Sooo...since 3121 came out, we've gotten no television appearances, no press events, no print interviews, no nothing. It's like Prince has retreated into the little purple spiderhole he was in all last year. Is he aware that his new album was released? It went to number one and everything!

And now Tamar's album is postponed?

I can't help but wonder if there's trouble in paradise with Prince and Universal...though as odd as the promotion he HAS done has been, maybe the silence is just par for the course.

Anyone else finding the handling of this new album a bit weirder than usual for Prince?

It has all gone a bit quiet hasn't it, especially after such a promising start.

Let's hope it doesn't all go tit's up like Rave and Emancipation.

@ the subject line! But really, it's so quiet you'd think he DIDN'T know!!

You're right, this non-promotion makes no sense. I mean, if you don't care how your album sells, then why sign on with a big label to distribute and promote it? It's as if he already got bored with the project and has moved on (to what?). Yes, even by Prince standards this is a strange situation!

I am guessing he's rehearsing the band for the tour. But yes, I agree with Candace, if he doesn't care how his album sells, then why sign on with a big label?

booyah said:

it seems like he usually has better timing/planning than this. when musicology dropped in 2004, he was ready to go. the band was ready, the tv appearances were lined up, the whole promotional machine seemed to be ready to go. even rave and emancipation had more ambitious promotional activity than what we're seeing now.

Maybe the purple ticket event will be next

Anx said:

nope. business as usual in The House of Nelson.

Maybe he is making the final touches to 3121: The Movie: A compelling true story about band competition in a small club in which the main villain uses excessive amounts of hair gel in his quest to beat down a short, yet quite gifted motorbike rider. Set to the back drop of cardboard sets and over indulgent lighting, our hero travels the road of self discovery using the art of mime whilst speaking to imaginary people about bridges and other such architectural feats of engineering. Surrounded in an aura of mystique and cryptic wanderings, the story folds and unfolds like an origami duck, neither beautiful nor clever but really quite easy to follow.

Rebeljuice said:

Rebeljuice said:

yeah. probably.

I usually don't agree with the songs he releases for singles and I usually don't agree with the promotion of his albums niether, so this seems about par for the course to me. It's irritating though. I mean come on, one SNL performance and that's going to be the entire promotion for the album?

maybe he is disappointed that niether TAC or BLACK SWEAT have been huge hits...so he's holding back until universal gets on the goodfoot and makes them hits like they can do with singles from no talent losers everyday...?

prettymansson said:

here's a REVOLUTIONARY idea for prince: release singles with more than one track! remixes! b-sides! extended versions! heck, even an instrumental version would beat the way those singles were released. now that the album is out, there's no incentive to buy those singles.

Anx said:

Exactly! Whoever bought the album in its first week were probably people like us… His fan base. How many copies was it? If he put a non album track on the single, or a remix and extended version, all those people that made the album debut at no1 woulda done the same with the single… I woulda bought it for an extra track! I suspect most on the org would have too… And prince still coulda sat back and done nothing…

Maybe he just doesn’t have the desire for it any more…

Anx said:

seems like some of ya'll have forgotten one thing: that ain't how the brotha operates. for him, what's up is perpendicular and what's down is aubergine. just because the guy had a shitload of stuff going on with the release of his last album doesn't mean that the same m.o. will apply with what's out now. seems to me that some of yuz got spoiled real quick with the musicology stuff and how all that was laid out and were perhaps thinking that the exact same matter would happen again with this. c'mon ya'll, you should know better...something'll happen, but not straightaway like folks are wishing it would.

just like i said: business as usual in The House of Nelson. hang back, grab a book, wait and see what happens next.



mine!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

well, i'm with ya when you're right. that said, i disagree.

there's ALWAYS been some kind of substantial promotional effort put into place when a new album drops. ALWAYS. even if it's something as paltry as a record release party at paisley for N*E*W*S, or some kind of online whoop-de-doo for the rainbow children. he's always given his albums a push once they've been released. promotion has NEVER been this out of sorts or as poorly planned.

Anx said:

far as i see, he's already done said push, and that happened way before the fact.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

yeah, and for his US promotional push he performed a song on SNL that wasn't even one of the singles that had been released, and for his other song he pushed tamar. heck, if anyone's been promoted properly this year, it's been her.

Anx said:

true...but like i said, i don't see the lack of promotion for prince's new shit as unusual in the least.

Rebeljuice said:

i thought the movie was to take place in outer space in the year 3121, where he and morris day (both in wheelchairs) make their way back to earth to fight over the glam slam. only to be attacked during the trip by larry graham for not being the center of prince's attention anymore.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

maybe not unusual - prince seems to be "undoing" a lot of his methods over the past few years - but certainly atypical.

tripp said:

"i am larry graham's cryogenically preserved & severed head. you killed off baby brotha's devotion to me. now i must kill you."

....sounds like one helluva horror b-movie. better-rer than snakes on a plane.

Well he touted it all over the splash pasge of his site. But I do agree that his lack of presence at this time is very odd. For Musicology the news board was just teaming with items. He promoted the hell out of that record.

For as much pre-promotion this album had, I can't understand why stuff is still shrouded in mystery (could be that he just doesn't have it all together or something fell apart) esp now that it's out.

Anx said:

as I said it's really odd because everything that led to this album was hinting at BIG BIG BIG.

Unfortunately this is how Prince operates. He does things on his time not at the right time. Most of the time, his time doesn't work but every now and again we'll have a "2004" happen. I have a feeling that he will properly promote it by the end of the month or in May. If he's smart, he will take advantage of May sweeps and perform like crazy with this CD and maybe we'll get news about the tour.

superspaceboy said:

same thing went with that whole "something big is coming" bit with mani filming the whale and such a couple years back.

prettymansson said:

Did anyone actually think that either of those singles would do well? One was a video... the other a download. BS probably did well on iTunes due to the promotion.

But if he wanted them to do well, there should have been an physical single and 12" with a B-Side somewhere, which he is known for.

While I agree with the fact that with Prince you never know what to expect or what direction hes going to turn next on a project, the way this whole 3121 thing has turned out is very odd.


It all started in December 2005, with the release of Te Amo Corazon single and video . Got hot and heavy in early February with the release of Black Sweat / Beautiful , Loved & Blessed. Heavy play on MTV and VH1, SNL performance , world wide 3121 listening events for media. Then in the weeks right before the album comes out on 3/21...




nothing ...nada...nil.


nothing on the tour (its mid April folks, if a major summer tour was coming , something would stirring).

Prince stops Ultimate from coming out at the last minute.

Tamar gets put on hold.

No new singles a month after the album is out (although there are rumors of Fury being released).

Even for Prince this is odd... either something big is in the works or Prince got pissed at someone or something and has decided to stop all efforts on 3121 and move on to the next thing (and my bets are on this).

Anx said:

I agree with this too. This is not business as usual. He normally doesn't let album just do fine on their own anymore. Back when he was with WB that might have been so. These days he promotes because he has too.

There would not have been all this pre 3121, Temar shows, Purple Tickets, SNL performance if he weren't planning something big.

I said it before and I will say it again, Universal's promotion of this album sucked hot sweatty monkey balls.

When I am forced to listen to radio, I have not heard a single song from this album in Chicago, period. When Musicology was out, I heard the title track and Call My Name all the time here.