I mean,let's be honest here,the only Prince proteges' who went on to big success (AFTER they left Prince) are Jam and Lewis and Carmen Elektra (and even her 15 minutes seem to be over).Everyone else seems to have been forgotten.Oh,they still work on projects,but none of these people are "successful" by any stretch of the imagination...


Apollonia
Vanity
Susan
Brenda
Sir Casey Terry (lead singer of Mazarati)
Morris Day
The Family
BrownMark
Wendy and Lisa (face it,their albums flopped big time)
Ingrid Chavez
Taja Sevelle
Jerome Benton
Jill Jones
Cat
Mayte
Rosie Gaines
T.C. Ellis
Tony M.
Margaret Cox


I'm not dissing these people at all.In fact,I am a huge fan of most of these artists.I just can't figure out why many of them can't seem to break out of the "Prince shadow" and establish careers for themselves.Rosie Gaines can sing her ass off,why isn't she as popular as,say,Jill Scott? Morris Day was so good in 'Purple Rain',he should be on his tenth movie by now!

Could it be that,maybe some of these people really aren't *that* talented after all? If it weren't for the Prince connection,would we have even heard of these folks in the first place? (Of course,I'm not referring to all of these people...lol...y'all know who I mean). Or,could it be that,working with Prince is a blessing AND a curse? On the one hand,it gives them massive exposure,being connected to one of the most talented,most successful artists of our time.But,maybe it also ruins their *own* chance at having a long-lasting career of their own?


What do you think?



...
[This message was edited Wed Jul 16 4:33:02 PDT 2003 by DavidEye]

Depends on what u mean by "successful". Some of these folks may not be as intense about pursuing their own careers as say, Prince always was. He strikes me as someone who would become "physically ill" if he couldn't work at his craft. He's just driven. Rosie's a great singer. Maybe she doesn't write a lot. Performance art has all different aspects. Appolonia-she's lovely-but, a singer?! No way.
Maybe hasn't found her niche. Wendy & Lisa I consider successful. Many love their musical endeavors. They're just not "2 albums a year" artists. I'm not real acquainted with the works of all these ppl on your list, but I don't think their associations w/ P have anything to do w some sort of "Work W/Prince=Flop Curse" or something. Show business is a business. You either work it--or just "do what you love and the money follows". I doubt that working on something w/ Prince ruins a budding career.

I think it's because most of them suck and are merely little props Prince uses for a year or 2

I agree with you. I've often wondered the same thing. If the opportunity presented itself for me to work with him I think I would have hard time making a decision. I would not want my career stalled/ruined after working with him, although I suspect you would learn sooo much from him.

You forgot to mention The Funky Baldheads and Millenium.

Ingrid's still around, and being quietly prolific with her awesome and equaly unique Husband David Sylvian. They have some great kids, and seem 2 be a perfect match.
More info here 4 U:
http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_649506

I think many of them were just 'overlooked'. Given the chance, I think a lot of them could have made it further into the entertainment industry, I'm just hoping that the fact that they didn't doesn't have anything to do with 'undermining' them as a Prince protégé…

Prince could/should've kept working with them, I think they all would've formed a nice little 'clan'...I just like that word...

But then again, who cares what the world thinks, what I and we see in them is good enough...
[This message was edited Mon Apr 21 20:17:21 PDT 2003 by Starmist7]

Appolonia doing something like making her own candy or something like that. She's lives next door to Carmen

Not just protege's...but up-and-coming & even established artists go the way of polyester pants after working with Prince. It's like "the curse of Prince" in the music industry.

some names that come to mind are;
"Elisa Fiorello"
"Martika"
"Monie Love"
"Tevin Campbell"


and to a certain extent;
"Patti LaBelle"
"Chaka Khan"

Well let's see...

Apollonia- can't sing and really isn't that grreat of an actress, IMHO

Vanity- terrible singer, good actress. She could've 'made it', so to speak as a actress, but drugs messed that up

Susan- come on, what could this girl do besides look good in underware? She talked her way thru all the songs

Brenda-Pretty good voice, surprised she didn't get more work

Morris Day- Well, don't really know about this one. He had a good voice, he just didn't seem as strong as he did with the Time.

The Family-(see jerome's comments)
Susannah- well, didn't have a strong voice/persona, not surprised she didn't go very far
Jellybean-
Eric-
St. Paul- great voice,

Brownmark-nothing too outstanding about him

Wendy & Lisa- Quite simple, great musicians, fairly nice voices, weren't sexed up enough for their label. They got sick of the stereoypes and just decied to do it thier own way. They have been quite successful though.

Ingrid Chavez-

Taja Sevelle-

Jerome Benton- what else did this guy do besides dance and hold up a mirror?

Jill Jones- Great voice, and was quite popular in Europe. Due to her contract with Paisley Park, she couldn't do any more album for quite a while.

Cat-I've never been too impressed with her

Mayte- Good belleydancer, but where's that gonna get you?

