Jellybean Johnson has confirmed the new Time album is finished. The hold up is Prince. I met him recently in San Francisco while he was in town doing a Morris Day and The Time gig at Yoshi's and he gave me the scoop. There's a lot of frustration behind this ordeal and it is uncertain if we will get to hear the album. As a longtime supporter of Prince, this news really breaks my heart and causes me to lose a bit of respect for him. In case you haven't noticed, Prince has been doing a few Time numbers in his new set (Cool and Jungle Love). And yeah, we all know that he wrote them joints. But at the end of the day it all boils down to one thing y'all..

Prince is still scared of The Time.

Think about it. He's doing not one, but TWO Time songs in his new set. He scared of them while at the same time jocking them because he knows that they are "the cats". But regardless, WE at least deserve to have a Time album produced by The Time. It was a brilliant idea from the get go to put all of these amazing cats together to form a super group and craft an image and sound around them. But what Prince didn't anticipate was The Time becoming a real musical force on their own..one that could easily eclipse what he's doing. You've got Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Jesse Johnson, Monte Moir, and Jellybean Johnson in one group. All of which are hitmaking songwriters and producers in one group and they all come from the exact same musical background as Prince. And then you got a cat who used to be Prince drummer for the longest who winds up fronting this band and takes Prince's performance direction to a whole new place..a place that rivals what Prince does as a performer. This is the Frankenstein monster Prince created that continues to haunt him to this very day.

That's what's going on in his mind..not ours.

WE looking at it like.."this is The Time" and we're finally getting a chance to see them make a real Time album on their own. He shouldn't trip about the fact that they're all just as dope as he is and they can draw just as much attention as he can. I mean..he's Prince for christ's sake! He don't have to trip on anyone because we all know that he is the man and will always be the man. But The Time are "the cats" and we deserve to see the cats smash and give us that Minneapolis funk at this point in our lives before they get to old..that's all I'm saying. To all of the moderators on the Org, I say this with respect and humility and by no means am I here to dis Prince. I needed to let the truth be known and I hope that this will invoke some kind of movement in getting Prince to stop trippin' and let us.."the people, the fans" have the opportunity to enjoy a new Time album and tour.

What exactly has Prince done other than "be scared of the Time" to prevent them from releasing a new album?

I guess this is like a Moments/Ray, Goodman, and Brown situation. Maybe they can release it under another name like Flyte Tyme, then Prince will have no say so.

To be honest, I always thought that The Time was better than Prince. And alot more humble too.

I was not aware that this new Time album would be under the control of Prince. If it's truely the Time's music and done on their own why would Prince be able to hold up it's release ? I cant see any of the members of the Time working under Prince at this point in their careers.

But now I am just realizing from a post above the Time name belongs to Prince ?

[Edited 1/6/11 11:03am]

What on earth are you talking about? Is it about using the name "the time" or is it something else? No offense but ur thread means nothing and i'd LOVE to know what Jesse actually TOLD you.

And if it's the name, well... The Jackson 5 became The Jacksons, The Parliaments became Parliament... Of course The Time would possibly sell more records than, say, Flyte Tyme, but if the music's that good i doubt that they'd skip the project just because of that. Besides they could create a hype around it by bashing Prince about not letting the use the name

PurpleDiamond2009 said:

To be honest, I always thought that The Time was better than Prince.

How can they be "better than Prince" when Prince single-handedly produced and wrote 90% of their catalog?

I love The Time, but let's be real.

Listen up. If Prince has NO involvement with The Time's new album, then A) It ain't really a Time album, and B) they need to kiss some purple ass because he DOES own the name and is perfectly entitled to stop them from using it.

If they want to release the music and Prince ain't co-operating, then they'll change the name, like The Family/F-Deluxe did. We can speculate all day long as to why Prince ain't co-operating (if this is indeed the case), but at the end of the day, we don't KNOW why, and when it boils down to it - this is business, and Prince is perfectly entitled to protect his legal belongings if he chooses to.

