But if low class, unsophisticated, derivative funk is more to your liking then listen to Rockwell's third album, 'The Genie'. It's a total Prince rip-off. He even claims he knows all the words to "Sugar Walls" on the first song ("That's Nasty"). I bought the album after seeing him perform the songs "Carmé" and "Genie Of Love" on American Bandstand which I thought weren't bad at the time, but the album is just watered down Minneapolis sound that was already outdated at the time (1986). He definitely could have used some guidance from Prince.

MADAME X "just that type of girl"

Yeah, that was fonky as all get out. That track was done by Cornelius Mims who brought it to Bernadette while doing that Madame X album. Reason how i know? Well.. i heard the demo way before it was ever given to Bernadette. Cornelius is a baddass bass/synth player from L.A. who was in the band "TEASE" ( Kipper Jones, Derek O, Tommy O Chuckii Booker Rex Salas which turned out to be the band Uniiversity which performed live on Chuckii's Niice N' Wiild L.P.)

Tease... that's another band who could've been somewhere in Prince's camp.

Bran

This is a really interesting thread. That face for the "Nikki" cover looks familiar, but I can't put a song with it. Just going on looks though, he most definitley would have fit. Exotic looks, teen hearthrob, the whole nine. He had the quintessential 80s look.

Girogio, yeah I remember him. What ever happened to him anyway?

The Flirts, perhaps? They sang "(Don't Put another Dime in the) Jukebox"

Hey if Nikki is in their then so is Glenn Medeiros! Prince could of written good pop for him after he ditched the Michael Bolton type songs in favor of more urban pop (eg "She ain't worth it"), what ever happened to my man Glenn anyway, his 1990 album was off the chain all the way through!

Jade said:

Nikki was a one-hit wonder. His song "Notice Me" was sort of similar to "Pink Cashmere" in terms of overall sound and mood.

Grace Jones released a funky album in the mid-eighties produced by Nile Rodgers called 'Inside Story'. There were three singles: I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect For You), Crush and Party Girl. I could see Prince writing a song for Grace--like how he did for Nona Hendryx.

What about Vanessa Williams? I heard a story on Entertainment Tonight, after she was dethroned as Miss America, that Prince wanted to work on her first album, but when it came out it was mostly written and produced by Chuckii Booker. Did anyone else hear this story?

Tony LeMans. He could've been in Prince's bag even though he was signed to Paisley. His album was o.k. I'm surprised no one mentioned this brother named Jak. Anybody hip 2 him? He had a album out in 85 on Epic. The album was called "I Go Wild". It bites off of Prince's songs harder than anybody else I have ever heard. The whole album is straight off of Controversy and 1999. What he did was take 2 Prince songs and then combine them into one, change the key and the lyrics and bang, he had a cut. The song I Go Wild is part D.M.S.R. and Let's Work. He had a ballad called "69" which was a straight rip from "Do me, baby". He was biting off of "All The Critics Love U In New York", "Sexuality", all of that. I'm sure if u searched 4 this and heard it, u will agree this dude takes the cake. He looked like a crazy mixture of a too big Prince and a drugged out Jessie. I remember when I went to go see Mazarati at The Palace in Hollywood, Jak was walking down the street with the same blue leather jumpsuit that he was wearing on the album cover. The name of his music publishing was called "Jack U Up Music". He said in an article in Right On! magazine that he gets tired of being compared to Prince! The cold part about the album is that it sounds pretty good. It's just not his shit, it's Prince's. And his vocals r weak as hell, but he tries the high register and the Prince screams, the whole 9. Ya'll gotta try to find this album. Go to your local vintage wrecka stow and look in the 99 cents bins, I'll bet u find it. You'll be glad that u did.

Strangely... WARRANT. They were almost on Paisley park. I can back that one up.

From UNCENSOREDENTERTAINMENT.COM: (interview w/ Erik Turner)

QUESTION: Prince. A friend of mine used to date him. She said he would lick his fingers like drumsticks or popsicles during sex. Yeah, freaky. Do you have any over the top tales about the little guy? Will the music that Warrant fans claim exists somewhere that he produced ever surface?

