Before I begin to ramble about the state of R&B/Soul music let me preface my post by stating that I know there are some GREAT soul artists out there, though you have to really dig and search now just to find them. Ex... Peven Everett, Anthony David, Omar, Donnie, Zo!, Quintessence, Amel Larrieux. Meshell, Raphael Saadiq, Frank McComb, Julie Dexter, Laurenea, Lizz Wright... Well you catch my drift.

As I rewatched the Chaka Tribute last night, I asked myself who in the world could BET call to contribute to a Prince tribute when it's his turn to receive a Lifetime Acheivement award. Surely not Kris Brown, or Ne-yo. Surely not Usher, heck I wouldn't even call Andre 3000. I mean most of the orger's agree that today's R&B, (what they play on the radio and tv anyways) is straight Garbage. I mean is it that horrible that there are no worthy "known" artists to participate in a Prince tribute. I mean Stevie Wonder and Prince are some heavy hitters to perform a tribute to Chaka. They may well be the last of the heavy hitters.

Just wondering what the org thinks.
Are there any current artists that would be able to pull off a tribute to Prince????

A little Mint Condition, mixed with some Meshell and Frank McCombs would do.
Toss in some Lalah Hathaway.....

Brighter Death Now and Projekt Hat! They already did a tribute to Michael Jackson after the second round of child molestation allegations.

Personally I don't agree that the state of R&B is horrible... there is plenty of good music around... it's just not what is currently 'popular'. If you mearly base an opinion off of what gets airplay... then sure.. it is easy for someone belonging to a generation who adores an artist like Prince to feel that there is a significant drop in the quality of music.

The truth as I beleive it to be is that there is indeed very good music but.. the market is so big that there is more mediocre product being produced. However there is still good product being produced.. but its harder to find.

I normally just cite the popular music of now-a-days as 'not my music'... and I actively seek out those who are more appealing to what I think good music should be.

As far as Prince is concerned... I think he's a genuis.. one of the greates ever... my mother says different. She will name peeps like Al Green, Marvin Gaye, snd Steavie Wonder first. To her Prince is good ... but he aint no Hendricks. Hell my grandmother will name Little Richard, Ray Charles,James Brown, Nat King Cole and a list of others before she would even consider Prince in thier league.

What I'm getting at its more about perception..and the era which you live in.

As far as who would be good to do a Prince tribute. I feel plenty artist would be good enough to do one. I am a true Prince fan... but I'm not a fan who turn my nose up at other artist as if they had no merit.

People to include in a tribute to me would be..
- a touch of the personal: Sheila E, Wendy & Lisa.
- those who could bring the rock/funk: Lenny Kravitz, Nikka Costa, Me'Shell NdegeOcello
- those who could bring the soul: Van Hunt, Alicia Keys, D'angello
- some hip-hop flava: Black Eye Peas, Outkast
- some 'pop' appeal: Pharell, Missy Elliot, Genuwine
- a touch of the gospel: Tye Tribbett, Tonéx
- a touch of class: Patti Labelle, Steavie Wonder

Of course this would be a 3 hour tribute concert .... d'err... its still Prince!!!

How about John Legend? He's pretty good.

RUHip2TheJive said:

I dig John Stevens. Where the hell has he been lately?

No seriously, why would a Prince tribute have to be performed by R&B artists? Prince was hardly ever about R&B himself, at least not the records he made his name out of. Jazz, folk, rock and electronic musicians have covered Prince far more successfully, faithfully and also more inventively over the years than any R&B artist has managed to do. And I think there is a very good reason for that - Prince's music just doesn't function on the same fundamental level that what is considered fundamental about the genre known as modern R&B music. It isn't about quality, it's about belonging to a whole different genre altogether.

Novabreaker said:

I agree totally, unfortunately I don't think BET would be open to having the rock, and jazz element on the show.

Taurus said:

But they just let Prince perform the rock element on it anyway?