Prince was working with The Time on the "Old Dogs, New Tricks" album as recently as a decade ago. I can't imagine a whole lot has changed in that timeframe. But peep this - Prince is not scared of The Time. What does he have to be scared of? The Time aren't going to sell out Madison Square Garden any time soon.

If anyone can provide one good, solid, reason that Prince should be "scared" of The Time, I'm down to accept this as a theory. But there isn't one.

jrodndigo said:

...In case you haven't noticed, Prince has been doing a few Time numbers in his new set (Cool and Jungle Love). And yeah, we all know that he wrote them joints...

Actually, Jesse Johnson wrote Jungle Love, but we get what you are saying.

Holy boy needs to "walk the path of the word" and unchain them but I bet he's probably insisting that they do a gospel CD before he signs off on it.

Militant said:

PurpleDiamond2009 said:

To be honest, I always thought that The Time was better than Prince.

How can they be "better than Prince" when Prince single-handedly produced and wrote 90% of their catalog?

I love The Time, but let's be real.

Listen up. If Prince has NO involvement with The Time's new album, then A) It ain't really a Time album, and B) they need to kiss some purple ass because he DOES own the name and is perfectly entitled to stop them from using it.

If they want to release the music and Prince ain't co-operating, then they'll change the name, like The Family/F-Deluxe did. We can speculate all day long as to why Prince ain't co-operating (if this is indeed the case), but at the end of the day, we don't KNOW why, and when it boils down to it - this is business, and Prince is perfectly entitled to protect his legal belongings if he chooses to.

Prince was working with The Time on the "Old Dogs, New Tricks" album as recently as a decade ago. I can't imagine a whole lot has changed in that timeframe. But peep this - Prince is not scared of The Time. What does he have to be scared of? The Time aren't going to sell out Madison Square Garden any time soon.

If anyone can provide one good, solid, reason that Prince should be "scared" of The Time, I'm down to accept this as a theory. But there isn't one.

^^ concurring fully.

Militant said:

PurpleDiamond2009 said:

To be honest, I always thought that The Time was better than Prince.

How can they be "better than Prince" when Prince single-handedly produced and wrote 90% of their catalog?

I love The Time, but let's be real.

Listen up. If Prince has NO involvement with The Time's new album, then A) It ain't really a Time album, and B) they need to kiss some purple ass because he DOES own the name and is perfectly entitled to stop them from using it.

If they want to release the music and Prince ain't co-operating, then they'll change the name, like The Family/F-Deluxe did. We can speculate all day long as to why Prince ain't co-operating (if this is indeed the case), but at the end of the day, we don't KNOW why, and when it boils down to it - this is business, and Prince is perfectly entitled to protect his legal belongings if he chooses to.

Prince was working with The Time on the "Old Dogs, New Tricks" album as recently as a decade ago. I can't imagine a whole lot has changed in that timeframe. But peep this - Prince is not scared of The Time. What does he have to be scared of? The Time aren't going to sell out Madison Square Garden any time soon.

If anyone can provide one good, solid, reason that Prince should be "scared" of The Time, I'm down to accept this as a theory. But there isn't one.

Bull.................SHITE

BlaqueKnight said:

jrodndigo said:

...In case you haven't noticed, Prince has been doing a few Time numbers in his new set (Cool and Jungle Love). And yeah, we all know that he wrote them joints...

Actually, Jesse Johnson wrote Jungle Love, but we get what you are saying.

This is unfortunate news. I think this is one of many times they have tried to do something as a project only to have Prince shut them down.

Holy boy needs to "walk the path of the word" and unchain them but I bet he's probably insisting that they do a gospel CD before he signs off on it.

Jesse CO-wrote Jungle Love, but his credits were removed. Prince is a co-author of the song alongside Morris so why wouldn't he sing it?

