As I was listening to Tony M's unbelievably long rap break in "My Name is Prince" I was wondering if P wrote any or all of Tony's raps or if he let Tony write them himself. I'm not sure if Prince wants to take credit for any of the following:

The funkier I be
The funkier I get, oh shit
Lickety split on the lyric
A new jack in the pulpit
Watch it deacon, your track is leakin'
What is this u're seekin'?
The syncopated rhymes are at their peak
When you jumped on my D.I.C.K.
That's the one thing that I don't play
The jock strap was 2 big 4 u anyway
U're just a simpleton
I'll bust u like a pimple, son
My star is 2 bright
Boy, I'll sink u like the ship Poseidon Adventure
U're bumpin' dentures 2 be cocksure
There must be more coming from
your mouth than manure.
So with a flow and a spray, I say hey
U must become a prince before u're king anyway

(Do that, do that somebody)
(Do that, do that somebody)

It's time I get ig-nig-nig-nig-nig-nig-n-ignorant
Def be the beat that I'm rockin'
Yo so, come get a hit
And put your thinking cap on
U've been forewarned
I call upon the inner forces that I've got brewin'
In my cauldron. That means my nugget...
Sometimes I'm rugged
The style I posses be havin'
The other brothers buggin' and this is 4 those who oppose
And propose 2 overexpose disclose
Pose a threat 2 my brother
Like any other man makin' a stand
I'll be damned if I let u play this hand
I'm the blackjack dealer and the cards are stacked
What do u expect 2 win when u're used to playing craps?

(Do that, do that somebody)
Hell yeah, let's get this under the hmm...
(Do that, do that somebody)


"Damn." It's gettin' tricky
I mean it's a sticky situation
2 resurrect a groove with feeling
And give it this much affection
Passion flows and who knows
What lurks in the gallows of my mind
I put my foot in the ass of Jim Crow
12 inches of non-stop sole
I'm on a roll with P, and it's time for the show
So do that, do that somebody
Wave your hands in the air
This is a motherfucking party
While u're laying back I'm on the attack paddywhack
Give yourself a bone
This is my house and I'm prone
2 layin' some chrome upside some motherfuckers dome
And I'm out...

But if P doesn't take credit then that is saying that he let Tony have A LOT of creative input into his songs, which would be, suffice it to say, a humongous lapse in judgement.

So either P wrote the rhymes and should be embarrased or he let Tony write them and he should be really embarrassed. Or maybe they were freestyly and Tony just let it fly and P was too distracted to re-record.

I just don't know what to think.

GottaLetitgo said:

Those lines above immediately activated "Poetry" by KRS One in my head.
Jokes aside, as far as I recall Tony M and Levi Seacer went to court with Prince because of songwriting credits and royalties in the early 90´s, so I presume that Tony Mosley wrote those lyrics all by himself.

I once met Scrap D and he told me that Prince gave him total freedom considering his lyrics.

Of course we can call it a lapse in judgement, but then again, he gave them artistic freedom and a chance to shine...well, hhmmm.....

KoolEaze said:

Did Prince have input into giving Scrap D his super cool rap moniker?

ASCAP database

Title:

My Name Is Prince

Writers:

Mosely Anthony E
Prince

Library of Congress Copyright Database:

Title:

My Name Is Prince

Author on Copyright Application:

Prince Rogers Nelson
Tony Mosely

.

langebleu said:

Well, I guess that puts that query to rest. Now the question is why.

GottaLetitgo said:

Because if there's one thing worse than Tony M rapping, it's Prince.

RepoMan said:[quote]

GottaLetitgo said:

True, but at least it wasn't Robin Power. *shudder*

In context, there was nothing particularly wrong with Tony Ms rapping. This was the early 90s remember, what other good rappers were around? You'd just had Run DMC and Public Enemy, but there wasn't the quality there is now. Tony M hasn't dated well, but he isn't any worse than, say, Heavy D. on Janet and MJ records.

metalorange said:

I liked the Heavy D stuff better...his rap on "Alright" was, well, alright. And I didn't mind his bit on MJ's "Jam" either. At least he was succint. Tony M not so much.

metalorange said:

Excuse me? Nothing wrong with Tony M's rapping? The "quality" there is nowadays?