I guess.....
My main point wass that I couldn't think of one decent "popular" R&B/Soul Artist to participate.

But you are correct, he would deserve a rock, jazz, funk, gospel, tribute rolled into one.
[Edited 6/28/06 13:44pm]

Of course you're right. They would most likely choose just a bunch of R&B singers to cover his tunes, with the common denominator being that at least most of the performers have been fairly successful and are mostly of the African-American ethnic origin.

I think these kind of tribute performances dedicated for Prince may start even sooner than we realize. In fact - they could be happening already, he's at that stage of his career now.

Novabreaker said:

Because he's Prince.

Novabreaker said:

This statement isn't very accurate. Prince's music has crossed several genres including R&B with regularity. With few exceptions every album Prince has ever made has included material which woyuld typically be labled as R&B. For that matter when he brings the 'funk', I'ld argue that he's still doing a brand of R&B.

It does interest me that people esp a lot who frequent forums such as this one always down R&B music and then try to justifiably remove the R&B element out of an artist like Prince. Prince is as much an R&B artist as he is an artist in any other genre. As well... he is an artist who is not defined by any one genre. Remove the R&B element... and I garauntee you this... his brand of 'funk' would not be the same.

R&B has been good to Prince. Its through his R&B music that he is most known in the black community...primarily his ballads. When you take ballads such as 'Do Me Baby', Scandalous', 'Insatiable', 'Damn U', 'The One', I Hate U', 'Call My Name' and arguably one of his greatest ballads ever...'Adore' they are from beginning to end..pure R&B. Songs such as these and many others are what those around me (speaking of the average listener in my community) know and love Prince for.

Don't get me wrong... I'm in no way suggesting making a blanket statement. Nor am I trying to belittle any other genre of music he creates... I LUV IT ALL. Its just a noticable fact that the music his true fans love vs. what his pop fans or R&B fans love... is usually quite different

Taurus said:

Ummmm BET is VERY MUCH into Jazz. and well.. for the most part through out the years... Prince HAS BEEN and pretty much STILL IS the 'rock' element in their programming.

It's not R&B that's in a state, just the commercial front that gets shoved down everyone's throat by the media - but same goes for all popular genres of commercial music.

Novabreaker said:

Why do you say this? I've always wondered why some people discount Prince's R&B roots. Prince's albums have all been tinged with R&B, Funk and Soul. Some albums are more R&B than others, but he has always been about R&B.

QuakeXLE said:

Most of those songs you mentioned certainly aren't "pure R&B" from beginning to end! R&B was never simply an umbrella term for all sung black music, not at least before the 90s came along and the musical variety of the music performed by black artists got narrowed to the state it is today. I'm sure a lot of R&B touting folks would like to add Jimi Hendrix too on the list of "R&B" artists, just because of his skin colour and that is hardly accurate. Well, of course Hendrix was about "R&B" too at the time, it's just that R&B at the time was primarily performed by white Englishmen.

bellanoche said:

I say it because it's clearly the truth, why else? Just because Prince happens to of African-American origin it doesn't make albums like "Purple Rain", "Around The World In A Day" or "Parade" R&B. Prince certainly has not "always been about R&B". During the same time David Bowie was making records that were far much more tinged on R&B than Prince's were, yet we wouldn't obviously label him primarily an R&B artist because of his skin colour.

QuakeXLE said:

Sadly, I agree with your comments Taurus.
Just thinking about a Grammy style Lifetime Achievement Award tribute to Prince makes me queasy, because they would only want the participation of current chart toppers instead of real musicians who many in the audience may not have heard of. BET may do a better job, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Whenever and wherever the Prince tribute show takes place I hope a) Prince can have a big say in who he wants to participate and b) that whoever takes part has the same love and enthusiasm for music and performing that Prince does.
After more than 30 years of performing live, it's amazing to see the joy Prince still has, especially when he is sharing the stage with HIS idols.
That's what I want to see from whoever participates in Prince's tribute.