I agree with Militant, there's no way Prince (an icon of pop) can fear The Time (who are not and will never be pop icons). My guess is that Prince fears that if he lets them use the name, they could possibly claim to have a say on their 3 first albums remasters, and believe me these albums (alongside Prince's half of Pandemonium) WILL be remastered and rereleased by NPG Records at some point. But who knows...

No, for chrissakes what did Jesse say exactly?

Militant said:

PurpleDiamond2009 said:

To be honest, I always thought that The Time was better than Prince.

How can they be "better than Prince" when Prince single-handedly produced and wrote 90% of their catalog?

There's a lot that's known and not spoken of about the first two Time albums. There's been a lot written about them but its all been written under the approval of Prince. These guys are all very capable of producing their own album. This isn't 1982. They are all accomplished musicians and Jimmy & Terry are better producers than Prince ever was.

[Edited 1/6/11 11:27am]

BlaqueKnight said:

Militant said:

How can they be "better than Prince" when Prince single-handedly produced and wrote 90% of their catalog?

There's a lot that's known and not spoken of about the first two Time albums. There's been a lot written but its all been written under the approval of Prince. These guys are all very capable of producing their own album. This isn't 1982. They are all accomplished musicians and Jimmy & Terry are better producers than Prince ever was.

So what's the holdup?

Graycap23 said:

BlaqueKnight said:

There's a lot that's known and not spoken of about the first two Time albums. There's been a lot written but its all been written under the approval of Prince. These guys are all very capable of producing their own album. This isn't 1982. They are all accomplished musicians and Jimmy & Terry are better producers than Prince ever was.

So what's the holdup?

Prince.

BlaqueKnight said:

Graycap23 said:

So what's the holdup?

Prince.

B.S. They can simply change the NAME and put out a cd.

It's the same BS the Family claimed............yet where is their cd?

[Edited 1/6/11 11:35am]

BlaqueKnight said:

Graycap23 said:

So what's the holdup?

Prince.

HOW exactly? In what way...EXACTLY...is Prince the holdup...of an ALL NEW...shouldn't have a damn thing to do with Prince...Time album...that's supposedly finished...coming out?

READ CAREFULLY:

Prince has put out 5 cd's and countless bootlegs since the Family and the Time claimed they were going 2 put out a new cd. If they really wanted 2 release something, change the name of the band and move forward intsead of blaming Prince.

No wonder Prince doesn't want 2 work with these folks.

Keep blaming Prince all u want, the proof is in your LACK of output, NOT Prince.

BlaqueKnight said:

There's a lot that's known and not spoken of about the first two Time albums. There's been a lot written about them but its all been written under the approval of Prince. These guys are all very capable of producing their own album. This isn't 1982. They are all accomplished musicians and Jimmy & Terry are better producers than Prince ever was.

[Edited 1/6/11 11:27am]

Don't come with that cryptic shit and not say exactly what you mean. What is "known"?

Because TWO members of Prince's band told me DIRECTLY that the only people involved with those first two albums were Prince, Morris, Lisa and Dez. And it wasn't said under Prince's approval, it was said in private conversations.

Of course those guys are accomplished musicians and producers and nobody said they aren't capable of producing an album on their own. It just wouldn't be a "real" Time album without Prince, given that he produced and wrote the VAST majority of the first three albums and a significant portion of the 4th.

Something is missing here. I can't believe a CD will be held up over a name which they can easily change.

Militant said:

BlaqueKnight said:

There's a lot that's known and not spoken of about the first two Time albums. There's been a lot written about them but its all been written under the approval of Prince. These guys are all very capable of producing their own album. This isn't 1982. They are all accomplished musicians and Jimmy & Terry are better producers than Prince ever was.

[Edited 1/6/11 11:27am]

Don't come with that cryptic shit and not say exactly what you mean. What is "known"?

Because TWO members of Prince's band told me DIRECTLY that the only people involved with those first two albums were Prince, Morris, Lisa and Dez. And it wasn't said under Prince's approval, it was said in private conversations.