GottaLetitgo said:

You´re both making valid points.


Some songs will always be remembered for (amd marred by) Tony M´s input, like Call The Law, Gett Off, Live 4 Love...etc.
All classic 90´s material and all almost impossible to be remembered without Tony´s raps, no matter how horrible they were.And the songs are cool too, at least Live 4 Love, and Gett Off was a classic club record.

Then again , I´m curious what a new, revisited version of Live 4 Love would sound like without any rap part at all.

renfield said:[quote]

RepoMan said:

or Carmen Electra and Mavis Staples

metalorange said:

I agree with this.Tony was just as good as many of the other rappers from back then.We gotta remember that,in the early 90s,the most popular rapper was MC Hammer

Well, either it was Tony or Prince himself who wrote Prince's rap part on "The Flow". The original "Rock 2 The Flow" version has Tony rapping that, and he sounds a bit clumsy (no pun intended) doing these verses, so my assumption is that at least in that instance it was Prince who wrote them originally and chose to redo those lyrics for the album version. So Prince might have written loads of Tony's raps.

Does either P or Tony really want to take the credit for the use of "ig-nig-nig-nig-nig-nig-n-ignorant"? Isn't there a limit to how far you can stretch a word to fit a lyric structure before you start sounding desperate?

For the most part, I could handle a Tony M rap on a Prince recording. But Tony M rapping live was another matter.

.

GottaLetitgo said:

langebleu said:

Don't even remind me.

metalorange said:

Wow! Something tells me you don't know a whole lot about hip-hop. That's okay though. I just hope there's never a day where Tony's rap is considered good. For the record, the early 90's is probably where rap or hip-hop peaked artistically.

Heavy D was by no means a great rapper but he was credible. Tony M was a bad parody of the genre at best. I don't know what was worse-- his delivery or his lyrics.

yeah....too bad Prince didn't hire Heavy D back then or Kane or someone with a bit more talent than Tony M.....wonder what Tony is up to these days

pkidwell said:

My guess is he is up to his ass in unemployment.

No actually I hear he is the absolute best in his new field...Wal-Mart greeter.

(Sample greeting)
Yo, sir or m'am,
welcome to the Mart.
I'm here to say hello
and get you a cart.

Groceries on the left side.
Hardware on the right.
We've got milk and bread.
And the clothes are tight.

So enjoy your stay
at Wal-Mart today.
Don't forget to pay
because Tony don't play!

Word!

GottaLetitgo said:

And gangk any clown
that ain't down
with the prices
that Tony be putting 'round

Listen G, U are supposed 2 be
Strivin' 2 get the best price that U can see
So at the tills, stop tryin' 2 dominate and push and shove
Come on down to Walmart y'all, we got lots of stuff
[Edited 10/23/05 8:23am]

What about OBD's rap on Mariah's song "Me and Mariah,..... go back like babie's and pacifiers". and there are to many other gay raps to compare to Tony's. True Tony's rapping sucked, but there are countless other artists out there that included raps in their songs that ruined it for me

metalorange said:

Did Tony M make up the word gangk? I don't think I ever heard any other rapper ever use it.

I'll be glad when the rap fad is over.

GottaLetitgo said:

Naw, gangk (sp?) is old school slang, we were using that in the mid-80s.

What the debate about the "quality" of Tony M rapping truly brings to the forefront is the apparent lack of relelvance. There is a minute amount of real talent invovled in rap and when people try to evaluate that "skill" as if were good singing, it just doesnt hold water.

The fac tis that Tony M was as good as any rapper that could make the words rhyme, keep time, and not stumble on the words. That is all there is to it. Prince was as good as any when he went into rap. Pussy Control and Love 4 One Another on the GCS album are excellent examples of Prince rapping.

RepoMan said:

Hey Now!! Prince's rapping is a WHOLE lot better than any of the jibberish
that Tony M. howled out.

Gett Off, HouseQuake, Face Down, and his little begining part on the
Extended version of TGRES are all REALLY good in my opinion