ERIK TURNER: Our mananger in 87 or so was working with Prince. I only met him once at a private show he did. He financed some demos we did. Heaven was one of the songs. Then he passed on the band for his label. Thats it, the whole Prince story. Not very exciting stuff.

From METAL-SLUDGE.COM: (interview w/ Jani Lane)

21. Time for Metal Sludge’s Word Association. We mention a name and you give us your thoughts.

Prince:

Mmmm, I haven't seen Prince in a while. He's a truly brilliant songwriter.

Tollywood: Didn't he finance your demos in 87 out of Paisley?

Yeah, out of Paisley Park. Didn't sign us though because I couldn't dance. Seriously.

Tollywood: That's the reason?

Absolutely. Absolutely. He could of had us but Columbia got us because Prince said, "dude, that white kid can't dance" and I don't want to get racial when I say this, but, I'm quoting this,
"This white kid can sing, and the band has potential, but mother fucker can't dance."

Billy: But I’ve seen you dance. You’re good.

Good enough guy to say, "You know what, I paid the money for the demos, you keep 'em and go your own way." Didn't charge us back. A truly small man. He's 5'2" in heels. Prince is one of the most brilliant people on the planet. As far as mixing hip hop and soul and R&B, uhhh, I don't have enough good things to say about the guy. Except he didn't think I could dance.

Tollywood: He's a very good guitar player.

He's a suck ass guitar player. But good lord, he can play everything else. I heard he used to lay under a piano with the lights out, make everybody leave the studio, while he sang his vocals. Because he couldn't stand for somebody to see him get in that mode. And I'm sorry but (Jani sings) "Sexy motherfucker" that's natural. End of subject though. That’s enough rhetoric.

I'm surprised no one mentioned this brother named Jak. Anybody hip 2 him? He had a album out in 85 on Epic. The album was called "I Go Wild". It bites off of Prince's songs harder than anybody else I have ever heard."

damn dude.. i remember JAK ... hahaha, now that's a blast from the past. He even looked like Prince a little bit. I met him at a studio a long time ago with this cat named Julian Flenoy (another Prince sound-alike) Was in a video called STAR or something like that on Jam Power records. There was this song called "Concept" back in the day on Jam Power records that was seriously tite but i dont know who the producer or artist was. It was definitely had a Prince vibe. Also on Jam Power records was a group called Chill which had that Jesse Johnson type sound as well

lenny kravitz
nikka costa
erykah badu
fishbone
d'wayne wiggins
rapheal saddiq
d'angelo
andre 3000
bilial
mint condition
rashann patterson
teena marie
terrence trent d'arby
seal
mikki bleu
inxs/michael hutchence (solo)
george michael
maxwell
dawn robinson
digital underground
digable planets
common
the roots
lauryn hill
santana

Santana? ? ? ?

brante said:

he's always said that santana was 1n of his favorites and i could see them collaboratin on some jazz projects or free form jams....

DavidEye said:

OMG that would NOT have worked AT FUCKING ALL!!!

Bossy, arrogant Madonna following all Prince's orders, both creatively and personally? Again I say, NO WAY! She's too damn full of herself to have succumbed to Prince's Sven Gali way of micromanaging all his proteges the way he demands/demanded including telling them how to do their looks and manage their personal lives.

Madonna and Prince both possess WAAAY too massive of egos to have been his protege.
[This message was edited Thu May 27 19:35:49 2004 by PrimordialOoze]

OMG that would NOT have worked AT FUCKING ALL!!!

Bossy, arrogant Madonna following all Prince's orders, both creatively and personally? Again I say, NO WAY!
Madonna and Prince both possess WAAAY too massive of egos to have been his protege.
[This message was edited Thu May 27 19:35:49 2004 by PrimordialOoze]
[/quote]




Well, they actually worked together on Madonna's erotic album so.. @ least one time they DID work together.

brante said:

Well, they actually worked together on Madonna's erotic album so.. @ least one time they DID work together.[/quote]

Yes, that's true but them working together - on a SHORT TERM basis - *and* after they'd both become established artists in their own right is a FAR different thing altogether than the concept of Prince 'discovering' an unknown Madonna and her allowing him to take her under his wing and call ALL the shots regarding her career and life (including many aspects of her personal life, which is allegedly what he did/does with his proteges and even band members).

