"Don't get me wrong. Certain slang is fine. Hell, the guy had me calling people Grace and Stella for a minute. Certain slang from Prince sounds natural. You should be able to admit that some of it sounds awkward as hell coming from Prince.

Your examples are good ones that prove it is natural...Sometimes

But c'mon. You know there are instances where he says certain things to appear hip for "street credibility" Whatever that line is in "Incense and Candles" about 'rims'... that's ridiculous.

And I wouldn't care if Dr. Dre said it because Dr. Dre has always been concerned with street credibility. Otherwise, he and DJ Yella would own up to those pre-N.W.A years where they were dressing up in lace gloves and paisley outfits like Prince."


So why is it okay for Dre to use slang even though he is a bigger poser than Prince? I mean, that flip flop from what Dre was to Mr. NWA is bigger than Hammer's turn to a gangsta. If Prince can't do it, Dre shouldn't be allowed to either. Again, I think preconceived notions about Prince play a huge part.

DynamicSavior said:

i've never seen an episode of cribs so i dunno what you're talking about...but still: oh HELL no.

skywalker said:

just like BSK said: the difference between dre and prince is that dre has always had The Coat Of Street Cred™ throughout his entire career--yes, even when he rocked the satin jacket--prince, however, has just recently donned it.

the coat works better for dre than it has for prince.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Girl, that shit is CLASS-SICK. Then Omaria sat down and played 3 keys on the piano. NO talent.

"...the coat works better for dre than it has for prince..."

So you perceive Dre to have more street cred than Prince. Cool, I think most people do.

However, that doesn't make Dre any less of a poser than Prince. Again, it has to do with preconceived notions.

skywalker said:

Dr. Dre is the whole reason I never bought into the gangsta rap image. Because he is indeed a poser. He may have had grown up in a element consistent with the lifestyle of gangsta rap, but he never lived a gangsta lifestyle. However, it doesn't make him any less of a great producer.

When N.W.A blew up, I remember when laughing my ass off at the image of Dre in 'locs and Dickies suits because I couldn't believe it was the same dude who was prancing around years earlier singing love songs with hooks (i.e. I don't want to be lovers before we are friends, Turn off the lights)

But it's harder to cringe at someone who spent the majority of his career relying on street cred. Therefore, if you were an artist who wanted songs that provided street credibility, Dr. Dre was the go to guy. Prince can talk about 2 way pagers, homies, and laying it down for the '06 all day long. But whenever he does that shit, this image of Dave Chappelle portraying Tiger Woods at the "Racial Draft" pops into my head ... "Wait! Wait! I've always wanted to say this... For Shizzle!"


[Edited 3/11/06 22:53pm]

**NOTE: anything bad said about "SuperCute" & "U're Gonna C Me" are to be taken with a grain of salt. Thank you.

what makes me real angry is white rich kids trying to b gangsta rappers...

CalhounSq said:

BSK3601 said:

but...but...baby got game, she'll take your loot...what the shit is THAT????

DynamicSavior said:

chips is money i think and whips is cars

Moonwalkbjrain said:

yup.

I used to say "scope this" after hearing Gett Off...

I'd never heard that expression before.

JudasSmile said:

I'd never heard the expression "clocked the jizz" before...

I agree. Prince is at his best when he's speaking Princey talk. He can turn a phrase like no other and he doesn't need to rely too much on street lingo.

DynamicSavior said:

"Chips" = Cash Money...ala chips at the poker table in Las Vegas
"Whips" = Cars...ala whipping corners in your ride.
Now you know that...

Revolution said:

it's redundant to say "cash money" because when you hear the word "cash" you know what it is. i hate that phrase. people are stuooupid. i need my own planet.

Marrk said:

Have you ever seen or heard any 48 year old like Prince? Prince isn't exactly average.

BSK3601 said:

Okay, frankly, I just don't get it. He can say "smash up my ride" in 1987 but he can't say "rims on my ride" in 2006? THAT is ridiculous. Prince has always added these little 'slang phrases' and 'urban colloquialisms' to his lyrics. That's who he is... age makes no difference. The majority of people do not speak all that differently when they're 47 as compared to when they were 27, not unless they purposely go out of their way to make a change (like Madonna and her occasionally faux British accent several years back).

jtfolden said:

C'mon be realistic. Me thinks you're taking this a wee bit too seriously.

Do you honestly think Prince and "rims" are synonymous with each other?!??!
Call it preconceived notion, stereotyping, or whatever... But the only reason he knows what a "rim" is is because someone else told him.... Otherwise he'd probably just call them 'fancy lookin' hubcaps'.

"You could burn up my clothes... pimp out my ride.... "


[Edited 3/11/06 22:54pm]

Prince has always used collquialisms in his lyrics, always. What some of us geeky white kids from Europe might have thought as cool Prince-isms in the 80s, were just common US Black/local colloqualisms.