Novabreaker said:

It's odd you should put it the way you did... because by suggesting that these 'particular songs' I mentioned are NOT R&B... you are therefore narrowing the scope of what IS R&B yourself. Rythym & Blues includes or has inspired genres such as jazz, blues, country, gospel, funk , disco, neo-soul, hip-hop, pop, ROCK AND ROLL, etc. Of these 'particular' songs you will here elements of jazz, blues and what is now typified as R&B.... thus they most certainly are R&B in the 'broader sense of the term'..thru and thru.

SOUL Music which is now more typified as R&B, was first... not the other way around.

If you understand that aspect stop narrowing the scope of what R&B is yourself... you would understand why it is actually more appropriate to say that Prince's roots are in R&B. His music is derived from the source.. Soul music... R&B... not the by product Rock n roll... or any other by products. This is why he seems to have the ability to touch on many genres. He pulls from the core.. thier source.. which is Rythym and Blues... or more appropriatly Soul music..ie music of the soul. But for the sake of arguement... I'll pretty much stick with the current typified term R&B.



First your're addressing a statement I did not make. But i'll support the person who made that reference none the less. And speaking of Hendrix here's something you may ...read up on... then you get back and tell me what were his roots. I'll just say.. as a predescessor to Prince and like Prince, he was artist who combined his many influences to establish his own brand of sound.

As far as Prince, I did not say that just because he's black he has to be R&B... I said...

"Its through his R&B music that he is most known in the black community...primarily his ballads."

Music which has become categorized as R&B is not 'black' music per say... but rather the music most listened to by blacks. To some, this is simply a matter of somantics because black people owend soul/R&B first.

Furthermore, you just made a point, which in itself, supports my next statement. What became known as R&B was music performed by the African-American people and in itself was derived from old spirituals.. gospel... the BLUES.. ie music of the SOUL. It didn't get really noticed ... until NON African Americans started performing it and they called it Rock n Roll.

From the 70's well into the 90's (and I'm only using this time frame because I lived it and don't have to recall history I didn't experience first hand) several NON black artist made significant R&B music and had several hits in the black community. A few names which come to my head are Hall & Oats, Culture Club, Duran Duran, David Bowie, Phil Collins, etc. Even today there are still NON black artist who are successful in the black community because they perform R&B.

All of this including your own statements support the fact that its not based on Prince's skin color which suggest his musical roots are R&B... its the music itself.

Prince's music often touch on genre's such as jazz, blues, funk and gospel as well as rock n roll. The thing to note is that only rock n roll is not typicaly identified easily as or is virtually synonomous with traditional R&B.

But of course.. to those who go around breathing an air of constant musical snobbery "This isn't music. that ain't music.. thats not inpsired.. this isnt original.. that's not a musician .. this is a musician...blah bla blahh blahhh and all that jazz"... they would never understand this and it's actually pointless to argue.


As i mentioned.. they aren't R&B becasue of his color.. they are R&B because a lot of the music on them was..well.. identified as R&B. Ex.

Purple Rain: the Beautiful Ones, Whe Doves Cry, Purple Rain, 17 Days*, Erotic City*
Around The World In A Day: Pop Life, She's Always In My Hear*
Parade: Anotherloverholenyohead , Kiss,
*=B Sides

These songs are not R&B...?

And let me add albums like For U, Prince, Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999.. until he gained cross-over success with 1999 he was identified as an R&B artist who was bringing thier style of funk.... not unlike all the other funksters of that time and before. Earth Wind & Fire, Cameo, O'Jays, Isley Brothers, Kool and the Gang, Sly Stone, Parliament/Funkadelica, etc and note... when you consider groups like War and The Average White Band i'm speaing about the music.. not the color of skin.

joelmarable said:

Ohhhh...Kayyyyy I'll getback to ya' on this one.
[Edited 6/29/06 8:59am]