Of course those guys are accomplished musicians and producers and nobody said they aren't capable of producing an album on their own. It just wouldn't be a "real" Time album without Prince, given that he produced and wrote the VAST majority of the first three albums and a significant portion of the 4th.

I believe 2 remember that BlaqueKnight himself has some connexions with Revolutionaries or Timers (???), but i believe Militant on this one. Besides, one can hardly say that Per Nielsen's and Alex Hahn's innerviews for their books were done under Prince's control, and both books say the same than what's been said to Militant, so unless there's a major REVELATION to be done here, there's no debate

Maybe there is an unreleased tune that needs his approval

Maybe they wanted his blessing

Maybe they are starting some controversy

Maybe Jellybean said that just to say it (but I doubt it..the man is pretty down to Earth)

what gets me is all this drama about prince being a hold up but prince still helps the time out when he was having house parties when the time reunited on the grammies questlove stated he saw them perform at prince house, during the musicology tour they opened 4 him.prince contines 2 b there 4 them so i dont see the beef.if u listen 2 what wendy and lisa,brownmark,rosie gaines and so many ex prince people say that record companies dont wanna sign them if they not delivering a prince sound and all the world knows of the time is what prince created and if there new music has no sound similar 2 that im sure no label is all that interested cuz prince basically is the time wheter we wanna admit it or not.yea people may have seen them live but the vast majority of the world knows of the records and they were created by prince

simply put if it was about a name they could release as just morris day

cbarnes3121 said:

they could release as just morris day

Technically, Morris' solo songs Fishnet and Love Is A Game are really The Time (excluding Monte Moir).

Militant said:

PurpleDiamond2009 said:

To be honest, I always thought that The Time was better than Prince.

How can they be "better than Prince" when Prince single-handedly produced and wrote 90% of their catalog?

I love The Time Prince, but let's be real.

(I have been loving him since I saw him do I Wanna Be Your Lover on the Bandstand, or whatever it was, more than 30 years ago. So please, let us not dispute that.)

Listen up.

If anyone can provide one good, solid, reason that Prince should be "scared" of The Time, I'm down to accept this as a theory. But there isn't one.

Because they are the real "Quake." The Time do not play when they step out onto a stage, and can smoke Prince like some good reefer. There was a reason that Prince would not have them open up the 1999 tour in major cities back in the day - skippy up, he was scared right out of his damn garters. Ask "TWO members" of his band about that! The Time shows actually presented The Time straight up, no chaser. Prince always has some gimmick or another with his stage show design, some gratuitous chicks on the side or a cheeky (Superbowl) guitar solo worth its weight in shit.

Although I agree with your point about selling out venues, I don't think It has anything to do with Madison Square Garden. I think it has to do with Legacy at this point. It may have to do with a need for controlling shit that goes back to adolescence and young adulthood. The Time could cast a shadow on his legacy, take a little bit of the shine he seems to need like heels to a Prince boot. Prince started constructing a false image/history at least as far back as Jamie Starr. It could be readily suggested that he would like to maintain some sort of control (or at least keep them looking over their shoulders) over those who know the real deal.

I also agree with another of your points - "If they want to release the music and Prince ain't co-operating, then they'll should change the name, like The Family/F-Deluxe did. We can speculate all day long as to why Prince ain't co-operating (if this is indeed the case), but at the end of the day, we don't KNOW why ..."

While I am spouting I must acknowledge Prince's prolific and brilliant songwriting. With all of the amazing songs he has written and that I love, Diamonds and Pearls ends up being my favorite song of his - go figure. (But if I were to be forced to listen to Do Me Baby or Purple Rain after all of these years I might strike out at ya.)

Prince is perfectly entitled to protect his legal belongings if he chooses to.

Yeah, but what a bullshit choice it is. It has nothing to with choosing from a legal perspective, but rather a moral one. How is someone going to write SLAVE into his beard when he is runing around turning moral decisons into legal decisions with the folks he assigns to his legal/moral care? Ask "Two members" and Jill Jones about that. Holy boy needs to "walk the path of the word" and unchain them but I bet he's probably insisting that they do a gospel CD before he signs off on it. I am feeling BlaqueKnight on this point.