Rosie Gaines-

...So that my take on the people you metioned

They didn't disappear, they have just been inducted into the Pasiley Park witness protection program.

lovebizzare said:

I'm about sick of people dissing Cat...
And uh...the comment about "good bellydancer,but where's that gonna get you?"
Look up bellydancing on the internet,there are plenty of successful bellydancers in the world..many of them teach,do shows,and have performance and instruction videos.
A lot of them devote their lives to studying,performing, and perfecting their craft,just like any other type of dancer.

gypsyfire said:

I'm not dissing Cat, I just don't see what the big deal about her is, wasn't dissing her. And maybe I was wrong about the Mayte comment, but I still am allowed to have an opinion, you know.

LoveRain said:

DavidEye said:

YOu got it. Most - if not all - of these people siimply are not as good unless Prince is working with them. That is why I never put any credence behind the claims that Wendy and Lisa were some great loss for Prince. THey havent done anything as good as the work they did with him. Even artists that are talented - like Rosie Gaines and Morris Day - didnt do as well as they did when they were with him. Most of them - with the clear exception of Sheila E - are not household names and are long forgotten. Andre Cymone is a prime example. He was the first to break out and think he could be Prince as a solo act. He got a rude awakening. In fact, the only hit he ever had was after 3 albums of trying and a song written by Prince (The Dance Electric).

Now there are some good spin offs that can exist independently of Prince: Sheila E, Jesse Johnson, Dez Dickerson, Morris Day, Jam and Lewis, and even Rosie to some extent. But Prince has been a legend for some 20 years now. He still gets on national TV and fill venues on the road without the corporate backing or airplay. These other artists have all tried to do the same but simply can not. I think they would tell you themselves that there is only one Prince and that they owe him their beginnings in the business
[This message was edited Wed Apr 23 15:33:02 PDT 2003 by LaMont]

FirstAvenue said:

LoveRain said:

I heard he kills & eats them w/ soy milk



cannibal edit
[This message was edited Fri Apr 25 23:38:08 PDT 2003 by CalhounSq]

muwahahaa
[This message was edited Tue Apr 29 21:17:35 PDT 2003 by Christopher]

Christopher said:

it's a Blessing&a curse.take for instances insert the Hottest Name in Hip-Hop nowadays: take Dr.Dre for instance:if Everybody He is working with is rolling under His Mix than the Record Companys want more product like that&after a while the Public at large might move onto other things or just see that Artist or Act as just apart of the Pose.when you step from the shadows of a Major Figure Labels expect the same results.but these Acts were all out as the same time as Him&so it was seen as a Prince&His People type of vibe.unless you were Jam&Lewis,Jesse Johnson,Andre Cymone,Wendy&Lisa&a few other folks you really didn't get beyond those trappings.

mistermaxxx said:

Well said brotha Maxxx! My answer was gonna be "...because he KILLS them?" LOL! Prince has all of their heads in jars; that's why we don't see them anymore. He's a secret serial killer! You can leave the family; just not in one piece! LOL!

CalhounSq said:

(hannibal lecter sniffin noise)...

I was thinking the same about Martika recently
I thought that she would become a 90s superstar ( her songs were very good - not only her collaboration with P)
+ Sheila E 's career after her last Paisley Park album went nowhere too
-
[This message was edited Mon May 5 23:40:19 PDT 2003 by jn2]

BlaqueKnight said:

LMAO

BlaqueKnight said:

You Cracked Me Up as Usual Blaque.

jn2 said:

The biggest career mistake Sheila ever made was to (temporarily) give up her solo career and become Prince's drummer from 1987-89.She released her best album in '87 and she should have promoted the hell out of it.Instead,she went back to the sidelines,playing behind yet another artist.Just a few years earlier,this was exactly the type of thing that Prince tried to get her to stop doing."You've been playing behind people for too long",he told her in 1984."It's time that you did your own thing".After the 'Lovesexy' tour,she was never really able to get her own solo career back on track.

On the other hand,the 'SOTT/Lovesexy' band was,imo,the best band Prince ever had.Sheila was a great addition to the band.So,it was a tough situation and I'm sure that Sheila had to really think about it before making a decision.

One thing to remember.. when you take all of those discs that you would label a "Prince Album" and stack them end to end.. its not the complete composition of one person.

Its the hard work of Levi, Sonny, Tommy, Lisa, Sheila, Jill, Jesse, Eric, Michael, Matt, Claire, Tony, Rhonda, Morris, Andre, Dez, & countless others that were a part of fathering the creation of the music. Prince isn't a f*cking magician doing it all by himself and I think its time we stop believing that bedtime story.

Savannah said:

whoever said he did do it by himself?

LadyCabDriver said:

Certainly not me. But the fable is easily generated when someone has such an consistant track record of cutting great musicians.

Savannah said:

whatever

LaMont said:

About your Wendy and Lisa comment, the funny thing is that Prince hasn't done any work as good as they did as a band either AND Eroica was an amazing album, you better go listen to it again, it has EVERYTHING that's been missing from Prince's music.