I agree with a lot of the sentiment in the thread that since the mid-90s Prince has tried often to put in collquialisms brought to a general audience through rap and hip-hop - These rarely work for Prince and range from cringe-worthy to laughable.... It pops up the most in tracks where Prince is also trying emulate or bring in influences of these genres, most of which are dire and don't ever grace my listening experience, so I don't worry about 'em too much myself.

BSK3601 said:

No, I'm not taking it seriously at all. I think it's ridiculous that people are thinking this is a recent change in behavior. The words he uses, as time goes on, may change but his reason for using them don't seem to have changed at all, imo.



synonymous? Where'd that come from? Do you have pre-conceived objections about just certain terms but not the use of slag or colloquialisms in general?




This sounds out of touch with reality, it really does... about as much so as some people think Prince is for using the term. Do you seriously think Prince had never heard the use of the word 'rims' before? Do you think this is a brand new term that was just recently invented by the youth? Maybe you're are young yourself and don't realize that term had pretty much the same use decades ago. It's quite probable that Prince did hear someone else using it recently and decided he'd use it himself but maybe not... Either way, I don't see it any different than him talking about "a white rad ride".

You might object to him using certain words based on where they are popularly used at this point in time but the truth is he's always used them... Let's not be ageist about it, either.

jtfolden said:

Prince has admitted this himself on that Tavis Smiley interview. When he was pushing the envelope, it was cool because no one else was really doing it. Think about this. When Prince called a lady a bitch in a song, it wasn't really demeaning. It was simply a way of saying that some particular woman has a power over him that he can't control (i.e. Irresistable Bitch, Shockadelica, etc)

When it became popular to use the "bitch" in a rap song it was intended to be an "insult" and the despite the fact that it's not a "nice" word, there are definitely two different contexts when used by Prince and when used in an urban context.

I've lived in the "hood" and I've never heard folks wake up and talk about being beautiful, loved and blessed. It's not an impossible scenario, it's just unrealistic. So whenever Prince uses terms like that it comes across like he's out of touch because he usually doesn't use the slang in the same context as people who use the words on a regular basis.

I don't consider it ageist, but I when I hear Prince using the language it's about as awkward as my parents (who are in their 70s) coming up to me and saying "Boy, I like this arthritis cream. It's the shiznit! It's pure heat!!!"

the ROTFLMBAO edit... aka Rolling on the Floor Looking Mean Because of an Ass Operation
[Edited 3/11/06 22:57pm]

BSK3601 said:

Prince's explanations are, also, frequently self-serving and revisionist after the fact. Billy Jack Bitch, among others was certainly intended as an insult... and Prince's use of cussing is littered throughout his career without any special meaning beyond the face value of it.



It is ageist if you expect someone who has always absorbed and used these terms to suddenly stop simply because he crosses some arbitrary age threshold. Once again, Prince has ALWAYS done this... there's no reason to expect him to not do so now. It might be awkward if he'd previously been prim, proper and Britishly conservative and then turned around and died his hair blonde and started dressing like a 17yo...but that isn't the case here.

jtfolden said:

I guess my point is this: Yes. Prince has always used slang. Prince has not always used "urban" slang. There's a difference. I think that's the thing that you're missing. There are certain terms that start off in urban areas and it takes a while before it reaches the masses (i.e. "You Go Girl! <- Martin had been off of the air for years before "the masses" started using it, "Go ____, it's your birthday" <- Would "the masses" know who Luke Campbell is?) If Prince is so comfortable with "urban" slang, then he would incorporate it immediately when the phrases are relatively new. It would be easier to hear Prince sing or say "hood" if he had been doing it back in the late 80s and early 90s when the term originated. Otherwise he sounds late to the party and well... AWKWARD!

He's had almost 7 years to say "Break you off"... Maybe some of you weren't familiar with the term because you don't listen to rap/hip-hop/R&B. I don't know. I do know because I've never heard him sing it.. it sounds awkward to me in 2006.

Damn it, just for that I'm going to listen to the "Daisy Chain" If memory serves me correctly, I think this song is one of his worst offenders.
[Edited 3/11/06 18:33pm]

BSK3601 said:

I HAD to make this face when he said "break you off like u knew I would" in BS. Fuck street cred. He doesn't need it. He has industry cred.

BSK3601 said:

BSK3601 said:

Whether he sounds 'akward' or not is entirely the opinion of each listener, not some universal fact. If it's only people who are mired down by what others have been doing with it, then it's hardly Prince's fault. Likewise, Prince is rarely timely. His reference to the Berlin wall is is a mere 17 years late. His line about sending people to the moon in SOTT was outdated before it was written. If we can't apply timelines to his lyrics in general, I'm not going to do it to his specific uses of slang. "Rims", "Rad" and "Ride" have been around for decades.

jtfolden said:

Do you listen to rap and hip/hop? If so, how long?

BSK3601 said:

It's not a favorite genre of mine but I've been listening to things that peek my interest for a dozen years or more...