I'm still not getting what the issue is. Nothing in the original post says anything about Prince blocking them from using the name or anything of that sort. It's just say that Prince is scared of them. If the name is the main issue then release under Morris Day & the Time (since Morris can use that configuration of the name). These guys have enough talent and drive and I'm assuming clout to pull off whatever they want to do. I'm sensing the real issue is their own lack of commitment. Morris is making new music with them but still touring with his version at the same time. Jellybean is doing double duty with F-Deluxe and having similar results with output. Pick one or the other. Musicians with less options and avenues release music faster than these dudes do. I hope they work out whatever is really holding them back and get the music to the fans!

interesting...

Militant said:

BlaqueKnight said:

There's a lot that's known and not spoken of about the first two Time albums. There's been a lot written about them but its all been written under the approval of Prince. These guys are all very capable of producing their own album. This isn't 1982. They are all accomplished musicians and Jimmy & Terry are better producers than Prince ever was.

[Edited 1/6/11 11:27am]

Don't come with that cryptic shit and not say exactly what you mean. What is "known"?

Because TWO members of Prince's band told me DIRECTLY that the only people involved with those first two albums were Prince, Morris, Lisa and Dez. And it wasn't said under Prince's approval, it was said in private conversations.

Of course those guys are accomplished musicians and producers and nobody said they aren't capable of producing an album on their own. It just wouldn't be a "real" Time album without Prince, given that he produced and wrote the VAST majority of the first three albums and a significant portion of the 4th.

I see it just the opposite, that those first few records aren't real Time albums because most of the band members don't play on them. Pandemonium was the closest thing I've heard so far to a real Time album.

It's 29 years since The Time put out a decent album, people forget this fact. They get a nostalgic, sympathetic hand anyway. Can't say i'm really stoked for a new one.

databank said:

BlaqueKnight said:

Actually, Jesse Johnson wrote Jungle Love, but we get what you are saying.

This is unfortunate news. I think this is one of many times they have tried to do something as a project only to have Prince shut them down.

Holy boy needs to "walk the path of the word" and unchain them but I bet he's probably insisting that they do a gospel CD before he signs off on it.

Jesse CO-wrote Jungle Love, but his credits were removed. Prince is a co-author of the song alongside Morris so why wouldn't he sing it?

I agree with Militant, there's no way Prince (an icon of pop) can fear The Time (who are not and will never be pop icons). My guess is that Prince fears that if he lets them use the name, they could possibly claim to have a say on their 3 first albums remasters, and believe me these albums (alongside Prince's half of Pandemonium) WILL be remastered and rereleased by NPG Records at some point. But who knows...

No, for chrissakes what did Jesse say exactly?

Hey it's all good. I was just making a point about why is he still having a problem with these brothers continuing to move forward with The Time. It's a group that many of us come to love from the get go and I've always seen them as the Time and not just some Prince creation..even though that's what it started off being. The Family ran into this problem when they wanted to come back out and drop an album on their own. It's a simple and easy thing to just let these cats do what they want. And when I say that Prince is a bit fearful of them..I'm meaning when it comes down to the fact that they all come from the same tree of heavyweight funksters and they can smash just as hard as Prince can on stage. It's kinda hard to explain my point, but pretty much all I'm saying is that they are much more than a one-time Prince creation. They're like a collective with Prince being "the 5th Beatle" who also happens to be the original mastermind of this collective. I can't say for sure what's the real reason why Prince won't allow The Time to release an album under the group name seeing that he owns the name, but those were my theories. Everyone knows that The original Time gave him a run for his money on the 1999 tour and that shook him up a bit. And it's been said by Prince himself that The Time was the only band he'd ever been scared of. I hope that it all works out and The Time album gets released. And my sincerest apologies to anyone I might've offended with my views on this. For all I know Prince or one of his peeps could be reading this..(lol).