By Franklin Paul



NEW YORK (Reuters) - WANTED: Superstar seeks hot R&B and hip-hop performers
and producers to jam on funk album. One
catch: your name will not appear on the album. In fact no one's name will
appear on the album.



It may sound like a joke, but the musician who no longer answers to the name
Prince is recruiting today's most popular musicians for
a jam session without revealing the identities of any of his collaborators
-- and expects them remain mum.



Having crafted tunes for singers ranging from Patti Labelle to the Bangles,
the Artist is no stranger to collaboration.



But it's always been a one-way street, with the former Prince directing
traffic. After 21 years in behind the wheel, he's ready to let
someone else steer.



``I'm going to let other people produce me,'' he recently told Reuters. For
the new album ``Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic,'' ''there are
going to be a lot of collaborations, but we are not going to say who they
are or list them.''



During an energetic chat at the Trump International hotel in Manhattan, the
Artist stopped short of naming names but professed his
respect for youngsters like Tim ``Timbaland'' Mosely, Wyclef Jean, Lauryn
Hill, and D'Angelo.



The idea is titillating. Might he apply his sexually charged falsetto to
``Pony,'' Timbaland's freaky funk joint (sung first by Ginuwine)?
What sweet soul would come from Jean meshing his international flavor with
Prince's rhythmic flow?



WE ARE THE WORLD?



The project will surely be exciting. But don't expect a love fest or a
harmonic group hug, a la ``We Are the World,'' with the former
Prince in the Quincy Jones role.



After all, this is the same man who several years ago stopped using his
given name, engaged giant record company Warner Bros. in a
high-profile battle over his rights and scrawled ``SLAVE'' on his cheek.



Calmly sitting cross-legged, draped in a smoky gray knee-length jacket and
striped ensemble, he's squarely focused on making funky
music, not drumming up publicity.



What's ripe for exposure is the industry's contractual structure, which, he
asserts, chokes the muse out of musicians. To succeed,
performers must compromise their art and design songs to sell big -- or face
the ax from label executives.



Those same executives have veto rights on duets and other pairings, often
over the wishes of the artists.



While hard to prove, there are examples of these dramas: Last year, Stevie
Wonder's ``As,'' sung by George Michael with Mary J.
Blige and produced by Babyface, was dropped from the U.S. version of
Michael's hits package, ``Ladies and Gentleman,'' reportedly
after MCA, Blige's label, objected to its inclusion. And in 1997, crooners
Keith Sweat and Gerald Levert teamed with Johnny Gill to
create the trio LSG -- but only after complications at Jive/RCA kept R.
Kelly out of the group.



``Collaborations are hard to do under that system,'' the Artist said.



True, but recent collaborations have spawned huge hits. Witness ``Heartbreak
Hotel'' by Whitney Houston, Kelly Price and Faith
Evans, ``Nothing Even Matters'' by Hill and D'Angelo, and ''Fortunate,''
penned by R. Kelly and sung by Maxwell.



In any case, there's something deceptive about an album with no credits. As
with a ghostwritten book, fans won't know for sure
whose art they are consuming?



Remember The Time, the '80s band with now-superproducers James ``Jimmy Jam''
Harris III and Terry Lewis and singer Morris
Day? How many listeners know that most of the funk group's first two albums
were written and produced by ``Jamie Starr'' -- one of
Prince's many clever aliases?



``They have always kind of been a catalyst for me,'' he says of The Time,
noting that his current project was sparked in part after he
heard tracks recently recorded by the group for what may be an upcoming
album.



``Granted,'' he adds, as if thinking out loud, ``I WAS The Time for a
while.''



The Artist defends his stealth tactics as vital to project's purity. After
years of railing against the system, some labels may frown on
letting their artists work with him.



By keeping the effort undercover, those singers will be free to jam. And, he
hopes, the project will create buzz.



``It will just be an underground thing,'' he said.



I'M SORRY, HE'S STILL IN THE STUDIO ...



The Artist has another project up his sleeve, one that may make him feel
like he lives underground -- in his recording studio. So far
unable to buy his master recordings from Warner Bros., he wants to re-record
all of his work.



You heard right: all of it. By rough count, that's more than 25 discs, over
300 songs, or about 15 hours of sound if played
continuously, not including B-sides and remixes.



According to his Web site, the fruit of this project will be a seven-disc
set, as yet untitled, to be released in the fall on the Artist's NPG
label. Then, having created new master recordings, he can spin other works
from these old tunes.



``We can re-record and then sample it,'' he said. ``Or I can do a
greatest-hits package. I mean MY favorite hits, not what someone else
has decided was the best.''



Whether fans will rush to purchase songs they already own is uncertain. So
far ``1999 -- The New Masters,'' his independently
released remake of the 1982 hit, has sold only about 39,000 copies,
according to SoundScan.



But sticking a Lauryn Hill-produced version of ``Nothing Compares 2 U'' or
``Adore'' on the remake project or on the secretive
``Rave,'' which he hopes to release this year, could be just the thing to
bolster either project's fortunes.



That is, if she responds to his Want Ad.



(Franklin Paul writes about R&B for Reuters. He can be reached online at
franklin.paul@reuters.com. Opinions expressed here are
his own.)



Reuters/Variety