fooling around.

It's sad,but this is what she does for "publicity" these days.

Nearly all of the "vanity labels" eventually crashed and burned,but Maverick did better than most.Alanis Morrisette's 1995 album 'Jagged Little Pill' sold over 16 million copies in the US and over 33 million copies worldwide.Maverick was doing extremely well from 1992-2000.By contrast,Paisley Park Records never really took off.Even the excellent early releases (The Family,Mazarati) didn't sell very well.

and you don't consider Meshell Ndegeocello to be a "decent artist"? I'd argue that she is more interesting,more talented and more provocative than Carmen Elektra!

laurarichardson said:

BartVanHemelen said:

laurarichardson said:

I have only been saying this for years. When all the orgers blame P for everything that went wrong between him and WB. Why can't anyone see that anything he did had to be approved by someone at the top of WB. I mean spending 2 million to promote Carmen Electra and not have one song chart much less receive radio airplay is ridculous. At the time you did have a lot of non-rapping girl groups selling shit loads of records so P was not getting this idea from nowhere. With this project being such a massive failure someone at the lable should have been canned.

Hilarious. It's never Prince with you, is it?

It was HIS label -- yet now you're advocating that WB should have been looking over his shoulder and vetoing any dumb shit he did? Why? HE'S A GROWN MAN.

How about STICKING TO THE FACTS?

http://prince.org/wiki/1992_Contract

Paisley Park Records became a joint venture with Warner Bros., which would force Prince to become more involved in the running of the label. Whereas previously PPR would simply supply the master recordings to WB who would then manufacture, distribute and promote the releases, now PPR would decide on what to invest in videos and promotional efforts. Warners and Prince would share investments and profits.

Funny, ain't it? Prince got to have more responsibility, and the whole shebang loses money by the bucketload.

Why don't you shut the fuck up and learn how to read!!! At no point in time did I say none of the Carmen or PP mess was not any of P's fault. After all he was the one who found her in the first place I think WB and P both should share responsibility for the whole mess something a corporate butt kisser like yourself we never do. We have had Alan Leeds get on this board and in interviews discuss at length some of the stupid things WB was doing with the lable and that some of the artist on PP were picked by P's former managers but do not let the facts coming from someone who would know stop your bullshit.

According to Alan Leeds the whole shebang was losing money from the very begining because WB never promoted any of the groups and I for one don't believe 2 million was spend on Carmen? According to Alan the whole shebang was just a carrot to keep P around with no real chance of becoming anything from the start which is about what happens with all vanity lables.

Stop making excuses for Prince! The bottom line is that,he is not a good businessman and doesn't know how to operate a record company.Most of the time,he didn't even sign "real" artists.He gave recording contracts to friends and women that he is sleeping with.Carmen Elektra was basically just a modern version of Vanity and Apollonia.Sexy as fuck,but no real musical talent.

"WB never promoted any of the groups"

If you were a WB executive,would YOU be enthusiastic about spending thousands of dollars to promote crap like TC Ellis and Good Question?

laurarichardson said:

Somebody was canned: Prince The failure of Carmen Elektra was the last straw.In February 1994,Warners shut down Paisley Park Records.They saw that Prince was up to his old tricks and wasn't serious about signing real,legitimate artists to the label. ...

[Edited 6/1/10 4:11am]

laurarichardson said:

This is exactly why many people on this site do not like you.Whenever you disagree with someone,you become a nasty,trash-talking witch.A week or so ago,you behaved the same way on a Sly Stone thread.If you can't debate in a civil,respectful manner,you need to stop posting here.

SoulAlive said:

laurarichardson said:

Why don't you shut the fuck up and learn how to read!!!

This is exactly why many people on this site do not like you.Whenever you disagree with someone,you become a nasty,trash-talking witch.A week or so ago,you behaved the same way on a Sly Stone thread.If you can't debate in a civil,respectful manner,you need to stop posting here.

I only become abusive when people do not read well and go into revisionist history which you do often. If you are respectful to me I will be respectful to you but do not come with bs.

laurarichardson said:

SoulAlive said:

laurarichardson said:

This is exactly why many people on this site do not like you.Whenever you disagree with someone,you become a nasty,trash-talking witch.A week or so ago,you behaved the same way on a Sly Stone thread.If you can't debate in a civil,respectful manner,you need to stop posting here.

I only become abusive when people do not read well and go into revisionist history which you do often. If you are respectful to me I will be respectful to you but do not come with bs.

Did you really need to revive this thread? Don't bother explaining yourself,we already know your game.