So yes, they have worked together and obviously that's not out of the question, although I'd bet it isn't an easy collaboration with the strongwilled personalities and egos they both have...but her, when she was a struggling and up-and-coming artist with definite ideas on her career, having had let someone else totally take over her building her career and how it is run and how she is perceived and what she does and what she sings and how she sings it and where she performs and what she wears and who she associates with and etc etc etc - NOPE. If she had ever agreed to such an arrangement with Prince, I bet it would have lasted about 2 days and that's it.

here's one for the trivia specialists...

does anyone remember a Prince/Time rip-off group called Ebonee Webb ?

I think they were from Memphis and was associated with the Bar-kays connection. There image was like that of The Time but sounded more like Prince. Had a couple of tunes which sounded like "Head" and "Controversy". came out around the 83 era of the Minny sound.

I found a link so you can see the picture of them, youre going to trip from the album they had in 81 to how they transformed to the Time in 83. such a big influence as you will see.

http://funk4ever.free.fr/...nee%20Webb

The track that resembled HEAD was "Are you really ready" and they also had a song called "Too hot to be cool" Hmmm... an apparent diss to the Time.

check it out

Bran
[This message was edited Sat May 29 19:10:35 2004 by brante]
[This message was edited Sat May 29 19:12:37 2004 by brante]

They didn't want to sign the standard confidentiality contract surrendering all rights to all creative credit.

RomeoMustDie said:

which post were you referring to?

brante said:

Headgamez from Jak is one of my all-time Minneapolis Sound favorites. (And it was very hard to get here in Germany after loosing my first vinyl of it )

What about:
Exotic Storm
Randy & The Gypsies
Sam Bostic
Norman Dozier
Q (German group, which definetly liked Prince and his sound. They've sampled "Rich man" and "Can't get enough" from St. Paul)
Cinema
Centerfold

The last two actually came from Minneapolis I think.

I think I have more of Prince copycats in my record collection, but too lazy to lookup or remember.

ThreadBare said:

ThreadBare said:

I rememver Nikki.I've got his video for"do U wanna"on one of my VHS tapes from the 90's.He really wore his Prince influence on his sleeve.Kinda like Giorgio(Sex Appeal,Lovers Lane)

sextonseven said:

Sorry.Whenever I hear Micki Free,I think of the Chappelle show episode with Prince and The Revolution beating Charlie Murphy(Eddie's brother) and his crew at basketball.(does anyone want some grapes?)

sextonseven said:

That Madame X album was no joke.Bernadette kicked ass on production!

blackguitaristz said:

I love the Tony Lemans record.I used to have it on cassette,but it broke because I played it so much.He was obviously influenced by Sly Stone.And the the production by David Gamson(Scritti Politti) is so tight.If anybody has this on disc,let me know.I need it!"I'm your rhythm rocker boogie shocker, baby!"

brante said:

No shit. See, I can't stand copy cat shit like that. Their album cover in 83 is so much like The Time's first album. Those cats can't come up with their own pose? Non original mother f@%kers. U hip to a band called Q.T. Hush? Same shit. They're biting off of the 84 Revolution. Two white girls, the bro's looking like Brown Mark. The cat in front is posing exactly like P on the inner sleeve pic from 1999, standing in front of the band.

I was going through my record/CD collection and stumbled across these:

Roachford - Black British rock/soul singer not unlike Terence Trent D'arby. He had one top 40 hit in 1989, "Cuddly Toy (Feel For Me)". I've only heard is first self titled album which was pretty good.

Dan Reed Network - Multiracial rock band. Think a funky Bon Jovi, but they were a little better than that. They had one top 40 hit, "Ritual" in 1988. Again, I have only heard their debut which I thought wasn't bad at the time.

Maggie's Dream - Multiracial alternative rock/funk group led by Rob Rosa (Menudo, Ricky Martin). They broke up after releasing just one album in 1990. I really liked them. Their sound was maybe like a Latin Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the Chili Peppers in their later, more serious phase.

andre 3000 MOST DEFINATLY could've been a Prince protege...